调查：美国1/4黑客为FBI线人

　　美国电脑黑客地下组织已被联邦调查局(FBI)和特勤局大范围渗透，预计已有四分之一的黑客成为FBI的线人，黑客之间的相互猜疑和不信任与日俱增。据悉，美国网络警察多通过重刑威胁等手段迫使网络犯罪人员与其合作，协助调查。调查指出，用以交易窃取身份及信用卡号码等信息的非法论坛多由此类卧底黑客控制，FBI探员也会伪装成身份窃取高手混入论坛并成为版主，经由此渠道获取的情报已经将十几名罪犯送入监狱。电脑黑客季刊《2600》的记者表示，很多黑客不熟悉相关法律，在警方重裁的威胁下，很多黑客都开始为政府服务，这也使得黑客彼此之间的关系变得非常敏感。

　　A quarter of hackers in the US have been recruited by federalauthorities, according to Eric Corley, publisher of the hackerquarterly, 2600.

　　The underground world of computer hackers has been so thoroughlyinfiltrated in the US by the FBI and secret service that it is nowriddled with paranoia and mistrust, with an estimated one in fourhackers secretly informing on their peers, a Guardian investigation hasestablished。

　　Cyber policing units have had such success in forcing onlinecriminals to co-operate with their investigations through the threat oflong prison sentences that they have managed to create an army ofinformants deep inside the hacking community。

　　In some cases, popular illegal forums used by cyber criminals asmarketplaces for stolen identities and credit card numbers have been runby hacker turncoats acting as FBI moles. In others, undercover FBIagents posing as "carders" – hackers specialising in ID theft – havethemselves taken over the management of crime forums, using theintelligence gathered to put dozens of people behind bars。

　　So ubiquitous has the FBI informant network become that EricCorley, who publishes the hacker quarterly, 2600, has estimated that 25%of hackers in the US may have been recruited by the federal authoritiesto be their eyes and ears. "Owing to the harsh penalties involved andthe relative inexperience with the law that many hackers have, they arerather susceptible to intimidation," Corley told the Guardian。

　　"It makes for very tense relationships," said John Young, who runsCryptome, a website depository for secret documents along the lines ofWikiLeaks. "There are dozens and dozens of hackers who have been shoppedby people they thought they trusted."

　　The best-known example of the phenomenon is Adrian Lamo, aconvicted hacker who turned informant on Bradley Manning, who issuspected of passing secret documents to WikiLeaks. Manning had enteredinto a prolonged instant messaging conversation with Lamo, whom hetrusted and asked for advice. Lamo repaid that trust by promptly handingover the 23-year-old intelligence specialist to the militaryauthorities. Manning has now been in custody for more than a year。

　　For acting as he did, Lamo has earned himself the sobriquet ofJudas and the "world's most hated hacker", though he has insisted thathe acted out of concern for those he believed could be harmed or evenkilled by the WikiLeaks publication of thousands of US diplomaticcables。

　　"Obviously it's been much worse for him but it's certainly been nopicnic for me," Lamo has said. "He followed his conscience, and Ifollowed mine."

　　The latest challenge for the FBI in terms of domestic US breachesare the anarchistic co-operatives of "hacktivists" that have launchedseveral high-profile cyber-attacks in recent months designed to make astatement. In the most recent case a group calling itself Lulz Securitylaunched an audacious raid on the FBI's own linked organisationInfraGard. 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 todeclare foreign cyber-attacks an act of war。

　　Lulz Security shares qualities with the hacktivist group Anonymousthat has launched attacks against companies including Visa andMasterCard as a protest against their decision to block donations toWikiLeaks. While Lulz Security is so recent a phenomenon that the FBIhas yet to get a handle on it, Anonymous is already under pressure fromthe agency. There were raids on 40 addresses in the US and five in theUK in January, and a grand jury has been hearing evidence against thegroup in California at the start of a possible federal prosecution。

　　Kevin Poulsen, senior editor at Wired magazine, believes thecollective is classically vulnerable to infiltration and disruption. "Wehave already begun to see Anonymous members attack each other and outeach other's IP addresses. That's the first step towards beingsusceptible to the FBI."

　　Barrett Brown, who has acted as a spokesman for the otherwisesecretive Anonymous, says it is fully aware of the FBI's interest. "TheFBI are always there. They are always watching, always in the chatrooms.You don't know who is an informant and who isn't, and to that extentyou are vulnerable."