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New York Times Hacker

Adrian LamoAdrian Lamo, the 22 year-old hacker who broke into the New York Times intranet as well as other companies' computer systems over the years, turned himself into authorities and has been released on $200,000 bond. By breaking into the Times site via a backdoor, Lamo had access to personal information, such as employee Social Security numbers and phone numbers of various contributors, like Warren Beatty (Op-Ed, folks), as well as incurring $300,000 in costs, and then the Times called the FBI on Lamo. Lamo has tried to offer his services to companies his broken into, trying to show them the flaws in their system. In the Times article about Lamo, U.S. Attorney James Comey offers this analogy: "It's like someone kicking in your front door while you're on vacation and running up a $300,000 bill on your phone, and then telling you when you arrive home that he had performed a useful service by demonstrating that your deadbolt wasn't secure enough."

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Comments [rss]

  • froggy

    Yes, it's a good idea

  • 8675309ee9

    gotta wonder about a hacker named Lame-o.

  • If he shows them how he did it, the Times should totally hire him — at least as a freelancer.

  • It was the 5/18/98 issue of The New Republic that ran the column "Washington Scene: Hack Heaven", about a high schooler making money doing exactly what Lamo was attempting, that finally raised enough suspicions about Stephen Glass that others started to scrutinize his work and he was fired. He may have been a "fabulist", but he was prescient.

  • I don't know if it'll be in reruns but I noticed The Screen Savers did a live phone interview with him on Friday as he was debating whether or not turn himself in. It was interesting to hear his perspective and you definitely hear the fear in his voice. Worth hearing if you can track down the episode.

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