Kingpin: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion Dollar Cyber Crime Underground by Kevin Poulsen Read Free Book Online

the BIND attack had been a busy time for Max. He launched Whitehats.com, and it was an instant success in the security world. In addition to housing his scanning tool, the site collected the latest CERT advisories and links to BIND software patches, as well as a paper Max had written dissecting the ADM worm with the clarity and the discerning eye of a connoisseur. Nobody in the community suspected that Max Vision, the rising star behind Whitehats.com, had personally provided the brightest example of the seriousness of the BIND security hole.
    He was also continuing to file reports to the FBI. After his last one, Beeson began e-mailing to arrange a casual meeting, supposedly to go over Max’s latest findings. “How ’bout if we just meet at your place?” Beeson wrote. “I know I have the address somewhere around here.”
    Now that he was on Max’s doorstep, Beeson explained why they were really there. He knew all about Max’s attack on the Pentagon. One of the men with him, a young Washington, DC–based Air Force investigator named Eric Smith, had traced the BIND intrusions to Max’s house. Beeson had a search warrant.
    Max let them in, already apologizing. He only meant to help, he explained.
    They chatted amicably. Max, happy for an audience, grew expansive, describing the twists and turns of his attack and listening with interest as Smith described how he’d tracked Max through the pop-up messages Max had used to alert himself when a system was subverted: The messages went to a Verio dial-up, and a subpoena to the ISP produced Max’s phone number. It hadn’t been difficult. Max had convinced himself he was doing something positive for the Internet, so he hadn’t done much to cover his tracks.
    The feds asked if anyone had known what Max was up to, and he said his boss was involved. Matt Harrigan—Digital Jesus—had not completely given up hacking himself, Max said, adding that Harrigan’s company was about to get a contract with the National Security Agency. *
    At the agents’ behest, Max wrote out a confession. “My motives were purely for research and ‘to see if it could be done,’ ” Max wrote. “I know this is no excuse, and believe me, I am sorry for it, but it’s the truth.”
    Kimi came home from school to find the feds still tossing the house. Like grazing deer, they looked up in unison as she entered, dismissed her as unthreatening, and turned wordlessly back to their work. When they left, they hauled Max’s computer equipment with them.
    The door closed, leaving the newlyweds alone in what was left of their home. An apology formed on Max’s lips. Kimi cut him off angrily.
    “I told you not to get caught!”
    The FBI agents saw an opportunity in Max’s crime. Trahon and Beeson returned to Max’s home and gave their former ally the score. If Maxhoped for leniency, he’d have to work for them—and writing reports wasn’t going to cut it anymore.
    Eager to make amends and determined to salvage his life and career, Max didn’t ask for anything in writing. He took it on faith that if he helped the FBI agents, they would help him.
    Two weeks later, Max got his first assignment. A gang of phone phreaks had just hijacked the phone system at the networking company 3Com and were using it as their own private teleconferencing facility. Beeson and Trahon could dial into the illicit chat line, but they doubted their ability to blend in with the hackers and gain any useful intelligence. Max studied up on the latest phone phreaking methods, then dialed into the system from the FBI’s field office while the bureau recorded the call.
    Dropping the names of hackers he knew and drawing on his own expertise, Max easily persuaded the phone phreaks that he was one of them. They opened up and revealed that they were an international gang of about thirty-five phone hackers called DarkCYDE, living mostly in Britain and Ireland. DarkCYDE aspired to “unite Phreakers and Hackers all over the world into one