美国FBI线人多为黑客

英国《卫报》调查显示，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。

The underground world of computer hackers² has been so thoroughly³ infiltrated⁴（渗透） in the US by the FBI and secret service that it is now riddled⁵ with paranoia⁶（偏执狂） and mistrust, with an estimated one in four hackers secretly informing on their peers, a Guardian⁷ investigation⁸ has established.

Cyber policing units have had such success in forcing online criminals to co-operate with their investigations⁹ through the threat of long prison sentences that they have managed to create an army of informants deep inside the hacking¹⁰ community.

In some cases, popular illegal forums¹¹ used by cyber criminals as marketplaces for stolen identities and credit card numbers have been run by hacker¹ turncoats acting¹² as FBI moles¹³. In others, undercover FBI agents posing as "carders" – hackers specialising in ID theft – have themselves taken over the management of crime forums, using the intelligence gathered to put dozens of people behind bars.

So ubiquitous（普遍存在的） has the FBI informant network become that Eric Corley, who publishes the hacker quarterly, 2600, has estimated that 25% of hackers in the US may have been recruited by the federal authorities to be their eyes and ears. "Owing to the harsh penalties involved and the relative inexperience with the law that many hackers have, they are rather susceptible¹⁴ to intimidation," Corley told the Guardian.

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

The best-known example of the phenomenon is Adrian Lamo, a convicted hacker who turned informant on Bradley Manning, who is suspected of passing secret documents to WikiLeaks. Manning had entered into a prolonged（延长的） instant messaging conversation with Lamo, whom he trusted and asked for advice. Lamo repaid that trust by promptly¹⁵ handing over the 23-year-old intelligence specialist to the military authorities. Manning has now been in custody¹⁶ for more than a year.

For acting as he did, Lamo has earned himself the sobriquet¹⁷（绰号） of Judas and the "world's most hated hacker", though he has insisted that he acted out of concern for those he believed could be harmed or even killed by the WikiLeaks publication of thousands of US diplomatic cables.

"Obviously it's been much worse for him but it's certainly been no picnic for me," Lamo has said. "He followed his conscience, and I followed mine."

The latest challenge for the FBI in terms of domestic US breaches¹⁸ are the anarchistic¹⁹（无政府主义的） 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（无畏的，鲁莽的） raid on the FBI's own linked organisation²⁰ InfraGard. The raid, which was a blatant²¹ two fingers up at the agency, was said to have been a response to news that the Pentagon was poised²² to declare foreign cyber-attacks an act of war.

Lulz Security shares qualities with the hacktivist group Anonymous²³ that has launched attacks against companies including Visa and MasterCard as a protest against their decision to block donations to WikiLeaks. While Lulz Security is so recent a phenomenon that the FBI has yet to get a handle on it, Anonymous is already under pressure from the agency. There were raids on 40 addresses in the US and five in the UK in January, and a grand jury has been hearing evidence against the group in California at the start of a possible federal prosecution²⁴.

Kevin Poulsen, senior editor at Wired magazine, believes the collective is classically vulnerable to infiltration²⁵ and disruption. "We have already begun to see Anonymous members attack each other and out each other's IP addresses. That's the first step towards being susceptible to the FBI."

Barrett Brown, who has acted as a spokesman for the otherwise secretive Anonymous, says it is fully²⁶ aware of the FBI's interest. "The FBI are always there. They are always watching, always in the chatrooms. You don't know who is an informant（告密者） and who isn't, and to that extent you are vulnerable."