Hector Monsegur

Hector Skiddie Monsegur
Other names	Sabu
Occupation	Computer hacker
Employer	U.S. government
Organization	LulzSec
Known for	Founder of LulzSec

Sabu (real name Hector Xavier Monsegur) is an American computer hacker and the founder of the hacking group LulzSec. He later turned informant for the FBI, working with the agency for over ten months to aid them in identifying other hackers from Lulzsec and related groups. LulzSec intervened in the affairs of organizations such as News Corporation, Stratfor, British and American law enforcement bodies and Irish political party Fine Gael.

Sabu featured prominently in the group's published IRC chats, and claimed to support the "Free Topiary" campaign. The Economist referred to Sabu as one of LulzSec's six core members and their "most expert" hacker.

Identity

The Jester, who has a self-avowed goal of revealing the real world identities of LulzSec, claimed in 2011 that Sabu was Hugo Carvalho, an IT consultant from Portugal. The Jester then claimed that Sabu was Xavier Kaotico, another IT consultant.

On 25 June 2011, an anonymous pastebin post claiming to identify LulzSec members named Sabu as Hector Xavier Montsegur. He is of Puerto Rican origin. Finally, on November 19, 2011 in a blog entitled "If I am Wrong... I'll say I'm wrong" The Jester agreed that Sabu was Monsegur, with links and images as back-up.

Involvement with FBI

On 6 March 2012, Sabu was revealed to be Hector Xavier Monsegur, a 28-year old, unemployed father of two children. Sabu attended but did not graduate from Washington Irving High School. He had been residing in his late grandmother's apartment in the Riis Houses in New York City. Monsegur had been working with the FBI for several months. He provided the FBI with details of other hackers. The FBI provided its own servers for the hacking to take place.

Monsegur maintained his pretence until 6 March 2012, even tweeting his "opposition" to the federal government until the very last. The final day's tweets included, "The feds at this moment are scouring our lives without warrants. Without judges approval. This needs to change. Asap" and "The federal government is run by a bunch of fucking cowards. Don't give in to these people. Fight back. Stay strong". On 6 March 2012, the FBI announced the arrests of five male suspects: two from Britain, two from Ireland and one from the U.S.

The Guardian speculated that "If through Sabu or information he had gleaned from other Anons the US could glean any evidence to tie Julian Assange to hacking attacks on US soil, such as Stratfor, the case for [Assange's] extradition [to face a U.S. grand jury trial] would be substantially strengthened".

Sabu has not been explicitly linked to the group Anonymous. The extent of crossover between the members of such hacktivist groups, however, is uncertain. Anonymous reacted to Sabu's unmasking and betrayal of LulzSec on Twitter, "#Anonymous is a hydra, cut off one head and we grow two back".