Anonymous members speak out at surreal SXSW panel

 When it's revealed that a prominent member of a clandestine movement has been giving information to the FBI for months, you'd think it would intimidate others in the group into backing off.

And that may have been the case when it was discovered that "Sabu," real name Hector Xavier Monsegur, had been arrested in June and provided information that helped lead to the arrest of five other alleged members of the "hacktivist" collective, Anonymous.

For a few minutes, anyway.

"That night, after everyone found out, it was a bit chilling," said Gregg Housh, one of the few people associated with Anonymous who speaks publicly using his real identity.

But in the hours and days that followed, something very different happened.

"That switched. A lot of people we hadn't seen for months, or years, started showing up. An attack [on some sites by Anonymous] happened that night," he said. "It just angered them, not frightened them."

Housh was speaking at South by Southwest Interactive on Tuesday, the annual festival in Austin devoted to Web and digital culture. He appeared on a panel with the director of a documentary about Anonymous, and two people who spoke (one via Web chat) wearing the movement's trademark "Guy Fawkes mask."

The masks, patterned after the one worn by the shadowy anti-hero from the comic book and movie "V for Vendetta," gave an almost surreal air to the panel at a conference where black-framed glasses are a more common fashion accessory.

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