How FBI Informant Sabu Helped Anonymous Hack Brazil 59
Daniel_Stuckey (2647775) writes 'A year after leaked files exposed the National Security Agency's efforts to spy on citizens and companies in Brazil, previously unpublished chat logs obtained by Motherboard reveal that while under the FBI's supervision, Hector Xavier Monsegur, widely known by his online persona, "Sabu," facilitated attacks that affected Brazilian websites.The operation raises questions about how the FBI uses global Internet vulnerabilities during cybercrime investigations, how it works with informants, and how it shares information with other police and intelligence agencies.
After his arrest in mid-2011, Monsegur continued to organize cyber attacks while working for the FBI. According to documents and interviews, Monsegur passed targets and exploits to hackers to disrupt government and corporate servers in Brazil and several other countries. Details about his work as a federal informant have been kept mostly secret, aired only in closed-door hearings and in redacted documents that include chat logs between Monsegur and other hackers. The chat logs remain under seal due to a protective order upheld in court, but in April, they and other court documents were obtained by journalists at Motherboard and the Daily Dot.'
After his arrest in mid-2011, Monsegur continued to organize cyber attacks while working for the FBI. According to documents and interviews, Monsegur passed targets and exploits to hackers to disrupt government and corporate servers in Brazil and several other countries. Details about his work as a federal informant have been kept mostly secret, aired only in closed-door hearings and in redacted documents that include chat logs between Monsegur and other hackers. The chat logs remain under seal due to a protective order upheld in court, but in April, they and other court documents were obtained by journalists at Motherboard and the Daily Dot.'
Snitch (Score:2, Insightful)
Someday someone will get him back just for the lulz
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Depends on why the snitch is snitching. When a snitch snitches because he got in over his head and crime got real, thats one thing. When a robber whose accomplice murders someone "snitches", well thats hardly the most common case anyway.
However, this is something else. This is a guy who got caught snitching on his crew and even helping to trap them, not because he was morally outraged, but only to save his own hide. I have no respect for that sort of thing. He did what he did and he got caught... turning on
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There was a guy in NH who was arrested for selling a pound of pot. The informant who was used to trap him? A heroin dealer. They wanted to throw the book at him over it too because he refused to be their informant inside a peaceful activist group.
Send a heroin dealer to catch a pot dealer...amazing.
So Anonymous were useful idiots for the FBI? (Score:3, Insightful)
Using Anonymous as a by-proxy hacking tool. Brilliant! I'm surprised the NSA hasn't...
oh crap
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That's how they did it! (Score:5, Interesting)
Recently there was an article about how the FBI was having problems recruiting competent IT talent due to their zero tolerance policy with marijuana.
Apparently that problem has been solved. All they really need to do is arrest the people who have the skills that they need, and then coerce them into doing the work that needs to be done.
We all know that the prison system is often tapped as a source of unskilled and low skilled labor. Obviously this is just taking that model to a new level. What's next? Mass incarceration of bitTorrent users who will then be forced into the life of skript kiddies in exchange for money on the books at the Club Fed commissary?
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That method of enter and turn into gov informants worked well for the labor movement, woman rights, law reform, peace activists, anti nuclear protesters, animal rights, tax reform, far left, far right, 3rd party, faith based groups.
The methods are usually the same - join the gov backed NGO and do useless busy work, tax free with a nice wage, car and hand out
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It is spectacularly ignorant to refer to marijuana users as "drug addicts".
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It's spectacularly ignorant to ignore the fact that marijuana is addictive, and this has been established for a number of years now. Here's an excerpt from a peer-reviewed journal making this point:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2797098/
"Although some people question the concept of marijuana dependence or addiction, diagnostic, epidemiological, laboratory, and clinical studies clearly indicate that the condition exists, is important, and causes harm"
There exists a great body of articles that ha
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It's spectacularly ignorant to ignore the fact that marijuana is addictive, and this has been established for a number of years now.
GP didn't ignore anything. He simply pointed out that referring to marijuana users as addicts is just as dumb as referring to beer drinkers as alcoholics. You really need to take your sermons elsewhere.
