LulzSec Ringleader Operated Out of Jacob Riis Houses on Avenue D

The Lower East Side is connected to one of the largest, most notorious global computer hacker rings.  It was here, in the Jacob Riis Houses on Avenue D, that law enforcement sniffed the trail and ultimately captured wanted “hacktivist” Hector Xavier Monsegur. Known in hacker circles as “Sabu,” Monsegur once led the outlaw LulzSec, an offshoot of the notorious Anonymous organization.  His quiet arrest last June eventually led to the cuffing of five former cohorts.  Yup, he turned rat thanks to the twelve counts of hacking-related charges leveled, and agreed to cooperate with the FBI.

Photo Credit: Fox News

Fox News has the exclusive on the story, noting that the 28-year-old father sold out for the sake of his children:

Sabu had always been cautious, hiding his Internet protocol address through proxy servers. But then just once he slipped. He logged into an Internet relay chatroom from his own IP address without masking it. All it took was once. The feds had a fix on him.

But then, late in the evening of June 7, they received word that Sabu had been “doxed” — meaning that for a very brief moment, someone had posted Sabu’s real name and address online. Law enforcement feared Sabu would see he’d been outed and begin destroying evidence of his hacking career—and all traces of those he’d worked and communicated with online. They had to move.

The agents worked their prey, using the time-honored good cop/bad cop routine. Bad cop stormed out of Monsegur’s apartment yelling, “That’s it, no deal, it’s over, we’re locking you up.”

“It was because of his kids,” one of the two agents recalled. “He’d do anything for his kids. He didn’t want to go away to prison and leave them. That’s how we got him.”

Gizmodo has much more on the story, including correspondence with fellow hackers from last summer. Be sure to check out their coverage.