A New York court agreed to release a
well-known hacker who spent only seven months in jail for
perpetrating significant attacks against the government and private
businesses, in exchange for the key role he played in helping the
government catch other cyber criminals and preventing countless
attacks.

Hector Xavier Monsegur, went by the
name Sabu in his hacking, agreed to work with the FBI when he was
first apprehended in 2011. He has served as an informant and aide
since then, and was praised today by prosecutors, who wrote that he
helped “disrupt or prevent at least 300 hacks” targeting
the military, Congress and “several private companies.”
They added, “Monsegur’s actions prevented at least millions of
dollars in loss to these victims.” Additionally, Sabu
“contributed directly to the identification, prosecution and
conviction of eight of his major co-conspirators.” Included in
this figure is Jeremy Hammond, who was Washington’s top cyber
criminal target when he was arrested in 2012.

Hammond was sentenced to 10 years in
prison last November for his role in the computer breach. What was
not discussed during Monsegur’s sentencing on Tuesday was that when
he was convicted, Hammond claimed that Monsegur himself had directed
much of his criminal activity, including attempts to break into the
websites of foreign governments.

Professor Ahmed Ghappour of UC Hastings
college of the law, an expert in computer law, said it was one thing
to help the FBI in a sting operation on perpetrators of a crime
already in motion, another “when you contribute to the creation,
inducement and execution of a crime that never was. Particularly when
those crimes may very well affect our foreign policy.”

LulzSec hacker ‘Sabu’ released after ‘extraordinary’ FBI cooperation