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FBI busts Anonymous, LulzSec ring By: Elizabeth Wasserman and Jennifer Martinez March 6, 2012 01:10 PM EST Members of the hacker collective Anonymous are not so anonymous any more. Five alleged computer hackers on two continents were charged Tuesday, and a sixth pled guilty, of computer hackings and other crimes, the FBI said in a statement. Each of the hackers identified themselves as aligned with the international hacker collective Anonymous, described by law enforcement as a loose confederation of computer hackers and others, and/or offshoot groups related to Anonymous, including Internet Feds, LulzSec and AntiSec. A key member of Anonymous and LulzSec had surreptitiously coordinated with the FBI in the months before the arrests and has already pleaded guilty. The FBI identified him as 28-year-old Hector Xavier Monsegur, known by the alias Sabu online. He pled guilty to a 12-count indictment on several computer hacking charges in relation to attacks on computers at HBGary, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Fox Broadcasting Co., Infragard Members Alliance and PBS, the FBI said. Charges were brought by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Monsegur allegedly helped orchestrate hacking operations from his home in New York. He reportedly started working with the FBI in its investigation of the hacker group after he pleaded guilty to hacking-related charges in August. In addition, Ryan Ackroyd (Kayla), 23, of Doncaster, U.K.; Jake Davis (Topiary), 29, of Shetland Islands, U.K.; Darren Martyn (Pwnsauce), 25, of Galway, Ireland; and Donncha OCearrbhail (Palladium), 19, of Birr, Ireland, were charged. They all identified themselves as members of Anonymous, Internet Feds and/or LulzSec, the FBI said. The indictment, which was unsealed today in Manhattan federal court, included computer hacking conspiracy stemming from the hacks of Fox Broadcasting Co., Sony and PBS. OCearrbhail also was charged in a separate criminal complaint with intentionally disclosing an unlawfully intercepted wire communication, the FBI said. Each of the charges carries a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison. Late Monday, Jeremy Hammond (Anarchaos), 27, who identified himself as a member of AntiSec, was arrested in Chicago, authorities said. This is devastating to the organization, an FBI official told Fox News. Were chopping off the head of LulzSec. The hacker groups have gained notoriety after claiming responsibility for disabling a variety of business and government websites, such as the CIAs public website this past summer. They have also boasted about carrying out a string of hacker attacks last year on PBSs servers, Fox.com and Sony. The organizations have said their mission is to expose companies and governments that have weak security on their websites and computer systems. Monsegur and other Anonymous members allegedly claimed responsibility for a number of high profile cyberattacks between December 2010 and June 2011, among them denial of service attacks that shut down websites of MasterCard, PayPal and Visa. The group, which operated under the name Internet Feds, claimed it was in retaliation for the financial services firms' refusal to process donations to WikiLeaks. They were also charged in connection with other attacks and hacks on foreign government computers. These included hacking the website of Fine Gael, a political party in Ireland, and hacks on security firm HBGary, in which confidential information from 80,000 user accounts was allegedly stolen. The hack targeting Fox was said to have revealed personal data from more than 70,000 potential contestants on the Fox TV show The X Factor. In May 2011, following the publicity that they had generated as a result of their hacks, authorities said Monsegur, Ackroyd, Davis and Martyn formed a new group called Lulz Security, or LulzSec. That group undertook a campaign of cyberassaults on the websites and computer systems of business and governmental entities in the U.S. and abroad, including PBS, Bethesda Softworks and Sony Pictures Entertainment, the FBI said. The group is alleged to have stolen confidential information from 100,000 users of Sonys gaming website, PlayStation Online. In December, the FBI said Hammond conspired to hack the computer systems of Stratfor, a government consultant. In that attack, a group identified as AntiSec stole confidential data such as Stratfor employees emails as well as account information for approximately 860,000 Stratfor clients. Hammond and his co-conspirators stole credit card information for 60,000 credit card users and made unauthorized charges exceeding $700,000, the FBI said. 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