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MAY 13--In an effort to identify leaders of Anonymous, the FBI arrested an

autistic New York man and then used him as a cooperating witness to help snare

a notorious fellow hacker who was subsequently indicted for his central role in a

series of high-profile online attacks, The Smoking Gun has learned.

In return for the hackers cooperation--and in light of his autism--Department of

Justice officials initially agreed to defer prosecution on a criminal complaint

charging the man with hacking Gawker Media, anillegal incursion that yielded

registration information for more than a million individuals who signed up with the

popular blog network.

Federal prosecutors eventually dropped the hacking charge altogether, according

to court records that were kept under seal long after the hackers arrest by a

team of FBI agents. Investigators were concerned that if the mans c ooperation

became public, he would be harassed by hackers then being targeted by the FBI.Additionally, disclosure of his cooperation, prosecutors contended, would

jeopardize substantial ongoing investigations

into the defendants former co-conspirators,

many of whom are suspected of carrying out

substantial computer hacks against several

businesses.

So, to help ensure the defendants safety,

Thomas Eekdacat Madden became, for a

time, John Doe.

The 26-year-old Madden, whose cooperation

has not been previously disclosed, lives with

his parents in Troy, a city 10 minutes outside

Albany. An only child, Madden graduated in December 2010 from Rensselaer

Polytechnic Institute, where he completed a double major in computer science

and mathematics, according to school records.

Madden grew up in New Jersey, but moved with his family to upstate New York

months before beginning his studies at RPI, which is regarded as one of the

countrys premier engineering and technological research universities. The

Madden familys relocation to Troy--where RPIs campus is located--was

prompted by Thomass need for support during college. In an interview, Kenneth

Madden told of driving his son to c lass, adding that while Thomas was high-

functioning, he was severely autistic and could not live on his own at the

university.

Madden said that his sons autism diagnosis goes back to nursery school and

that Thomas has struggled with sound issues, loud noise, the eye contact.

While acknowledging his sons brilliance with computers and math, Madden

referred to both ends of the spectrum, saying that his sons condition is a gift

and a tragedy and a blessing. He added, If you ever saw the movie Rainman,

its like that.

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Autistic Hacker Helped FBI Nail Anonymous BossTw eet Comments() Share

Charge dropped after man, 26, cooperated
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During a recent phone conversation, Thomas Madden declined to speak about

computer hacking, saying that he has had no contact with those people since

his arrest. In halting speech, he politely refused to address other topics, noting

that a reporters questions were getting

into extra-legal territory. Though he

previously told FBI agents about his

affiliation with certain hacking groups,

Madden denied such connections to TSG.

When asked if prosecutors had

mischaracterized him in court filings,

Madden replied, Evidently.

The governments efforts to shroudMaddens identity--as well as his

cooperation--were an unqualified success .

Maddens name does not appear in the

blizzard of stories about criminal probes into the members of Anonymous and its

various splinter groups like Internet Feds or Lulzsec.

In fact, Gawker itself seems unaware that the FBI actually arrested someone in

connection with the theft of its source code, databases, and confidential records.

That online incursion--reportedly prompted by Gawkers arrogance--was a

publicity c oup for Madden and his cohorts. over 1 million people got

compromised because of me, he boasted during a chat with an online

acquaintance. He later crowed, I feel a bit better today cause I got the attention

of the entire western world lol.

Other chat transcripts show Madden referring to a stolen file containing the

grades of thousands of students. While he was only seeking the records of three

specific pupils, he noted, this warrants the theft of 11,000. He also wrote that hedid not deface sites he had breached. Instead, he preferred to maintain discreet

access to the compromised destinations so he could farm them for weeks.

News reports make it appear that the sole informant used by the FBI to help

target top hacking groups was Hector Monsegur, 30, who was flippedby agents

following his arrest in early-June 2011. Monsegur, a veteran and wily hacker, is

scheduled to be sentenced later this month on a variety of federal felony charges.

Known as Sabu, Monsegur is reviled online, where so-called hacktivists have

savaged him as a manipulative traitor who, when caught, sought comfort in the

FBIs arms.

While Madden was busted three weeks after Monsegur (seen below) began

cooperating with federal investigators, his June 2011 collar was not connected to

the older hackers work with FBI agents. Chat transcripts, interviews, and court

records--some of which remain under judicial seal--

offer a detailed account of how Madden was snared

by FBI agents following a falling-out with an onlineacquaintance.

