A New York man who hacked into Zimbabwe government computers in 2011 and tried to steal information from the government email server was freed today largely because of the role he played as an informant to the Federal Bureau of Investigations. Hector Xavier Monsegur served only seven months and prosecutors said this was enough. Monsegur is said to have helped to thwart 300 planned cyber attacks. He also provided information that has led to the arrests of at least eight major co-conspirators, including Jeremy Hammond, who was the FBI’s No. 1 cybercriminal target when he was arrested in 2012. Hammond was sentenced to 10 years for his hacking-related activities. One of the Zimbabwean websites that was attacked and went down for months was that of the Ministry of Finance which was under Tendai Biti.
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