Hacker Kevin Poulsen: biography, fame and interesting facts

In the 80s of the last century, unauthorized receipt of classified information was terribly popular among representatives of certain circles, including "Dark Dante" Kevin Poulsen - a hacker, famous for his personal ingenuity and ignoring American legislation.

This young man immortalized his name by falsifying several dozen phone calls to the KIIS (Los Angeles) radio station and committed a number of other illegal actions. For example, one day, at the request of his friend, the owner of a virtual escort agency, he restored the old telephone contacts that the workers of the Yellow Pages had previously collected.

As a professional, Poulsen "specialized" in hacking telephone lines. The chosen course of action helped him to become the owner of valuable prizes - trips to Hawaii and a Porsche car.

A little later, this capable programmer (on some content resources his name is written as Kevin Poulsen) managed to crack the database of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and get access to private information relating to private telephone conversations.

This story deserves to be told in detail and in order.

Youth hacker

Kevin from childhood attracted things that are difficult to comprehend. For example, as a youngster, he became interested in the occult, so that his personal space for some time resembled the place of the witches' coven.

For the same reason - the lack of simplicity - it attracted the network telephone company Ma Bell. Sixteen-year-old Kevin Poulsen could easily win the championship of freezing (hacking telephone networks and automatic machines), and connecting telephone lines, conducting unauthorized teleconferences and listening to other people's phone conversations was his favorite entertainment.

Needless to say, when parents gave him a $ 200 TRS-80 computer, this "toy" could no longer be useful to him if it were not equipped with a built-in modem.

In fact, Poulsen's freelance career developed in parallel with the activities of another freaker - the same "green" youngster Ron Austin. "Colleagues" often "crossed" - first as visitors to one and the same teleconferences, and then began to maintain computer communication.

No matter how strong a virtual friendship was, she did not bring the young burglars close: they did not hurry to share information "prey" and devote one another to the subtleties of professional secrets. Rather, on the contrary - they tried to use the slightest opportunity to boast of personal successes.

When 1983 came to an end, Kevin was caught. He was charged with fraud with telephone lines and illegal penetration into the UCLA network, but was released on a minor age.

Two years later, Poulsen and his friend, freelancer Mark Lotter, took a job at SRI International, during the working day, exploring the reliability of administrative networks. When the working time was running out, instead of a respectable servant Kevin Poulsen, Dark Night, a night hunter of the World Wide Web, appeared in the secret labyrinths of ARPANet, hoping to obtain any confidential information.

The desire to learn other people's secrets made Poulsen learn how to use thieves' keys and acquire a host of things that make it easier to watch and listen. He repeatedly applied the acquired skills, watching the federal representatives and the personnel serving the Pacific Bell, who, in turn, had long been trying to track down the annoying nocturnal hacker.

Kevin always preferred to deal with a worthy opponent. Moving to Sun Microsystems and gaining access to the state network, he often invaded the computer systems of the US Department of Defense and was hunting for files that were intended for US military intelligence.

The Feds, looking for Dark Dante, would not have achieved results, if not for one hacker's mistake. Kevin forgot to extend the rent for using the garage. The owner of the car park, having torn down the castle, saw the industrial special equipment, which costed at that time fabulous money, and called the police.

The verdict consisted of 19 points, among which there was an accusation of espionage and a mention of the theft of top-secret military information. But before the court case again did not come - Dark Dante disappeared without a trace ...

Kevin (Kevin) Poulsen is a cracker on the telephone network

The Federal Bureau of Investigation took seventeen months to track down the craftsman, who in the meantime committed an act that glorified him in the ages-breaking into the Los Angeles telephone line. True, after this victory, the young "specialist", without stopping, gained another, having penetrated into the network of investment institutions.

The first time Kevin Poulsen (Kevin Poulsen) was taken into custody in 1989. He was only 24, but his "account" already had several hacked telephone networks and servers.

Quiz from KIIS-FM

Los Angeles radio station KIIS-FM conducted for its listeners, which probably included Poulsen (Kevin could well be among fans of KIIS-FM), a quiz with a prize draw.

The event was aired live and attracted the attention of the general public, because "at stake" was a car. Radio listeners, who managed to get through to the editorial office, were given the opportunity to try their luck - to get a brand new Porsche 944 S2 as a gift.

This wonderful present, according to the terms of the quiz, was to become the property of a hundred and a second phoned. Kevin Poulsen blocked the communication network in such a way that no one, with the exception of himself, could get through to the radio station, and the hacker had no difficulty becoming a "hundred second" phoned.

Severe sentence

In April 1991, the Federal Bureau staff managed to detain the criminal by informing the guardians of the law about where Poulsen was. Kevin just "bought" in one of the supermarkets on the outskirts of Los Angeles.

The FBI announced a real hunt for him, after which the former offender, and now the editor-in-chief of the popular Wired News, was detained.

The charge was filed in 1994. Kevin Poulsen went to jail for four years - quite severe at the time punishment for hacking.

"Burglar" is an enthusiast

In fact, Kevin Poulsen is a new generation hacker, an enthusiastic programmer, for whom acquiring new skills and information (and livelihoods) is more important than complying with generally accepted rules.

Initially, hackers called specialists involved in programming and detailed research of the results of their colleagues. In addition, hackers can explore and explore opportunities to improve the reliability of systems that are developed personally or "borrowed" from other professionals.

Kevin Poulsen ... Hacking ordered?

Today, the term "hacker" traditionally refers to a specialist who uses his (or someone's) knowledge in the field of the latest scientific achievements with a view to manifesting an initiative that is not approved by the current legislation. For example, unauthorized deployment to classified sites, systems and networks.

The crackers, "networkers" and others

It is also known about the existence of hackers of various categories, whose activities are less generalized. These include:

• Carders whose scope of activity is hacking and unauthorized use of information contained on plastic bank cards.
• Crackers are programmers who specialize in illegally obtaining information products protected by copyright law.
• The script-kiddi. These "craftsmen" crack other people's content, using ready-made scripts already developed by someone, fragments of software codes and well-known "weaknesses" of software.
• Network pirates. The scope of these "hunters on the call of the network" - unauthorized sale of other developments, protected by copyright law (or some kind of neighboring rights).

Also hackers are divided into "white" and "black".

Hackers "white" and "black"

"White" hackers ("white caps") do not violate the laws. These highly qualified specialists (for their decency they are often called ethnic hackers) work for hire, examining and testing the level of protection of electronic content of the company-employer. Some "white", working for themselves, are engaged in the development of new products and programs, again, without violating the current legislation.

"Black hackers," or "black hats," which includes Kevin Poulsen (known to have "caught" him just behind this occupation), are called hackers who use their skills and knowledge in their arsenal to extract individual benefits.

A happy ending

After serving his prison term, Kevin Poulsen worked as a journalist for the Wired News. Soon he was promoted to the post of editor-in-chief, which he occupies to this day.

At his leisure, Poulsen writes books, the most famous of which is Kingpin: "How One Hacker Took Over the Billion Dollar Cybercrime Underground" ("The Thief in Law: How a Hacker" Made a Billion Dollars in Underground Cybercrime "), narrating some of the techniques used by US intelligence agencies , Specializing in the capture of carders and hackers.

In one of the most famous works of Kevin Poulsen, a journalist, describes the process of authenticating 744 sex-obsessed, socially dangerous psychopaths, according to their social profiles in the MySpace system.