The world was shocked yesterday to get a peek inside the secret world of hacker group Anonymous, following the arrest of several alleged hackers and the revelation that a leader of the major (sometimes allied) group LulzSec has been a federal informant for months. But the identity of that leader, Hector Xavier Monsegur, a.k.a. Sabu, has caught everyone by surprise as much for the stereotypes he breaks as for the crimes he has committed.

While many high profile hacker arrests have confirmed preconceived notions of pale Caucasian teens living in their parents’ suburban homes, Sabu is a flashy Puerto Rican man living in the projects in Manhattan.

Monsegur, 28 and unemployed, reportedly lives in the Jacob Riis Houses, a huge public housing development in the still-ungentrified part of the Lower East Side. A New York Times article from 2007 reports that his parents were arrested for selling heroin out of the apartment.

The man who led online attacks on the FBI, CIA, and Sony is a street drag racing enthusiast who was bad mouthing the Feds to anyone who would listen- including journalists and his Twitter followers- while he was working as an FBI informant. And he may have let that go to his head: he was reportedly arrested again last month for impersonating a federal agent.

So why did he do it? Sabu is also a family man, the father of two. According to Fox News and one of the agents who finally apprehended him, that’s what made Monsegur cooperate:

“It was because of his kids,” one of the two agents recalled. “He’d do anything for his kids. He didn’t want to go away to prison and leave them. That’s how we got him.”

What do you think about this latest peek into the world of hacking?

[via Gizmodo]