How Much Do Fbi Informants Get Paid

anonymous hacker sabu first interview at scientology in los angeles

The members of the infamous hacker grouping Anonymous operate in total secrecy, wearing masks when protesting publicly, and expertly covering their tracks equally they break into computer systems. A few years dorsum, one of the group's members, Hector Monsegur, AKA Sabu, was defenseless by the FBI and began working undercover for the U.S. government. Sabu was outed equally an FBI informant in 2012, just he's never given a public interview — until now.

Monsegur spoke with CBS This Morning co-host Charlie Rose about his journey from hacktivist to informant. Monsegur, who led hack attacks that resulted in damages totaling $50 million, told Rose that hacking into systems was his way of escaping from a tough life of poverty in a New York Metropolis housing project. The Internet was his gateway to the globe, and he admits to stealing credit card information so he could pay his own bills and not burden his grandmother, with whom he lived. He somewhen joined a grouping of hackers and became involved with Bearding, an elite group that focuses its attending on social justice and toying with the system to expose its flaws.

"Bearding is an thought. An idea where we could all be anonymous," Monsegur explained in the interview. "We could all work together as a crowd — united — we could rise and fight against oppression."

Monsegur and his fellow hackers brought Bearding to a whole new level, moving from low-level hacks to huge hacks with international implications. During the Arab Spring, he broke into the Tunisian prime minister's website and posted a letter of support to the protestors. Monsegur was amazed with the power of the Internet and it'south ability to give a voice to those who unremarkably wouldn't have any influence over international events.

"It was amazing. I saw finally I was able to exercise something that contributed to gild regardless if I was at home in the Lower East Side, in the projects, behind a computer," Monsegur said.

Sabu didn't stop at that place. He ready his own grouping chosen Lulzsec and began to target MasterCard, Visa, Paypal, the U.S. Senate, and FBI. In June 2011, he hitting InfraGard, a website connected with the FBI. Less than a week afterwards, the FBI institute him after he made one small error. For the next three years, he worked every bit an FBI informant. Every time he went online, the FBI followed his movements. Sabu helped the FBI catch other hackers and prevent equally many as 300 high-level attacks on governments and companies around the world — until he was found out and labeled as a snitch and a traitor by his young man hackers.

Now, Monsegur warns that hackers volition only continue to become more inventive, and the government volition never catch them all. He told CBS that America's online infrastructure is weak and stated point blank that hackers could easily interruption into airports, phones, and fifty-fifty the water system with a few keystrokes. He warned against the U.S authorities'due south reliance on the National Security Agency (NSA), adding that even the security experts are not safe. "Who will baby-sit the guards, Charlie?" he asked Rose during the interview.

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