Some members of Anonymous now believe that Operation AntiSec, the hacking movement started last summer with goal of hitting major government and corporate targets, was a trap created and supervised by the FBI and recently-outed informant Hector "Sabu" Monsegur.

YourAnonNews has created a detailed timeline to prove their point, but the key fact is that Sabu was arrested on June 6, 2011, and returned to the Internet weeks later to announce the formation of AntiSec, billed as a joint venture between Anonymous and Sabu's Lulz Security.

The timeline lists several AntiSec attacks that Sabu participated in or directly encouraged after he had signed a plea bargain promising to "commit no further crimes," and YourAnonNews's conclusion is that all of those attacks were carried out under FBI supervision.

Now that Sabu has been revealed as an informant, his repeated calls for fellow hackers to join the #AntiSec IRC channel now seem like attempts to lure them into an FBI-monitored trap.

Although the sequence of events may not be hard evidence that AntiSec was entirely an FBI invention, it's hard to imagine Sabu getting away with it post-arrest if he didn't have the approval of his federal handlers.

[gizmodo]

Members of Anonymous have responded to yesterday's revelation that LulzSec leader Sabu is now an FBI informant by -- what else? -- hacking the website of a security firm.

Anonymous defaced a dozen sites belonging to Panda Security, a company that allegedly helped Interpol take down 25 alleged Anons last month.

The attack came in response to a Panda Security blog post saying that, without Sabu, Anonymous' capabilities would be limited to simple DDoS attacks. The Panda blog is currently down.

"LOL HE ASKED FOR THE LULZ!!!! HERE IT IS THE LULZ...," Anon wrote on the Panda website.

Anonymous also took the opportunity to address Sabu directly, writing:

Yeah yeah, we know, Sabu snitched on us. As usually happens FBI menaced him to take his sons away. We understand, but we were your family too. (Remember what you liked to say?)... It's sad and we can't imagine how it feels having to look at the mirror each morning and see there the guy who shopped their friends to police.

It seems Sabu wasn't the only Anonymous operator capable of more than a DDoS attack.

[gizmodo]

Court papers released earlier today have confirmed that LulzSec leader Sabu -- now revealed as 28-year-old Hector Xavier Monsegur of New York City -- became an FBI informant after he was arrested last August, and his information led to today's arrests of other top LulzSec members.

According to the papers, the arrested LulzSec members are being charged with "conspiracy to commit computer hacking" in connection with attacks on Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, Fox, the Tribune Co., the U.S Senate, and computers belonging to several foreign governments.

Sabu was also charged with conspiracy last year, and is currently free on $50,000 bail.

Anonymous members reacted to Sabu's betrayal on Twitter, pointing out that Anon "is an idea, not a group. There is no leader, there is no head."

Frequent Anonymous spokesman Barrett Brown also weighed in, tweeting, "My apartment was raided this morning by the FBI. Feds also came to another residence where I actually was. Sabu is a traitor."

He later clarified that he hadn't been arrested, and that the FBI was looking for his laptops.

Brown also commented to the AP on Sabu's decision to turn informant.

"He was an admired Anon," he said. "He's been a leader. People came to him with information. God knows what else he told them."

[ap / gizmodo]