Lamo, aged 22, hacked into systems, advised the company of its security flaws and, in some cases, helped to fix them, a strategy that may have won the praise of some – notably troubled telco WorldCom – but upset many others.
It was Lamo's high profile hack last year of the New York Times' intranet, giving him access to the personal details of staff, customers and contributors, that provoked the arrest warrant.
Lamo negotiated through his lawyer with the FBI during the five days of the manhunt. The media-savvy hacker also kept the press informed, telling SecurityFocus in a telephone interview, "I don't intend to deny anything that I have done, but I do intend to defend myself vigorously."
In another telephone interview, with CNet News.com on Monday night, he revealed, "The only reason that I hadn't come in before now was lack of communication". He added, "Communication has been good today and as such there's no compelling reason not to go in... I want to come in as a show of good faith."
Lamo turned himself over to US Marshalls at 9.30 yesterday morning. In terms of the deal reached with the authorities he will be released on bail, and will then travel to New York to face federal charges relating to computer trespass on the New York Times intranet.