Charges against two more suspects are expected to be made public today.

The collective, which is linked to the online activist group Anonymous, had claimed responsibility for several high-profile attacks last year.

Last month Anonymous published a recording of a private telephone conversation between FBI agents and London detectives.

Fox News reported that one of Lulzsec's leading members had helped the bureau gather evidence against his associates.

The news organisation quoted one FBI official as saying: "This is devastating to the organisation... we're chopping off the head of Lulzsec."

Prof Alan Woodward, from the University of Surrey's department of computing noted that Lulzsec had been quiet since the middle of 2011 following an attack on Paypal.

"Judging by the level of activity this morning, where hackers have been pasting personal information about the person reported as having turned witness to implicate other hackers, it would appear that there is a considerable rift inside these groups," he said.

"The hackers are certainly acting as if they feel they have been betrayed by one of their own." 

BBC