Alleged Anonymous hacker pleads not guilty

A Chicago man facing computer-hacking charges in a federal investigation targeting the worldwide group Anonymous pleaded not guilty Monday.

Jeremy Hammond, 27, opted against seeking bail at the brief hearing Monday in federal court in Manhattan.

He pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit computer hacking and other charges. He's been held in a lower Manhattan lockup since an initial court appearance in Chicago in March.

A criminal complaint accuses Hammond of pilfering information of more than 850,000 people via his attack on Texas-based Strategic Forecasting Inc., or Stratfor, and used credit-card numbers to make charges of at least $700,000. He allegedly bragged he even snared the personal data of a former U.S. vice president and one-time CIA director.

Hammond once rallied against plans to hold the 2016 Olympics in Chicago because he felt it would hurt low-income people; another time, he protested against neo-Nazi groups, defense attorney Jim Fennerty said. In a 2005 feature article about Hammond's hacking skills, he told the Chicago Reader he could program video games before he was 10.

He told the paper he was a "hacktivist" who sought to promote causes but never for profit.

A website for supporters, freehammond.com, describes Hammond as "one of the few true electronic Robin Hoods."

But prosecutors describe him as a menace: Allegedly, in an online chat regarding Stratfor, he wrote, "Time to feast upon their (email databases)." The filing includes odd biographical details, including that Hammond is a professed "freegan," or someone committed to eating discarded food to counter consumer waste.

Hammond, who used online aliases such as "crediblethreat" and "yohoho," once described himself as "an anarchist communist," the complaint says.

He has been arrested before in minor offenses, according to the filing. His next court date is July 23.