Hacker Informant and Party Boy of the Projects
Monsegur
Hackers  concealed behind fanciful aliases on the Internet  often appropriate larger-than-life dimensions. In reality  other than in physical proportions  Sabu seemed considerably smaller than life. A defensive-lineman-size man known as Booby  he was raising the two young children of his imprisoned aunt in a public housing project. Court documents showed that Mr. Monsegur  28  paid bills with stolen credit cards and dabbled in drug sales.
 Mr. Monsegur’s  whereabouts are unknown  and  his  lawyers declined to comment.  His  background remains gauzy  but court records and interviews with relatives and neighbors offer an outline.
 He  was born in 1983.  His  father  also named Hector  Monsegur   was arrested in 1997 along with  his  sister  Iris  for selling heroin. Both went to prison for seven years.
While  his  father was locked up   Mr. Monsegur  apparently moved in with  his  grandmother  Irma  who lived in a sixth-floor apartment in the Jacob Riis Houses  a Lower East Side housing project.
School officials said  Mr. Monsegur  attended Washington Irving High School  but left in 2001 without finishing ninth grade. In the transcript of  his  guilty plea   Mr. Monsegur  said that  he  went to college  though it is unclear if  he  actually did.
After  his  release from prison in early 2003  Mr. Monsegur’s father found work with a sanitation company. The aunt  Iris  ran a credit repair company from her Staten Island home. Her involvement with drugs  however  continued. She was arrested again and returned to prison in 2010. By that point she had had two girls. They were entrusted to the care of  the younger Mr. Monsegur   and  he  gained legal custody of them.
Even after  his  aunt left prison last August  her children remained with  Mr. Monsegur .
 He  worked sporadically  including for a few months at OpenPlans  a nonprofit group that tries to improve government through technology.  His  profile on the networking site LinkedIn   which listed  him  as a senior systems administrator there  disappeared on Thursday. A former co-worker described  him  as friendly and competent.
 Mr. Monsegur  was active in computer and hacking circles as far back as the late 1990s  and started a group for local programmers in 2002. “My name is Xavier ”  he  announced  inviting others to join and “integrate their knowledge into one big mass of hairy information.”
 He  soon came to embrace strong antigovernment and anticapitalist ideologies that steered  him  into the hacking world.
In what was identified as a question-and-answer interview with Sabu published in New Scientist magazine last year   he  said that  he  became a hacktivist when  he  was 16.  He  said  he  became disturbed that the Navy was using Vieques Island in Puerto Rico as a bombing range for exercises  and that  he  helped disrupt communications. In 2010   he  said in the interview   he  was drawn to Anonymous   a leaderless  antiauthoritarian movement that has taken up a variety of political causes. The catalyst   he  said  was  his  outrage over the arrest of Julian Assange   founder of WikiLeaks   the whistle-blower site.
In particular   he  became a leader of a splinter group  Lulz Security  or LulzSec  which claimed to attack computer security companies for laughs  or lulz  rather than for financial gain.
Describing  himself    he  said in the interview  “I’m not some cape-wearing hero  nor am I some supervillain trying to bring down the good guys. I’m just doing what I know how to do  and that is counter abuse.” For his online handle he chose Sabu  adopted from a former professional wrestler.
In 2010 and 2011  according to court documents   Mr. Monsegur  participated in a relentless string of online attacks against companies and governments. Targets included Visa  MasterCard   PayPal and Sony .  He  also played a role in attacks on computers belonging to the governments of Tunisia   Yemen   Algeria and Zimbabwe  as well as those of the United States Senate .
Though he was self-taught   Mr. Monsegur  was probably among the most skilled technologists in the bunch. As the “rooter ” federal authorities say   he  was in charge of identifying vulnerabilities of LulzSec targets and creating the attack strategy.
Copies of LulzSec chat logs posted online show that  he  was sometimes wary of getting caught. In one discussion   he  is irate at  his  fellow hackers for revealing the name of a site used in an attack  because it could expose  his  computer’s location. Another participant is deferential: “Mm  okay  ill not say anything further without conferring with you.”
