Jeremy Alexander Hammond (born January 8, 1985), also known by his online moniker sup_g, is an American

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

activist and former computer hacker from

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. He founded the computer security training website HackThisSiteLuman, Stuart. ''Chicago'' Magazine, July 2007
"The Hacktivist"
in 2003.Hayes, Christopher. ''Chicago Reader'', August 15, 2005
"But Can He Hack Prison?"
He was first imprisoned over the Protest Warrior hack in 2005 and was later convicted of

computer fraud Computer fraud is the use of computers, the Internet, Internet devices, and Internet services to defraud people or organizations of resources. In the United States, computer fraud is specifically proscribed by the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA ...

in 2013 for hacking the private intelligence firm Stratfor and releasing data to

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is a non-profit media organisation and publisher of leaked documents. It is funded by donations and media partnerships. It has published classified documents and other media provided by anonymous sources. It was founded in 2006 by ...

, and sentenced to 10 years in prison. In 2019, he was summoned before a Virginia federal grand jury which was investigating

and its founder

Julian Assange Julian Paul Assange ( ; Hawkins; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. He came to international attention in 2010 after WikiLeaks published a series of News leak, leaks from Chels ...

. He was held in civil contempt of court after refusing to testify on the principle of grand jury resistance. He was released from prison in November 2020.

Early life

Jeremy Alexander Hammond was born and raised in the

suburb of Glendale Heights, Illinois, with his twin brother Jason. Hammond became interested in computers at an early age, programming video games in

QBasic QBasic is an integrated development environment (IDE) and BASIC interpreter, interpreter for a variety of dialects of BASIC which are based on QuickBASIC. Code entered into the IDE is compiled into an intermediate representation (IR), and this ...

by age eight, and building databases by age thirteen. As a student at Glenbard East High School in the nearby suburb of Lombard, Hammond won first place in a district-wide science competition for a computer program he designed. While in

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

, he became a peace activist, organizing a student walkout on the day of the Iraq invasion and starting a student newspaper to oppose the

Iraq War The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...

. His high school principal described Hammond as "old beyond his years". Hammond attended the

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the Universi ...

. In the spring of 2004, during his freshman year, he exploited a security flaw on the computer science department's website and went to department administrators, offering to help fix the security flaws on the site and looking to get a job. For inserting the backdoor, Hammond was called before the department chair and ultimately banned from returning for his sophomore year. Jeremy, along with his brother Jason, has had a lifelong interest in music, performing in numerous bands through the years. Before Jeremy's arrests, they were both actively performing in the Chicago ska band Dirty Surgeon Insurgency."Chicago hacking suspect a genius without wisdom, mom says"
March 7, 2012, ''Chicago Tribune'' Hammond worked as a Mac technician in

Villa Park, Illinois Villa Park is a village in DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage County, Illinois, United States, within the Chicago metropolitan area. The population as of the 2020 Census was 21,113. History When Ovaltine established its factory, it needed a wa ...

. He also worked as a web developer for Chicago-based Rome & Company. His boss at Rome & Company wrote in 2010 that Hammond is "friendly, courteous and polite and while we suspect he has a low tolerance for corporate posturing, he has never demonstrated any contempt for business in the workplace".

Activism and computer hacking

Hammond founded the computer security training website HackThisSite at age 18, during the summer after his high school graduation. The website describes itself as "a non-profit organization that strives to protect a good security culture and learning atmosphere". In its first two years the site received 2.5 million hits and acquired 110,000 members and a volunteer staff of 34. During the 2004

DEF CON DEF CON (also written as DEFCON, Defcon, or DC) is a Computer security conference, hacker convention held annually in Las Vegas Valley, Las Vegas, Nevada. The first DEF CON took place in June 1993 and today many attendees at DEF CON include comp ...

event in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

, Hammond delivered a talk that encouraged " electronic civil disobedience" as a means of protest against the 2004 Republican National Convention and its supporters. In February 2005, Hammond, with others, hacked the website of pro-war counterprotesting group Protest Warrior and accessed thousands of credit card numbers, intending to use them to donate to left-wing groups. Although no charges were ever made against the cards, Hammond confessed and was sentenced to two years in federal prison for the crime. Freed after 18 months, Hammond was radicalized by the experience, although the terms of his probation prohibited him from associating with HackThisSite or anarchist groups for another three years.