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Ok, I think it's time to come out and admit it: I'm an oxygen addict. I can't even go for five minutes without. I've tried to stop, but it's just too hard. And I know how poisonous the crap is, I mean, it literally makes stuff burn up but I just can't stop.
Hot Damn! (Score:2)
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Try to find a peer reviewed source that doesn't depend on funding, i.e. doesn't need to pretend that every drug (illegal drug, of course, so nicotine, alcohol and caffeine are a-ok) is going to send you to your grave.
Re:That's how they did it! (Score:4, Insightful)
[dailydot.com]
From here, the sequence of events is relatively undisputed. With Hammond equipped and as FBI agents reportedly watched on, AntiSec began plundering Stratforâ(TM)s financial information and personal records. Monsegur convinced Hammond and others to unknowingly transfer âoemultiple gigabytes of confidential dataâ to one of the FBIâ(TM)s servers. That included the roughly 60,000 credit card numbers and records for Stratfor customers that Hammond was ultimately charged with stealing.
This is going to piss off a lot of very powerful people who were on that customer & credit card list.
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It should piss off a lot more than that.
Unfortunately this story will never see airtime so the majority of the public will never know what happened, let alone have a debate on why it's wrong.
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It's worse than that.
In the name of counterterrorism, the FBI scouts around for a radicalized lone-wolf guy, giving him a fake bomb plot, a fake partner, and a fake bomb, and arresting him when he pulls the trigger on the fake bomb.
And you know, sometimes that strikes me as unconscionable; I mean, he's got the motive,
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Well spoken. I was honestly about to type up very similar in a Car analogy (not joking) instead of an airplane. That people don't understand how this is worse than just simple "coercion" is baffling. This is much worse than coercion, because the FBI watched as real crimes occurred. Crimes that the US claimed were an act of war to be more precise.
The whole point of defending citizens and preventing crimes has been thrown out of the window for some reason, and very few seem to be paying attention.
As a sec
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usa really needs to sort out it's "it's ok to enable crime to catch criminals" policies. it's fucking stupid and most of the rest of the world considers such acts criminal anyways..
note that no such work "needed to be done". it served no purpose for the USA even.
Attacking GOVERMENT servers under FBI guidance??? (Score:4, Insightful)
VA SE FUDER US goverment
Fucking with my country supporting a military coup and keeping those murderers in power for 30 years wasnt enough? You are trying AGAIN to undermine a democratic goverment just because we have a non automatic alignment policy with the US on foreign affairs? Just because we supported democraticaly ELECTED Chaves and others in south america? All american authorities should be considered persona non grata in Brazil, and ALL US goverment agents related to FBI and NSA should be imediately ARRESTED in brazillian soil. I am tired of american goverment double face with friendly nations
Re:Attacking GOVERMENT servers under FBI guidance? (Score:4, Interesting)
I will add a minor correction for you, It is always important to recognise the reality of what is going on. Simply blaming the government of the US, is not really accurate, that aligns too much of the fault to the bulk of the citizens of US (although they are most definitely partially to blame). You need to call it the Corporate States of America. Basically the US government and it's Agencies corruptly taken over to further the interests of psychopathic US corporate executives not just US corporations but Multi-National Corporations (so not even just Americans).
Your war is not really with the US government at all, just with the Corporations that run it and those psychopathic corporate executives and the major investors who run those corporations. So cut of the head of the snake http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S... [wikipedia.org] and the problem will go away. Don't blame or fight the puppet, the US government and it's agencies, get rid of the puppet masters examples like the Koch(head) Boys, and the problem will go away as the bulk of US citizens regain control of their own government. Help them, save you, from themselves.
Re:Attacking GOVERMENT servers under FBI guidance? (Score:4, Interesting)
I agree with your points, but will add that there were a few other motives. One I believe is a bigger target than Brazil.
1. Anonymous was a pain in the ass to corrupt US corporations and Government agencies. If you remember, US sites were being hacked and defaced for the same exact reasons claimed for defacing Brazilian sites. Anonymous was leaking classified documents implicating US agencies of war crimes and corruption, civil rights violations against OWS and other activist groups. In other words, a primary motive was attacking anonymous members to slow down their campaign in the US. IMHO "Sabu" is full of shit in his exit statement from the courts. Anonymous was the primary target because they are a threat to the corrupt insiders in the US.
