The man, which will be discussed below, has become famous throughout the world, and by no means the most good deeds. Being a brilliant hacker, he hacked into a network of dozens of companies. By the way, Adriana Lamo was never interested in petty game. Its victims were exclusively giant corporations. Cisco, Microsoft, Bank of America - the list goes on and on. For him, everything was simple: an hour or two of clicking on the keys in an ordinary Internet cafe, and - oh, a miracle! - Google is defeated, and Lamo, suffering from a painful thirst for attention, smugly smiles his hands - in his piggy bank is another victory. However, there is a silver lining: the acts of a homeless hacker, as the press dubbed him a nomadic way of life, made a significant contribution to the development of information security. And this, perhaps, is a good reason to consider his biography in detail.
Rules created to break them
It seems that everything turned out in the life of a genius-marginal so that he became what he is. Adrian Lamo, born in Boston on February 20, 1981, first met a computer at the age of 6-7 years. Agree, quite early, given that in the 80s, IT technologies had just begun to develop. One way or another, and Lamo's parents got a Commodore 64, on which he committed his first little crime. The boy could not reconcile that the games should be played according to the rules, and he could find no other way but to crack his favorite text adventure games. And after that, nothing could stop him from enjoying the process. So Lamo realized that the rules can and must be broken. At least for fun.
Young hacker without a roof over his head
Lamo spent his school years in San Francisco, and it was here that a sharp turn once occurred in the life of a future hacker. When the young man turned 17, his parents decided to move to Sacramento, and Adrian himself chose to stay. Is it possible to exchange a noisy metropolis for the dubious prospect of living in a small town? No, for Lamo this was unacceptable. So he was alone without a roof over his head and a serious education, but with good knowledge of computers and information systems.
It is not hard to guess that Lamo did not stay without work “by profession”, and the young man also solved the shelter problem: he spent the night right in the offices of companies, where he worked hard during the day. For some time, Lamo even worked as a computer security consultant for a large company, Levi Strauss. Then there was another place of work. However, the hacker prefers not to spread about him. Probably, there are reasons for this, because it was the last, and the next few years the young man led a nomadic lifestyle.
Computer Saddam Hussein
Adrian Lamo traveled around the country mainly by hitchhiking, having with him only a laptop, necessary medications, a set of replaceable clothes and a warm blanket. The hacker spent nights with friends, in abandoned buildings and on construction sites.
It was during the years of wanderings that Lamo committed his most high-profile crimes. Incredibly, to penetrate the networks of large organizations, he used only Wi-Fi in Internet cafes or libraries, a browser on his laptop and an IP scanner. An extremely modest set for a global hacker, however, apparently, it was more than enough.
While hacking into networks of companies like Cingular, Lamo followed certain security rules. A homeless hacker did not stay in any city for more than two nights. As Lamo later admitted, he, like the famous criminal Saddam Hussein, was constantly in motion.
Hacking "for fun"
In September 2001, Adrian Lamo hacked Yahoo! News, gaining access to news editing. The hacker made changes to the publications for about three weeks, as a result of which the programmer Dmitry Sklyarov suddenly found himself, under the version of the website, under the threat of the death penalty, and US Secretary of Justice J. Ashcroft held a conference for “militant hordes”, during which he announced that they "will not get their own, " and the truth and federal law are exactly the opposite. Surprisingly, the administration of the system would never have known about the hack if Lamo had not informed about it himself through SecurityFocus.
In defense of the hacker, we can say that he never pursued selfish goals, and conducted criminal activities exclusively "for the sake of interest." Lamo called himself a "security researcher, " and for a long time he got away with it. After all, committing serious crimes from the point of view of US law, he did not inflict significant damage on his victims, but merely informed them of security vulnerabilities.
The most high-profile crimes
Later, the hacker penetrated the Microsoft computer system, gaining access to information about all of the corporation's clients, and took control of the WARM web service, which manages the internal network routers of organizations such as Bank of America, Citicorp and JP Morgan. The company suffered at his hands, however, the most interesting crime in the biography of Adrian Lamo was hacking the network of the largest US Internet provider WorldCom. As in previous cases, he himself informed the company about the deed. It is noteworthy that her administration immediately contacted the hacker, listened to all his recommendations regarding improving the security system and did not present a single complaint.
Caution: a popular cybercriminal!
Such tricks could not go unnoticed by the press. Journalists took numerous interviews from the young man, Adrian Lamo's photos adorned print media, and now he was called not only homeless, but also a helping hacker. Perhaps the activities of Lamo irritated some organizations, but he became incredibly popular, and a lawsuit against him could damage their image. This ultimately led to incredible loyalty to the cybercriminal.
However, this was for the time being. But while Lamo himself did not at all disdain glory, but, on the contrary, delighted him, and he gladly devoted time to his PR. So, once he showed his skills right in front of the NBC camera and in 5 minutes he “disarmed” … his own television company. Now it’s clear why, among computer scientists, Lamo became a hero and an idol. Although this is only one side of the coin, many accused him of openly posturing before the press and thirsting for public attention.
With the New York Times, the jokes are bad …
Of course, the life story of Adriano Lamo does not consist only of dizzying victories. A homeless hacker played with fire and once had to be punished. In 2002, the very moment of reckoning came. Then, for fun, Lamo invaded the New York Times network. In 2 minutes, he found a weak spot in the security system and soon gained access to the personal data of 3, 000 people who published articles in the newspaper, as well as well-known people who gave them in the last interview. Just imagine, Bill Gates and Ronald Reagan suddenly found themselves under the hood of a young hacker! However, this was not enough for him. To top it off, Lamo included himself on the New York Times employee list and became an information security specialist at the company. You can’t refuse him a sense of humor, but the newspaper’s leadership didn’t appreciate him. The New York Times accused the hacker of illegally entering her computer system and stealing passwords, and this time Lamo himself was under the hood, and not with anyone, but with the FBI.
Every crime is punishable!
Already in the fall of 2003, an arrest warrant was issued for Adrian Lamo. The hacker, however, did not want to give up and tried to hide from the authorities. Probably, then he really felt like Saddam Hussein. However, unlike the ill-fated Iraqi president, Lamo ended up in the cell a few days later, although he was released on bail after a single night in jail.
After 15 months of trial, the verdict was announced: the hacker had to pay compensation of 65 thousand dollars. In addition, he was sentenced to 6 months of house arrest and 2 years of probation. An exceptionally lenient punishment, given the claim of the plaintiff, nevertheless, it suppressed the marginal activity of the cybercriminal completely and irrevocably. The trial period assigned by Lamo to the court expired in early 2007, and during that time, he probably realized that any crime was punishable.
