Ryan Ackroyd, arrested as being part of hacktivist group Anonymous and Lulzsec, had some choice words for co-founder Hector ‘Sabu’ Monsegur in an open letter he posted to Pastebin.
After hacking collective Anonymous and its offshoot Lulzsec launched attacks on PBS, Sony, Infragard and Fox Entertainment in 2011, Monsegur was arrested by the federal agents. Wanting to minimize the possibility of facing up to 124 years in jail, he opted to turn informant for the FBI, and subsequently pointed fingers at seven fellow hackers, including Ackroyd.
“You know a few good tricks but as a general rule your hacking know-how is quite limited. So who are you Hector Xavier Monsegur and why are you on TV? Because I spent quite a while getting to know you, and all I see is a coward and a fraud,” Ackroyd wrote in the open letter.
The television appearance he was referring to was an interview Monsegur did with CBS in December last year. In the interview Monsegur claims that since working with the US government, he has stopped over 300 hacks from taking place – but Ackroyd disputes this.
“…Attacks that YOU initially thought up, so you didn’t prevent anything, you just suggested something and when we spoke about it you relayed what information we gathered and you put an end to it and avoided nearly 30 years in prison? Wow. You certainly are an American hero, a (what was it you said?) “Inspiration” to people. I, for one, can’t wait to teach my children to set my friends up and help the FBI entrap. A true role model to all.”
Ackroyd, who served a two-and-a-half year sentence for his involvement, is also furious at the fact that Monsegur claims he didn’t specifically finger anybody in particular.
Ackroyd quoted an FBI statement which read “Monsegur assists law enforcement in identifying and locating lulzsec members and affiliates Monsegur engages his co-conspirators in online chats and were critical to confirming their identities and whereabouts.”
Afterwards he asked “So the FBI were wrong? In that case surely you can go join Jeremy (Hammond) in jail as because snitching on your ‘brothers’ is the only reason you’re at home eating doughnuts right now.”
At the time Hammond was the most wanted cyber-criminal on the FBI’s list in the world, for his involvement in the hacking of private intelligence firm Stratfor – he is currently serving a ten year sentence.
The almost 2000-word letter touches on a number of topics, but the gist of the opinion piece is that Ackroyd wants Monsegur to take responsibility for his actions.
“You were caught but instead of taking responsibility, you bent over and let the FBI take turns at riding you out. ‘Mastermind’ (I laugh every time.) you are not, but a manipulating conductor of targets and (admittedly) persuasive and entirely convincing social engineer you are.”
The interview Monsegur did with CBS is below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4HO2J1aQgg
