When a hacker goes too far...

[allenb1963]

I found this article to very interesting as it presents an objective view of the ramifications of hacking. The story tells a tale of woe that has followed Max Ray Butler (renowned as a 'white-hat') since his incarceration for intruding into government and military networks back in the 90's. Once a $250 an hour consultant, Max now works for minimum wage, can't BUY a job in the security field, and has to get permission from his parole officer to access the internet. I recommend this read to ANYONE who is obsessed with invading networks, as it illustrates in good fashion the havok it can wreak on your life.

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,54838,00.html

[Syini666]

Great read, really shows what happens when even the good guys screw up and do something stupid. Its a shame that its so hard for him to find work, but unfortuantely
thats what a criminal record does to you. Hopefully younger people will read it and possibly avoid making the same mistake that Butler did.

[bdhoff]

This article is a must-read for anyone who believes that there is such a thing as "good hacking."

In principle I can see why a "white hat" would think what they are doing is noble. They identify holes and penetrate them in order to bring attention to a problem. The truth is, though, that the law is the law and it doesn't (shouldn't) discriminate. Sad what happens when good people do bad things...

[Neo]

Good collection allenb. Come up with such ones.

[chicken12]

hi

i agree with u that he is a good hacker and very skilled...but he did send out a worm that open a port... what does that make him??

[Juridian]

Indeed....if he was such a good guy, then why did he add the code to give himself a backdoor to all of those systems?

[bdhoff]

Exactly Juridian...that brings up another interesting question.

There is a small security contracting company in my area that designs custom security schemes for corporations. Some of the guys over there build backdoors in to all of the systems that they implement. One of the guys told me that they do it so that if the client doesn't pay the maintenance bills they can go in and disable the client's security barriers and open their networks up to the world. That way they will be forced to pay to get the thing running again...

I don't know if that is true or not. Probably just a guy bragging, but it does bring up a larger point. Some security experts do leave back doors into the systems that they design. Anyone have an idea why that might be?

[THE RADICAL]

That being said I think now he knows what he did was very wrong (if he didn't know that in the first place.) Otherwise, allenb this was an excellent read and I agree that it should be read by anyone who believes that there is such a thing as good hacking bdhoff. It goes to show all of us that we only get one shot in life and if we blow it now it could go on ruin other future opportunities. -Peace Out-

[droby10]

the distinction between this guy's actions and those who do "good hacking" is obvious, isn't it? "good hacking" does exist, is valued, and even pays well. had max stayed on the straight and narrow, he wouldn't be in the situation he's in now. the real lesson here is most adequately described in the title of this thread.

[mmoehring]

bdhoff i use a simialr prog to do that when i do major work on someones system and they seem a little flaky about payment i load a file that after 4 days it gives them a message that they need to make arrangments to pay otherwise there will be consequences and if i have not sent the remover bay a certain amount of time the first prog will move and change the names of .docs and some system files then if i still haven't sent the remover it statrs deleting files until i get paid and send the remover prog. in this day and age one can never be too careful.