Glendale Heights native pleads not guilty in hacking case
A 27-year-old Glendale Heights native has pleaded not guilty to computer hacking charges stemming from an investigation aimed at taking out key players in the worldwide group Anonymous.
Jeremy Hammond entered the plea Monday in federal court in Manhattan.
The defendant is named in an indictment charging five people with conspiracy to commit computer hacking and other charges. He's been held in a lower Manhattan lockup since an initial appearance in a Chicago court.
Prosecutors allege the defendants and others hacked into companies and government agencies worldwide, including the U.S. Senate. Prosecutors say they also stole confidential information, defaced websites and temporarily put some victims out of business.
Authorities say their crimes affected more than 1 million people.
Hammond, a 2003 graduate of Glenbard East High School, was known for his anti-establishment views back then as well. He helped organize a student liberation group, created an underground newspaper and organized anti-war marches at the onset of U.S. military action in Iraq.
Authorities say Hammond and others from Anonymous stole credit card data from Strategic Forecasting Inc., or Stratfor, a global intelligence firm in Austin, Texas. Described by some as "hacktivists," the co-conspirators reposted the information online and encouraged others to use the credit card numbers, federal officials said.
Those activities are alleged to have taken place years after Hammond left the suburbs, but Daily Herald archives and court records show he has a history of rising up against the establishment.
On March 20, 2003 - the day troops invaded Iraq, and the war officially began - Hammond walked out of classes with some 100 students and staged a protest in downtown Lombard.
"I don't want to be sitting locked in my cage while innocent people who haven't done anything are getting killed," Hammond told the Daily Herald.
Hammond had started a new club, the Student Liberation Collective, which was sanctioned by the school. Group members would cook and provide free vegetarian food to those who attended anti-war protests.
They also created a website, and paid for and circulated their own alternative newspaper, The Suburban Underground. It was distributed at about 10 other high schools.
Ÿ Daily Herald staff writer Christopher Placek contributed to this report.