FBI used Anonymous to attack foreign government systems, claims jailed hacker Hammond

Stratfor hacker Hammond claims FBI used Anonymous informant Sabu to coordinate attacks against foreign governments

Stratfor hacker Jeremy Hammond has claimed that the "handlers" behind convicted hacker Hector Monsegur, better known as Sabu, used him to coordinate attacks against foreign governments.

In a statement written in prison while awaiting trial, Hammond claimed:

"It is widely known that Sabu was used to build cases against a number of hackers, including myself. What many do not know is that Sabu was also used by his handlers to facilitate the hacking of targets of the government's choosing - including numerous websites belonging to foreign governments.

"What the US could not accomplish legally, it used Sabu, and by extension, me and my co-defendants, to accomplish illegally. The questions that should be asked today go way beyond what an appropriate sentence for Sabu might be:

"Why was the US using us to infiltrate the private networks of foreign governments? What are they doing with the information we stole? And will anyone in our government ever be held accountable for these crimes?"

Hammond, a long-time political activist, was behind an attack against intelligence consultancy Stratfor, releasing some 200 gigabytes of documents to Wikileaks.

Hammond's statement came just before US law enforcement agency, the FBI, claimed "victory" over the hacking group Anonymous after three years of arrests culminating in the apprehension of five members of Lulz Security (LulzSec) last year.

"All of these guys [arrested] were major players in the Anonymous movement, and a lot of people looked to them just because of what they did," Austin Berglas, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's cyber division in New York, told the Huffington Post.

The arrests have been attributed to information supplied by Sabu, which have also sown distrustin the hacking community among groups and individuals that might affiliate under the Anonymous moniker, reducing their effectiveness, according to Berglas.

"The movement is still there, and they're still yacking on Twitter and posting things, but you don't hear about these guys coming forward with those large breaches," he said. "It's just not happening, and that's because of the dismantlement of the largest players."

In the meantime, the sentencing of hacker Sabu has been delayed for the second time this year. Facing up to 124 years in prison, he is expected to receive a lighter sentence as a result of his cooperation with the FBI.

He will now be sentenced on 25 October.