LulzSec Hackers Arrested in Sweeps in U.S., Great Britain

Several top members of the hacking group LulzSec, which during a 50-day spree last year targeted various U.S and British government sites and companies such as Sony with cyber-attacks, are now under arrest or have been charged following a sweep by law enforcement agencies March 6 in the United States and Europe.

The five suspects reportedly were charged through indictments in a conspiracy case filed in federal court in New York. According to a report in FoxNews, the arrests and charges came after the group€™s leader, identified as Hector Xavier Monsegur, a New York City resident, cooperated with authorities. He had been identified in June 2011, and began working with investigators after that, according to reports. Monsegur allegedly had used the online name €œSabu€ in his work with LulzSec.

Monsegur, an unemployed 28 year old, reportedly pleaded guilty in August 2011 to hacking-related charges.

The conspiracy and hacking charges filed March 6 involve suspects in Chicago, England and Ireland. The indictments are expected to be unsealed in New York City.

An anonymous FBI official told FoxNews that the indictments and arrests were €œdevastating to the organization. We€™re chopping off the head of LulzSec.€ Both the FBI and the CIA were among the victims of LulzSec€™s activities, which included network intrusions and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.

Those charged under the conspiracy indictments were Jeremy Hammond, or €œAnarchaos,€ from Chicago; Ryan Ackroyd (€œKayla€) and Jake Davis (€œTopiary€) from London; and Darren Martyn (€œpwnsauce€) and Donncha O€™Cearrbhail (€œpalladium€) from Ireland. According to reports, Hammond also is a member of the hacking group Anonymous€”which loosely worked with LulzSec last year and reportedly was a place where some LulzSec members went when their organization dissolved in the summer of 2011€”and who was a key figure in the hacking of Stratfor Global Intelligence, a U.S.-based security company whose email system was hacked and several million emails stolen. Some have begun showing up on the whistle-blower site WikiLeaks.

Authorities in both the United States and in Great Britain have been working together for months to arrest members of LulzSec, which is short for Lulz Security. Investigators has some success last year, arresting Ryan Cleary, a teenager from England, in June 2011 and Jake Davis (€œTopiary€), who authorities said was the spokesman for LulzSec, a month later in Scotland. Davis allegedly was the person behind the various Twitter feeds and press releases that bragged about LulzSec€™s activities.