Tuesday, December 09, 2014

Top hacker-turned FBI mole



Dec. 9, 2014

"Anonymous" is one of the biggest online vigilante groups. Its members hack into companies and governments computer systems, and they prefer a life in the shadows, wearing masks in protests.

Now, a former top member is breaking his silence.

He helped carry out cyberattacks that caused $50 million in damages. In his first television interview, Hector Monsegur opens up about his arrest, and switching sides, reports "CBS This Morning" co-host Charlie Rose.

"Tinkering with the system and learning how it functioned, I was able to escape," Monsegur said. "Escape from the current situation we were goin' through."

Monsegur said he taught himself everything he knows.

"You know everybody around me were into something, but it wasn't computers," he said.

From the moment Monsegur got his hands on a used desktop, he had a passion for computers.

But for the boy raised by his grandmother in this New York City housing project, it was the internet that provided a gateway to something bigger.

"We were poor, so I needed to find a way that would be cheap or free so that I could be able to access the internet without being a burden to my grandmother," Monsegur said.

According to court documents, at first he stole credit card information, selling the numbers or using them to pay his own bills.

Monsegur eventually adopted the name "Sabu" and joined a mysterious group of hackers about to take off.

•••••

Had his youth been different, had he had better opportunities, his skills could have landed him amongst many other tech wunderkinds in Silicon Valley.

"Well, that's the problem. I didn't end up in Silicon Valley. I had no connections to the world," he said. "I guarantee you, though, had I made it to Silicon Valley, had I met you when I was 18, you probably could have pointed me in the right direction. You and I would be having a completely different discussion."

•••••

No comments:

Post a Comment