NEW YORK - An informant working for the FBI, the principal US investigative agency, coordinated hundreds of cyber attacks on foreign websites, including some operated by the governments of Pakistan, Iran, Syria and Brazil during a 2012 campaign, according to an American media report.
Hector Xavier Monsegur, who used the Internet alias Sabu and became a prominent hacker within Anonymous for a string of attacks on high-profile targets, directed at least one hacker to transfer vast amounts of data from the government servers of several countries to a server monitored by the FBI, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
The details of the campaign to steal intelligence from other nations have so far been kept secret in closed sessions of a federal court in New York, the newspaper said.
Monsegur, who coordinated all the cyber attacks, was arrested by the FBI in early 2012 and spent months working to help the bureau identify other members of Anonymous, the Times said, citing previously disclosed court papers. The cyber campaign shows the American government has exploited major flaws in Internet security for intelligence purposes.
According to the court documents, the FBI took advantage of hackers who wanted to help insurgents in Syria to have “access to Syrian systems.” The documents also refer to Monsegur’s giving targets to a Brazilian hacker. “The hacker, who uses the alias ‘Havittaja,’ has posted online some of his chats with Monsegur in which he was asked to attack Brazilian government websites,” the report said.
According to the Times, a federal prosecutor told a judge in a closed hearing in August 2011 that Monsegur had been “cooperating with the government proactively” and had “literally worked round the clock with federal agents” to provide information about other hackers.