Ryan Ackroyd: 'Sabu Took Snitching to a Whole New Level'

Former LulzSec hacker Ryan Ackroyd says he isn't angry at Hector Monsegur (aka Sabu) despite his former ally helping send him to jail - he's just disappointed.

On Tuesday, the hacker known online as Sabu walked free from a New York courtroom despite pleading guilty to an array of charges relating to credit card fraud, hacking, banking fraud and aggressive identity theft.

The people he worked with to carry out the very same cyber-attacks weren't so lucky.

Hector Monsegur, the real world identity of Sabu, refused to talk to the media following his sentencing hearing on Tuesday, where he was released on one year's probation.

Monsegur was allowed to walk because of his "extraordinary" cooperation with the FBI, which began the minute Agent Christopher Tarbell knocked on his apartment door on 6 June, 2011.

This cooperation was mainly to help the FBI track down and identify the people Monsegur had previously been allies with inside Anonymous - and more specifically LulzSec.

Arrest

One of the six core members of LulzSec was Ryan Ackroyd (aka Kayla) who was arrested at his home in South Yorkshire, England just three months after Monsegur began working with the FBI.

A presentence report filed with the court by the FBI made clear just what the result of his work with the agency led to.

"Monsegur's efforts contributed directly in the identification, prosecution, and convictions of core members of LulzSec."

In April 2013, Ryan Ackroyd pleaded guilty to one charge of carrying out an unauthorised act to impair the operation of a computer, and in May received a 30 month jail sentence. He was released from jail at the end of March this year, having served nine months of the sentence.

"Sabu was the worst one of us all"

Speaking to IBTimes UK following Monsegur's release on Tuesday, Ackroyd said considering the crimes Monsegur committed, he should have been the one spending the most time in jail.

"Sabu was the worst one out of us all, he should have been given the largest sentence. He was the one stealing from people's bank accounts, credit cards and PayPal so that he could pay his bills and buy new things. Sabu talked people into hacking things for him and when he got caught he decided to snitch on these people, for something he asked them to do, in order to save himself."

Along with Ackroyd, Monsegur helped jail other UK-based LulzSec members Jake Davis and Mustafa al-Bassam as well as helping the FBI capture and prosecute Jeremy Hammond for his part in an attack on Stratfor.

No surprise

Davis, who was sentenced to 24 months in a young offenders institute for his part in the LulzSec attacks, said on Twitter following the sentence being announced:

"Time served no surprise. They would never seek to discourage future informants by imprisoning someone after 'extraordinary cooperation'."

As part of the terms of his probation, Davis is currently not allowed to communicate with Monsegur or the other members of LulzSec.

Take snitching to a new level

Ackroyd also said he was not surprised that Monsegur walked free and that rather than being angry at him, he felt let down:

"I am not angry at Sabu I just feel disappointed, he took snitching to a whole new level, he went out of his way to snitch on people and allowed himself to be used as a government tool to entrap others."

Speaking about what impact Monsegur's actions might have on the Anonyous movement, considering he was such a well-known member, Ackroyd said rather than weakening it, Monsegur had made it stronger:

"I don't think what Sabu did damaged Anonymous. At the time I am sure there was some mistrust between Anonymous but things like that only make groups like Anonymous stronger, Anonymous will learn from this and perhaps become more Anonymous."