Kevin Poulsen
Kevin Lee Poulsen alias Dark Dante (* 1965 in Pasadena , California ) was the first hacker in the USA to be charged with espionage . He now works as a journalist and writes on topics related to information security and cyberwar . He is a member of the Technical Advisory Board of the Freedom of the Press Foundation .
Life
Kevin Poulsen began phreaking at the age of 13 by whistling control tones for the switchboard into the mouthpiece, thereby gaining access to service functions of the switchboard. In 1993 Poulsen became popular as a cracker or phreaker by manipulating the telephone systems of radio stations (especially from KISS-FM ) using social engineering, among other things, with two friends ( Ronald Austin and Justin Tanner Peterson ) in Los Angeles since 1990 . In competitions in which the 102nd caller won, they seized the phone lines, counted the incoming calls and finally put themselves through as 102nd caller. In this way they looted two Porsches , $ 20,000 and some trips.
On December 4, 1992, Kevin Poulsen became the first hacker in the United States to be charged with espionage . He was accused of secret documents about undercover agents of the FBI to have stolen. That charge was later dropped. Poulsen, who was also responsible for some illegal interference in the systems of telephone companies (for example Pacific Bell ) and thus temporarily controlled all telephone calls in Los Angeles, spent a total of five years in prison.
Activity as an activist and journalist
Since he was fired in 1996, Poulsen has been working as a freelance journalist at SecurityFocus in the area of computer crime . Together with Aaron Swartz , he developed SecureDrop , an open source tool for secure communication between journalists.
literature
- Jonathan Littmann: Watchman - shadow without a face. Goldmann Verlag, Munich 1998. ISBN 3-442-54004-6
Web links
- Poulsen at Greatest Hacker in the Whole World (English)
- Poulsen's weblog on data protection and security , together with Ryan Singel (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Poulsen, Kevin |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Poulsen, Kevin Lee (full name); Dark Dante (pseudonym) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American hacker |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1965 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Pasadena , California |