Hackers  concealed behind fanciful aliases on the Internet  often appropriate larger-than-life dimensions. In reality  other than in physical proportions  Sabu seemed considerably smaller than life. A defensive-lineman-size man known as Booby  he was raising the two young children of his imprisoned aunt in a public housing project. Court documents showed that Mr. Monsegur  28  paid bills with stolen credit cards and dabbled in drug sales.
 [TGT]whereabouts are unknown  and  [TGT]  lawyers declined to comment.  [TGT]  background remains gauzy  but court records and interviews with relatives and neighbors offer an outline.
 [TGT]  was born in 1983.  [TGT]  father  also named Hector  [TGT]was arrested in 1997 along with  [TGT]  sister  Iris  for selling heroin. Both went to prison for seven years.
While  his  father was locked up   [TGT]apparently moved in with  his  grandmother  Irma  who lived in a sixth-floor apartment in the Jacob Riis Houses  a Lower East Side housing project.
School officials said  [TGT]attended Washington Irving High School  but left in 2001 without finishing ninth grade. In the transcript of  his  guilty plea   [TGT]said that  he  went to college  though it is unclear if  he  actually did.
After  his  release from prison in early 2003  Mr. Monsegur’s father found work with a sanitation company. The aunt  Iris  ran a credit repair company from her Staten Island home. Her involvement with drugs  however  continued. She was arrested again and returned to prison in 2010. By that point she had had two girls. They were entrusted to the care of  the younger Mr. Monsegur   and  he  gained legal custody of them.
Even after  his  aunt left prison last August  her children remained with [TGT] .
 He  worked sporadically  including for a few months at OpenPlans  a nonprofit group that tries to improve government through technology.  His  profile on the networking site LinkedIn   which listed  him  as a senior systems administrator there  disappeared on Thursday. A former co-worker described  him  as friendly and competent.
 [TGT]was active in computer and hacking circles as far back as the late 1990s  and started a group for local programmers in 2002. “My name is Xavier ”  [TGT]  announced  inviting others to join and “integrate their knowledge into one big mass of hairy information.”
 [TGT]  soon came to embrace strong antigovernment and anticapitalist ideologies that steered  [TGT]  into the hacking world.
In what was identified as a question-and-answer interview with Sabu published in New Scientist magazine last year   [TGT]  said that  [TGT]  became a hacktivist when  [TGT]  was 16.  [TGT]  said  [TGT]  became disturbed that the Navy was using Vieques Island in Puerto Rico as a bombing range for exercises  and that  [TGT]  helped disrupt communications. In 2010   [TGT]  said in the interview   [TGT]  was drawn to Anonymous   a leaderless  antiauthoritarian movement that has taken up a variety of political causes. The catalyst   [TGT]  said  was  [TGT]  outrage over the arrest of Julian Assange   founder of WikiLeaks   the whistle-blower site.
In particular   he  became a leader of a splinter group  Lulz Security  or LulzSec  which claimed to attack computer security companies for laughs  or lulz  rather than for financial gain.
Describing  himself    he  said in the interview  “I’m not some cape-wearing hero  nor am I some supervillain trying to bring down the good guys. I’m just doing what I know how to do  and that is counter abuse.” For his online handle he chose Sabu  adopted from a former professional wrestler.
In 2010 and 2011  according to court documents   [TGT]participated in a relentless string of online attacks against companies and governments. Targets included Visa  MasterCard   PayPal and Sony .  He  also played a role in attacks on computers belonging to the governments of Tunisia   Yemen   Algeria and Zimbabwe  as well as those of the United States Senate .
Though he was self-taught   [TGT]was probably among the most skilled technologists in the bunch. As the “rooter ” federal authorities say   he  was in charge of identifying vulnerabilities of LulzSec targets and creating the attack strategy.
Copies of LulzSec chat logs posted online show that  he  was sometimes wary of getting caught. In one discussion   he  is irate at  his  fellow hackers for revealing the name of a site used in an attack  because it could expose  his  computer’s location. Another participant is deferential: “Mm  okay  ill not say anything further without conferring with you.”