A group of 600 volunteers going by the name Vigilant has been keeping an eye on internet traffic for the past 14 years. The group's director, Chad Uber, revealed Monday at Defcon, a Las Vegas computer hacker conference, that the group has been transmitting the information it gathers to the United States government.

According to Uber, the group, based in Florida, specializes in gathering information on organized crime, drug trafficking groups, and terrorism. They have focused on monitoring 12 regional internet service providers. Though it is a volunteer organization, its members include experts formerly employed in high-level security and technology at the New York Stock Exchange, FBI and the National Security Agency.

The announcement comes after a member of Vigilant, Adrian Lamo, turned in Bradley Manning, a former intelligence analyst, to the federal government for allegedly providing the Wikileaks website with classified information about deaths of Iraqi civilians.

When Lamo hesitated in turning in Manning, with whom he had become friends, the Vigilant chief, Uber, contacted the U.S. government about Lamo's knowledge, encouraging him to go to federal authorities about the leaks.

Uber claims that his organization also uses "collection officers" who work in 22 countries, conducting both online and in-person intelligence-gathering operations.

Uber said of Vigilant, "We do things the government can't. This was never supposed to have been a public thing."

He continued on to say that most of Vigilant's information comes from publically available information on websites.