The hacker who gave up Chelsea Manning to the FBI died in Kansas this week, relatives and local officials said.
Adrian Lamo, who entered the public spotlight after hacking into servers at the New York Times, Microsoft and Yahoo in the early 2000s, died in his hometown of Wichita, a spokeswoman for the Segdwick County coroner said.
“With great sadness and a broken heart I have to let know all of Adrian’s friends and acquaintances that he is dead,” Lamo’s father, Mario Lamo, posted on Facebook Friday. “A bright mind and compassionate soul is gone, he was my beloved son.”
The cause of death was not clear.
Lamo, who was called the “world’s most hated hacker,” more recently became known for turning over information to the FBI about Manning, the former U.S. soldier and whistleblower.
In private internet chats with Lamo, Manning admitted to stealing classified information from the U.S. military about questionable airstrikes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Lamo informed the FBI of the breach and Manning was subsequently arrested and sentenced to 35 years in prison for violating the Espionage Act. President Barack Obama commuted Manning’s sentence and she was released last year. She has since begun a campaign for the U.S. Senate in Maryland.
In an interview with The Guardian in 2011, Lamo expressed regret about turning in Manning.
“I think about him every day,” Lamo told the newspaper about Manning, who went by the name Bradley at the time. “The decision was not one I decided to make, but was thrust upon me.”
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