A former member of the hackers’ group known as Anonymous pleaded guilty to hacking attacks on Stratfor on Tuesday, 28^th May, 2013 and was sentenced to a 10-year imprisonment. Jeremy Hammond, the 28-year old hacker from Chicago justified his act by stating that everyone has the right to know what corporations and governments do behind closed doors and he also said that by signing the non-cooperating plea, he earned the freedom to tell the world of his deeds and the reasons for such acts without being required to disclose information and tactics to government, which would otherwise jeopardize the safety of other online activists.

Jeremy pleaded guilty to one count of computer hacking conspiracy and agreed to a payment of $2.5 million in compensation. Hammond, who was popular by his nickname Anarchaos, awaits his sentencing scheduled for September 6, 2013. Hammond pleaded for the hacking attack on Stratfor, a popular analyst company.

By attacking Stratfor, the hackers gained access to information related to 860,000 subscribers. The hackers later released MD5 hashes (passwords presented in form of cryptographs), credit card numbers and emails. Later, they used the credit card details to make purchases worth $700,000. Hammond admitted that he hacked into the computers of Arizona Department of Public Safety, Federal Bureau of Investigation and few other law enforcement companies and agencies.

In 2011 LulzSec (an Anonymous offshoot) and Anonymous were engaged in an aggressive hacking attack and they bragged about their hacking on micro-blogging site Twitter. This forced the law enforcement bodies to make attempts to track and find them. During the 2011 hacking campaign, Anonymous and LulzSec had together hit organizations like Fox Entertainment Group, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Public Broadcasting System and Serious Organised Crime Agency of the U.K. Hector Xavier Monsegur (nicknamed Sabu), the leader of LulzSec was however arrested by FBI in 2011.