Hacking group LulzSec brought down from the inside

The LulzSec saga continues, although it may perhaps be at its end in this bizarre development that reads like something out of a movie. The shadowy organization has reportedly been brought down by the FBI, who have been working with LulzSec's own leader, Hector Xavier Monsegur, otherwise known as "Sabu", after the hacker agreed to cooperate having been arrested in mid-2011.Fox News reports that three suspects have been arrested, while two more have been charged with conspiracy. Those under suspicion hail from across the globe, with two men from Britain, two from Ireland, and one in Chicago. How exactly did this all come about? Hector Xavier Monsegur was secretly arrested by the FBI back in June, and has been a cooperating witness with them every since, feeding them information about LulzSec in order to bring them down from the inside.

Monsegur, whose alias was "Sabu", pleaded guilty to 12 counts of hacking charges on August 15th, with his exact records due to be unsealed today at the Southern District Court of New York. The five members who were arrested today include Jeremy Hammond who resides in Chicago. He was arrested on charges of hacking and device access fraud. His actions reportedly led to the hacking of Stratfor Security Intelligence, leading to the leak of 200GB worth of emails.

LulzSec is an offshoot of Anonymous, infamous for DDoS attacks among other hacking activities. LulzSec hacks in the past have included the attack on Fox.com, where they leaked the names of 73,000 X-Factor contestants, as well as hacking the PBS website where they ran a fake news story claiming Tupac Shakur was still alive.