According to an article by the The Guardian in the UK, an estimated one in four hackers residing in the United States are FBI informants. The estimation comes from Eric Corley, who publishes The Hacker Quarterly, 2600.
Through some heavy cyber policing over the past decade, the FBI and secret service have brokered deals with hacker criminals, trading prison time for cooperation with the Bureau’s many investigations. This means hackers are monitoring other hackers, and reporting sketchy and incriminating behavior right on back to the FBI.
Corley told The Guardian, “Owing to the harsh penalties involved and the relative inexperience with the law that many hackers have, they are rather susceptible to intimidation.”
The Guardian starts the article out by stating, “The underground world of computer hackers has been so thoroughly infiltrated in the US by the FBI and secret service that it is now riddled with paranoia and mistrust.” It goes on to cite an example of such being WikiLeaks, where Adriam Lamo (convicted hacker turned informant) put suspect Bradley Manning in FBI custody for more than a year now. Lamo is referred to, of course, as the ‘world’s most hated hacker.’
And then the article turns to the most present threat the US faces on the cyber front:
The latest challenge for the FBI in terms of domestic US breaches are the anarchistic co-operatives of “hacktivists” that have launched several high-profile cyber-attacks in recent months designed to make a statement. In the most recent case a group calling itself Lulz Security launched an audacious raid on the FBI’s own linked organisation InfraGard. The raid, which was a blatant two fingers up at the agency, was said to have been a response to news that the Pentagon was poised to declare foreign cyber-attacks an act of war.
The group behind the raid is also thought to be behind the organized attacks against Visa and MasterCard back when these two payment card networks refused to transmit any payments supporting WikiLeaks.
Does this statistic make you feel more safe about the potential for a national cyber attack here in the US?
