According to Guardian reporter Ed Pilkington, the recruitment amongst key US hackers has been made possible because of the infiltration of their ranks by FBI and secret service agents, generating a feeling of paranoia and mistrust.
"Cyber policing units have had such success in forcing online criminals to co-operate with their investigations through the threat of long prison sentences that they have managed to create an army of informants deep inside the hacking community", says the paper.
The paper backs up its assertion of hacker informancy levels by citing Eric Corley, the editor of 2600, the hacker quarterly magazine.
"Owing to the harsh penalties involved and the relative inexperience with the law that many hackers have, they are rather susceptible to intimidation", Corley told the paper.
"It makes for very tense relationships," John Young of the Cryptome web depository service, also told the paper, adding that there are dozens and dozens of hackers who have been shopped by people they thought they trusted.
Kevin Poulsen, the senior editor at Wired magazine, is also quoted by the Guardian as believing that the world of hackers is vulnerable to infiltration and disruption.
"We have already begun to see Anonymous members attack each other and out each other's IP addresses. That's the first step towards being susceptible to the FBI", he told the paper.