Kevin Poulsen Hacker

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One of the Famous Hacker

Janmark Cabrera

Lemuel Conde



` AKA Kevin Lee Poulsen` Born: 1965

` Birthplace: Pasadena, CA` G

ender:M

ale` Race or Ethnicity: White` Sexual orientation: Straight` Occupation: Hacker, Journalist` N

ationality:U

nitedS

tatesExecutive summary: Hacker and Journalist` Hacker Type: Black Hat Hacker



` When Kevin Poulsen was 17, he used his primitive TRS-80 "color computer" to hack into the US Department of Defense's Arpanet, thepredecessor of the Internet. He wasn't prosecuted. He was later acomputer programmer at SRI and Sun Microsystems, and worked as aconsultant testing Pentagon computer security.

` In 1988, when authorities suspected Poulsen had cracked a databaseon the federal investigation of Ferdinand Marcos, they came after him,and he disappeared. As a fugitive, Poulsen needled the FBI by hackingfederal computers and revealing details of wiretaps on foreignconsulates, suspected mobsters, and the American Civil LibertiesUnion. He also hacked into the details on FBI front companies. At thehighest levels of U.S. law enforcement, they started calling him "The

Hannibal Lecter of computer crime".



` During his 17 months on the run, Poulsen and two friends, Ronald Austin andJustin Peterson, hacked phone lines to radio station KIIS-FM 102, ensuring thatthey'd be the "lucky" 102nd caller. Between them, they won two new Porsches,$20,000, and two Hawaiian vacations. When Poulsen was featuredon Unsolved Mysteries, a reality crime-solving show, the program's 800 number went dead as Poulsen's picture came on the screen.

` But Poulsen was captured shortly after the episode aired in 1991, whenemployees in a supermarket recognized him and tackled him in the aisles.Poulsen later said he regretted shopping at the store, and was consideringorganizing "a high-tech boycott".

` The feds finally had their "Hannibal Lecter", but they weren't sure what to dowith him. After all, he'd made himself into the man who knew too much. Poulsen

was held without bail for five years, then charged with money laundering andwire fraud, while more serious charges were dropped. He was sentencedretroactively to "time served" -- five years -- and his eventual release came withthe stipulation that he not touch a computer for three more years.



` He's now allegedly a law-abiding citizen, and regularly touches computersas a columnist for S ecurity Focus, a security clearinghouse website.Poulsen poo-poos the idea, beloved in law enforcement circles, that onlytougher laws, longer sentences, and powerful federal agencies can "protectus" from nefarious hackers -- or, as they're often called for dramatic effect,

"cyber -terrorists". Poulsen hates that word, by the way. "Press and publicalike", he says, "forget that terrorism traditionally involves some sort of terror".

` Poulsen's adventures were detailed in a thriller biography, The Watc hman:

The Tw isted Life and Cri mes of S erial Hacker Kevin Poulsen, by Jon

Littman. Poulsen has said he didn't much care for the book.

Kevin Poulsen Hacker

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