Madden got his degree from RPI in December

2010, the same month that Gawker was victimized

by Gnosis, a hacking group that congregated in a

private online chat room. During debriefings

following his arrest, Madden told FBI agents that

he was a member of Gnosis and other online

groups, including Patriotic Nigras, a band of

griefers who caused havoc on Second Life, the

online virtual world.

He eventually graduated to computer intrusions involving the theft of large

amounts of data, unauthorized accesses that were aided by password cracking

and network security scanner programs. During a chat months before the Gawker

hack, Madden declared, we run one of the largest data mining operations on the

net just with passwords, google of hacking.

As detailed in the criminal complaint filed against him, Madden chatted openly

about his illegal online exploits with an acquaintance with whom he had

exchanged messages for several years. Madden, according to the FBI, copped to

the Gawker hack as well as other unauthorized intrusions of protected computer

networks during chats with the acquaintance, whom agents desc ribed as a

college student in New York.

Madden told his online friend about Gawkers weak security , remarking that the

blog networks encryption was over 10 years old I forget their OS was like 9

updates behind big updates. As for his accomplices, Madden said that

someone big was involved, but that, I dont know any of these people beyond

their handles and countries. Referring to a Gnosis statement taking credit for the

Gawker hack, Madden wrote, haha I wrote that l ine the other day.

The collegian with whom Madden corresponded apparently was a young woman,

according to Kenneth Madden, who added that his son helped the student with

Search Warrant #1

Search Warrant #2

Madden Deferral
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mathematics and then ended up getting fooled into doing the homework for the

person. And tests and online things like that. Madden remarked that his son

can be fooled or tricked

easily.

At some point, however, Madden realized he had been duped by the other

student. So he opened a Yahoo account in a fake name and sent an e-mail to

one of the other students teachers. He let the persons professor know that that

person was cheating, recalled Kenneth Madden.

Though he had shared details of his own criminality with the other student,

Madden apparently did not foresee the possible repercussions of accusing the

acquaintance of being an academic cheat.

The blowback came in the form of a criminal investigation triggered when the

other student--chat transcripts in hand--contacted FBI agents in New York City

about Maddens role in the Gawker hack . The subsequent bureau probe, headed

by Agent Olivia Olson, used an assortment of subpoenas, as well as motor

vehicle and passport records to identify Madden as the hacker Eekdacat.

At 6:15 AM on June 29, 2011, Olson and other FBI agents searched Maddens

Troy home, and arrested him for the Gawker hack. The investigators seized all

computer equipment in the residence and transported Madden to the bureaus

Manhattan office for questioning. Unaware of what their son was doing online,

Maddens parents were shocked by the nature of the FBIs allegations. They

explained what occurred, recalled Kenneth Madden, who said he was not

knowledgeable enough about the online world to have monitored his sons

activities.

It was during FBI debriefings that Madden--who was not yet represented by an

attorney--confessed to involvement in the Gawker breach, which he said was

accomplished by a crew headed by a hacker known as Kayla. Madden said that

Kayla provided him with the stolen database of over one million usernames and

encrypted passwords and tasked him with decrypting the Gawker passwords.

Madden reported that he succeeded in

cracking about 180,000 passwords.

Madden told of communicating with Kayla

intermittently over the prior year via instant

messages and in an online forum. He also

provided agents with his fellow hackers e-

mail address, Twitter handle, and other

contact information. It appears Kayla was

the someone big to whom Madden referred

when previously chatting about the Gawker

hack.

At the time of Maddens arrest, agents were already investigating Kayla, who

was a Monsegur sidekick suspected of involvement in hacks that had victimized

Fox Broadcasting, Sony Pictures, the Public Broadcasting Service, and other

high profile corporate targets. Kayla, who claimed to be a teenage girl, was

affiliated with several hacker groups, including Lulzsec, which disbanded on June

26, 2011 after a 50-day spree of hacking, defacement, and denial of service

attacks.

Following his FBI debriefing--and nearly 12 hours after his arrest--Madden made

an initial appearance in a c losed federal courtroom in lower Manhattan. A U.S.

District Court magistrate released Madden on a $100,000 bond secured by his

father, and ordered that his Internet access would only be via an FBI monitored

laptop.

When it came time for Madden to file a financial affidavit in support of his request

for a court-appointed lawyer, he described himself as single, unemployed, and

having no income. In a shaky scrawl, he signed the document John Doe.