Stratfor case

On March 5, 2012, Hammond was arrested by

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

(FBI) agents in the

Bridgeport Bridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut and the fifth-most populous city in New England, with a population of 148,654 in 2020. Located in eastern Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequonnock River on Long Is ...

neighborhood of

Anderson, Nate. March 2012
"Stakeout: how the FBI tracked and busted a Chicago Anon"
for his involvement in the December 2011 cyberattack on Stratfor, a private intelligence firm.Kevin Poulson
Anonymous Hacktivist Jeremy Hammond Pleads Guilty to Stratfor Attack
, ''Wired'' (May 28, 2013). The intrusion compromised 60,000 credit card numbers, $700,000 in fraudulent charges, and involved the download of 5 million emails, some of which were subsequently published by

. The indictment was unsealed the following day in the Manhattan federal district court. He was one of six individuals from the United States, England and Ireland indicted.Bright, Arthur. ''Christian Science Monitor'', March 8, 2012
"Jeremy Hammond, alleged to be 'Anarchaos'"
The FBI was led to Hammond through information given by computer hacker

Hector Xavier Monsegur Hector Xavier Monsegur (born 1983), known also by the online pseudonym Sabu (pronounced Sensitive but unclassified, Sə'buː, Sæ'buː), is an American Cracker (computer security), computer hacker and co-founder of the hacking group LulzSec. Mons ...

("Sabu"), who became a government informant immediately after his arrest in early 2011, and subsequently pleaded guilty in August 2011 to twelve counts of hacking, fraud, and

identity theft Identity theft, identity piracy or identity infringement occurs when someone uses another's personal identifying information, like their name, identifying number, or credit card number, without their permission, to commit fraud or other crimes. ...

. Although Monsegur could have received a sentence of more than 20 years in prison, prosecutors asked that he be sentenced to time served, which was seven months in prison.Tina Susman
Hacker-turned-informant Sabu is a free man after N.Y. sentencing
, ''Los Angeles Times'' (May 27, 2014).Benjamin Weiser

, ''New York Times'' (May 28, 2014).Estes, Adam Clark. ''The Atlantic Wire'', March 6, 2012
"FBI Says LulzSec Hacker Kingpin Was an Informant
Ball, James. ''The Guardian'' (UK), March 6, 2012
"LulzSec court papers reveal extensive FBI co-operation with hackers"
Information from Monsegur helped lead the authorities to at least eight co-conspirators, including Hammond, and helped to disrupt at least 300 cyberattacks. The case was prosecuted by the office of

Preet Bharara Preetinder Singh Bharara (; born October 13, 1968) is an Indian American lawyer and former federal prosecutor who served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 to 2017. As of 2025, he is a partner at the ...

, the

United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York The United States attorney for the Southern District of New York is the United States Attorney, chief federal law enforcement officer in eight contiguous New York counties: the counties (coextensive boroughs of New York City) of New York County, ...

.United States Department of Justice, March 6, 2012
"Six Hackers in the United States and Abroad Charged for Crimes Affecting Over One Million Victims"
Hurtado, Patricia and Michael Riley. Bloomberg, March 6, 2012

/ref> Hammond was represented by Elizabeth Fink.Winter, Jana. FoxNews.com, March 15, 2012
"LulzSec-linked hacker who threatened to burn White House appears in court"
Sabu was detained pending trial; in denying bail, Judge Loretta A. Preska described Hammond as "a very substantial danger to the community.""Chicago man denied bail before NYC hacking trial"
, November 21, 2012, Associated Press. In February 2013, the defense filed a motion asking presiding Judge Preska to recuse herself from the case on the basis that Preska's husband, Thomas Kavaler, had an email address released in the Stratfor disclosure and worked with Stratfor clients that were affected by the hack. Hammond's legal team argued that this created "appearance of partiality too strong to be disregarded". Preska denied the motion, claiming that the connections were inconsequential or unimportant. In May 2013, Hammond pleaded guilty to one count of violating the

Computer Fraud and Abuse Act The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 (CFAA) is a United States cybersecurity bill that was enacted in 1986 as an amendment to existing computer fraud law (), which had been included in the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984. Prior ...