2. Fuck with non-US aligned countries. Brazil was a target, but so was Syria, Pakistan, Iran, and Nigeria. Turkey and Pakistan are mentioned, but I'm guessing those were real targets of anonymous because they are corrupt and not a traditionally vocal allies of the US. Interestingly "US" is omitted from this information but was the reason they arrested Sabu to begin with. That they could fuck with so many countries was a huge side effect of number 1, but not the primary motive. Notice after all of these arrests, Anonymous greatly reduces the attacks against US companies and Government agencies. Notice too that the vocal allies of the US are omitted from these attacks (UK, Germany, France, Spain, etc...).
3. As someone else mentioned, including Sabu in his exit statement, this a case of the FBI trying to make themselves look good. I come to that conclusion because there are exactly 2 very brief mentions in TFA about the legality of the FBIs actions and neither are direct.
Attacking GOVERMENT servers under FBI guidance??? (Score:2, Interesting)
Another Brazilian.
Just MHO. Though I mostly agree with OP, "support" is too strong a word in the present case. We acknowledge a democratically elected Politician (the late Chaves). I've never heard any praise to him in Brazil; exactly the opposite, at least some of us think the King of Spain was right to say "Why don't you shut up?" to him. We have high regards for all our neighbors -- and Venezuela is an important one. We're trying to rid the neighborhood from external dividing influences, better to make a
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Maybe they are trying to avoid a communist South America ruled by Cuba.
Stop crying and just research how much money is being sent to Cuba by those countries (and how they "buy" votes) and you will figure it out.
Act of war (Score:2, Interesting)
Given that hacking is considered an act of war, did the FBI just help wage war against another nation? Shouldn't they need someone to give them the ok before they go around the world causing trouble for everyone but the people they were supposed to catch?
Up next: H&HS take over prison executions (Score:5, Insightful)
We have the DoJ obstructing justice by intentionally destroying evidence;
we have the BATF running guns to Mexican cartels;
we have ICE taking captured illegals out of local police custody and setting them loose on the streets;
we have the NSA spying on the single target off limits to them, with a true patriot under asylum in fucking Russia for pointing that out...
And now we have the FBI coordinating cyberattacks on the government of another country?
Can we just stop pretending, and admit the government has absolutely no interest whatsoever in obeying the will of We The People?
Decade? (Score:2)
This has actually been happening for a very long time, but I'm glad to see that more and more people are waking up to the game. I also think that things are escalating in terms of corruption so it's getting easier for people to see.
If anyone has doubts (not you per say), look at how many people were arrested for the blackmail campaign against Ross Perot, in fact be amazed at how much media coverage it received. Look at the Iowa primary issues with Ron Paul, and be amazed at how he was treated by media (my
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As an observer here in Australia, I was shocked at the treatment of Ron Paul by the main stream US media during his run for presidential candidate.
What was even more shocking to me was how few Americans seemed to notice or give a shit. It was so goddamn blatant I was expecting an uproar...marching...protesting...rioting...something! Nope...barely a fucking squeak.
Corporations run the show and the sheep will eat any old shit their fed.
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In fairness, there were some protests. As with OWS protesters were treated with hostility and protests were ignored by US Media. In fact the quote from the head of the Republican Caucus stated on public radio "We don't care what the people say, Ron Paul will not win the Iowa primary". National media refused to pick this up, there were no investigations into corruption (and yes there were several lawsuits and petitions requesting such), and the majority of Americans are simply blinded to the problem. The
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Never forget: September 11th [wikipedia.org].
Yes, 1973. What did you expect?
Candid question (Score:2)
The FBI coordinated and sanctioned criminal acts, for which people found guilty were sentenced to several years in jail. There is apparently solid evidence. So I would expect heads to roll and whoever is responsible for that at the FBI to be sentenced to at least as many years in jail as those already found guilty. It is not going to happen, but I do not see why. This is really a candid question from a non-US citizen: what part of the US constitution prevents a US citizen from prosecuting the FBI for that?