In a post-arrest court filing, federal prosecutor Rosemary Nidiry reported thatMadden actively is cooperating with the Government and has indicated an intent

to continue working proactively with the Government. Madden, Nidiry said,

provided investigators with detailed information about hack ing suspects, adding

that he could testify before a grand jury for purposes of obtaining an indictment

against the defendants accomplices and

other individuals identified by the

defendant.

Following Maddens arrest, his lawyer

requested a court-ordered mental

competency exam for the hacker. As

detailed in an FBI affidavit, that evaluation

found that Madden has a form of autism

which can affect his social interaction

and judgment, among other things. But

Agent Olson added that Madden
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appeared to be highly-functioning in other

areas, including the ability to recall

information. Madden, the investigator

declared, was credible and his information had been corroborated.

So agents used Madden as the sole confidential witness in a series of search

warrant and pen register applications targeting e-mail and Twitter accounts used

by Kayla. In the sealed U.S. District Court filings, Madden is not identified by

name, instead he is referred to as CW-1or CW-2.In sworn affidavits drafted a

week after Maddens arrest, Olson reported that the hacker has attempted to

cooperate with law enforcement in the hopes of reducing [his] sentencing

liability.

The warrants secured with the help of Madden proved key to law enforcements

ability to identify the mysterious Kayla, the purported teen girl whose e-mails

were filled with smiley faces (and whose security obsession and hacking exploits

were legendary).

When agents first examined logs showing where the various accounts had been

accessed from, it was clear that Kayla was using proxies to hide her true

location, a standard hacker tactic. Hotmail and Twitter records showed that the

respective accounts were accessed from a constantly changing stream of IP

addresses that traced back to countries around the world.

But a c lose analysis of the IP records revealed that the master hacker had

somehow slipped up.

Since the recurrence of an individual IP address is unlikely with the use of a

randomizing proxy, FBI agents alerted to a particular IP address that appeared

three separate times in the documents. The address, which tracked to the United

Kingdom, was used to access Kaylas e-mail

account in December 2009 and March 2011.The same IP address also accessed the

hackers Twitter account (@lolspoon) in June

2011.

The FBI provided the suspect IP address to

British investigators, who tracked it to a home

in the town of Doncaster in South Yorkshire.

Following a period of surveillance and

simultaneous monitoring of posts to the Kayla

Twitter account, investigators burst into the

residence and arrested Ryan Ackroyd, a former

British soldier and Iraq War veteran. Ackroyd

(seen at right) had borrowed his online handle

from his sister, whose name was pronounced

like Kayla in that region of the United

Kingdom, noted Agent Olson.

Ackroyd, now 27, was initially charged in Britain with launching hacking and

denial of service attacks on UK targets that included the National Health Service

and the countrys Serious Organised Crime Agency. He was aided in these illegal

endeavors by several other British citizens who were fellow Lulzsec members.

Ackroyd pleaded guilty last year to the hacking campaign, for which he was

sentenced to 30 months in prison.

In addition to the British case, Ackroyd and three codefendants (one Brit and two

Irish citizens) were indicted in 2012 by a New York federal grand jury. The quartet

was accused of carrying out a series of cyber attacks under the banners of

Anonymous, Internet Feds, and Lulzsec. The Gawker intrusion, though, was not

included among the alleged crimes cited in the two-count indictment. So

Madden--who did not testify before the grand jury that indicted Ackroyd--remains

the only hacker to have been arrested for that illegal operation.

When asked if federal prosecutors would eventually seek to have the imprisonedAckroyd and his codefendants extradited to face the felony charges, a

spokesperson for the U.S. At torneys Office in Manhattan would only say that

these cases are pending.

Two months after Ackroyds indictment, a thorough investigation by Justice

Department officials concluded that the interests of the United States and

Madden would best be served by deferring prosecutionof the hackers criminal

case. In November 2012, prosecutors formally dismissed the hacking charge

against Madden, who, during the prior six months, stayed out of trouble and

complied with terms s tipulated in the deferred prosecution agreement struck with
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government lawyers.

While Madden no longer faces any governmental restrictions on his Internet

usage, he has maintained a low profile since prosecutors dropped the computer

hacking case against him. He does not seem to have posted to his Twitter

account (@NotEekdacat) since the day of his arrest.

Before the FBI banged on his door that morning, Madden sent a RETRACTION

REQUEST tweet to a hacker news web site that had listed Eekdacat among

the Lulzsec hacking team. have NEVER been a member of op

payback/anonops/lulzsec, nor part of gawker attack , Madden declared. (28

pages)

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