(CFAA).Ed Pilkington
"Jailed Anonymous hacker Jeremy Hammond: 'My days of hacking are done'"
, ''The Guardian'', November 15, 2013. Upon his guilty plea, Hammond issued a statement saying, "I did work with

Anonymous Anonymous may refer to: * Anonymity, the state of an individual's identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown ** Anonymous work, a work of art or literature that has an unnamed or unknown creator or author * Anonym ...

to hack Stratfor, among other websites" and "I did what I believe is right." He maintained that he had no profit motive for the cyberattack. Hammond has insisted that he would not have carried out the breach of Stratfor's systems without the involvement of Sabu. Hammond was sentenced on November 15, 2013, to the maximum of ten years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. He described his prosecution and sentence as a "vengeful, spiteful act." On November 17, 2020, Hammond was released from the Memphis Federal Correctional Institution and was transferred to a recovery house to serve the rest of his sentence. In October 2019, Hammond was summoned before a Virginia federal grand jury which was investigating

and its founder

. He was held in civil contempt of court by Judge Anthony Trenga after refusing to testify.Rachel Weiner
Hacker held in contempt for refusing to testify before WikiLeaks grand jury
, ''Washington Post'' (October 10, 2019). Prosecutors granted Hammond

immunity from prosecution Legal immunity, or immunity from prosecution, is a legal status wherein an individual or entity cannot be held liable for a violation of the law, in order to facilitate societal aims that outweigh the value of imposing liability in such cases. S ...

based on any grand jury testimony, so Hammond could not refuse to testify on the ground of his right against self-incrimination. Like

Chelsea Manning Chelsea Elizabeth Manning (born Bradley Edward Manning, December 17, 1987) is an American activist and whistleblower. She is a former United States Army soldier who was convicted by court-martial in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage ...

(who was also held in contempt for refusing to testify), Hammond said he was ideologically opposed to any grand jury probe which was not being conducted in "good faith" as the government already had the information it needed. In making his contempt ruling, Trenga stated that Hammond's arguments against testifying were "self-serving assertions … without support." Trenga ordered Hammond released in March 2020 after the conclusion of the grand jury, saying that prosecutors no longer required his testimony. Hammond was returned to federal prison to serve the balance of his 10 year sentence. Hammond may have received an early release in December 2019 had the grand jury not intervened. Hammond was released from prison in November 2020.

Later life

In August 2024, Hammond was charged with spray painting an anarchist symbol on a police car during pro-Palestinian protests at the

Democratic National Convention The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 18 ...

in Chicago.

Personal life

He frequently identifies as an

and has a shoulder tattoo of the anarchy symbol with the words: "Freedom, equality, anarchy." Writing after his arrest, Hammond said, "I have always made it clear that I am an anarchist-communist – as in I believe we need to abolish

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...

and the state in its entirety to realize a free,

egalitarian Egalitarianism (; also equalitarianism) is a school of thought within political philosophy that builds on the concept of social equality, prioritizing it for all people. Egalitarian doctrines are generally characterized by the idea that all h ...

society. I'm not into watering down or selling out the message or making it more marketable for the masses."Amar Toor
How the FBI nabbed Jeremy Hammond, Anonymous member and radical anarchist
, ''The Verge'' (December 8, 2012).

References

External links

* Hammond, Jeremy.

2004,

"Electronic Civil Disobedience"

Free Jeremy Hammond
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hammond, Jeremy 1985 births American anarchists American anti-capitalists American anti–Iraq War activists Anarcho-communists Hacktivists Internet activists Living people People convicted of cybercrime Activists from Chicago People from Manchester, Kentucky Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government 21st-century anarchists