Kuji Media Corporation Ltd.

Ok, so I may be lazy and not update this site (All you studying A Levels– work harder than I did heh) I have been busy, and there is a three part channel 4 programme due soon.

Channel 4 broadcast date (may change) of Mon.July 12th 9pm. Programme will be called ‘Cat and Mouse’ or ‘The Heist Society’..

Basically a group of ‘experts’ are brought together and set a task of performing a robbery under strict conditions and as real life as possible. Very similar to performing penetration exercises, only the top brass know whats going on.. so essentially it *IS* a real life test of the organisation.

Each episode covers a different robbery/task… and in each I am the technology guru / hacker…. tune in and let me know… nothing like a bit of James bond — (G.Morgan would be proud !!)

Apart from that there are sure to be some interesting things popping up after that… I might digitise some of the older progs I have done and put them up, for old time’s sake..

By Ted Bridis, The Associated Press Apr 29 2003 2:08PM
British authorities arrested a man Tuesday believed to head a group of hackers known as “Fluffi Bunni,” which used a stuffed pink rabbit to mark attacks that humiliated some of the world’s premier computer security organizations.

Fluffi Bunni captured the attention of the FBI just days after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, when thousands of commercial Web sites were vandalized with a single break-in that included the message, “Fluffi Bunni Goes Jihad.”

The FBI characterized the act in a November 2001 report as an anti-American cyberprotest against the war on terrorism.

Lynn Htun, 24, was arrested by Scotland Yard detectives on outstanding forgery charges while attending a prominent trade show in London for computer security professionals, InfoSecurity Europe 2003, authorities said.

British authorities did not mention of Htun’s alleged hacking. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Htun is wanted in America in connection with a series of high-profile hacking cases blamed on Fluffi Bunni. Investigators believe Htun was the group’s leader and referred to himself as Fluffi Bunni, the official said.

Authorities in London indicated they would release more information Wednesday about Htun’s arrest, although the continuing investigation into Fluffi Bunni hackers was sensitive and other arrests could be possible.

Fluffi Bunni embarrassed leading Internet security organizations by breaking into their own computers and replacing Web pages with a message that “Fluffi Bunni ownz you” and a digital photograph of a pink rabbit at a keyboard. The attacks, which began in June 2000, lasted about 18 months, then stopped mysteriously and created one of the Internet’s most significant hacker whodunits in years.

“I thought he’d never be caught,” said Jay Dyson, a consultant who formerly helped run one of the victim Web sites. “He was clever and had the patience of a saint. The targets he chose were ones that were really high profile, and ones you’d think would be above reproach when it comes to issues of security.”

Victims have included the Washington-based SANS Institute, which offers security training for technology professionals; Security Focus, now owned by Symantec Corp.; and Attrition.org, a site run by experts who formerly tracked computer break-ins. Other victims included McDonald’s Corp. and the online security department for Exodus Communications Inc., now part of London-based Cable & Wireless plc.

“The guy was playing a game of `gotcha.’ He wanted to prove that even firms that specialize in security can be hacked,” said Mark Rasch, chief security counsel for Solutionary Inc. and a former Justice Department cybercrime prosecutor. “It’s like someone who robs banks to prove that banks can be robbed.”

Brian Martin, who ran the Attrition site with Dyson and others, said Fluffi Bunni quickly generated a fearsome reputation across the underground because of the group’s choice of targets. Martin determined that a hacker broke into another user’s computer, allowing him to assume that person’s digital identity and briefly take over the Attrition site with a Fluffi Bunni message.

“He would break into companies that are there to secure you,” said Martin, who never reported the crime to the FBI. “It’s a challenge, and there’s some irony behind it.”

Targets frequently were attacked indirectly. Instead of trying to break into the heavily protected Security Focus Web site, someone hacked an outside computer that displayed advertisements on the site. The ads were replaced with taunting messages and images of the pink rabbit at the keyboard.

Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

http://www.securityfocus.com/news/4320

By John Bynorth and Hugh Muir, Evening Standard
13 November 2002

A London computer expert conducted a spectacular operation to hack into systems at the Pentagon and throughout the American military, it is claimed today.

Jobless programmer Gary McKinnon, 36, is facing extradition for prosecution and could be sentenced to five years in the US over what is being described as the “biggest hack of military computers ever”.

His activities are said to have cost the US government $1million. He faces eight charges of computer-related crimes after being accused in federal courts in Virginia and New Jersey. These include break-ins over 12 months at 92 US military and Nasa networks across 14 states.

McKinnon, known on
the internet as “Solo,” is also accused of hacking into the networks of six private companies and organisations. Prosecutors say he gained access to sensitive files causing the shutdown of the entire network that serves 2,000 people in Washington’s military district.

McKinnon, who until recently lived in a flat in Hornsey, north London, is also alleged to have broken into two army computers at the Pentagon, other military intelligence computers, and is suspected of crashing systems at a navy base after the 11 September terror attacks last year. He could also be fined ?157,000 if found guilty.

A specialist British police squad helped with the operation to charge McKinnon, who investigators believe acted alone and does not have terrorist links.

It is rare for extradition proceedings to be sought in hacking cases but US prosecutors say these crimes are so serious that they have little option.

Neighbours today claimed McKinnon has fled to a secret address in London.

US attorney Paul McNulty, who outlined the charges at a press conference in Washington yesterday, alleged McKinnon searched for US military and Nasa computers that were “open for attack”.

But some civilian experts expressed astonishment that so many US military systems were so vulnerable to techniques derided by many hackers as simplistic.

By TED BRIDIS
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – Federal authorities have cracked the case of an international hacker who broke into roughly 100 unclassified U.S. military networks over the past year, officials said Monday.

Officials declined to identify the hacker, a British citizen, but said he could be indicted as early as Tuesday in federal courts in northern Virginia and New Jersey. Those U.S. court jurisdictions include the Pentagon in Virginia and Picatiny Arsenal in New Jersey, one of the Army’s premier research facilities.

The officials declined Monday to say whether this person was already in custody, but one familiar with the investigation, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said investigators consider the break-ins the work of a professional rather than a recreational hacker.

Authorities planned to announce details of the investigation Tuesday afternoon.

Officials said U.S. authorities were weighing whether to seek the hacker’s extradition from England, a move that would be exceedingly rare among international computer crime investigations.

Officials said this hacker case has been a priority among Army and Navy investigators for at least one year. One person familiar with the investigation said the hacker broke into roughly 100 U.S. military networks, none of them classified. Another person said the indictments were being drafted to reflect break-ins to a “large number” of military networks.

In England, officials from the Crown Prosecution Service, Scotland Yard and the Home Office declined comment Monday.

A civilian Internet security expert, Chris Wysopal, said that a less-skilled, recreational hacker might be able to break into a single military network, but it would be unlikely that same person could mount attacks against dozens of separate networks.

“Whenever it’s a multistage attack, it’s definitely a more sophisticated attacker,” said Chris Wysopal, a founding member of AtStake Inc., a security firm in Cambridge, Mass. “That’s a huge investigation.”

The cyber-security of U.S. military networks is considered fair, compared to other parts of government and many private companies and organizations. But until heightened security concerns after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Defense Department operated thousands of publicly accessible Web sites. Each represented possible entry-points from the Internet into military systems unless they were kept secured and monitored regularly.

It would be very unusual for U.S. officials to seek extradition. In previous major cyber-crimes, such as the release of the “Love Bug” virus in May 2000 by a Filipino computer student and attacks in February 2000 by a Canadian youth against major American e-commerce Web sites, U.S. authorities have waived interest in extraditing hacker suspects to stand trial here.

Once, the FBI tricked two Russian computer experts, Vasily Gorshkov and Alexey Ivanov, into traveling to the United States so they could be arrested rather than extradited. The Russians were indicted in April 2001 on charges they hacked into dozens of U.S. banks and e-commerce sites, and then demanding money for not publicizing the break-ins.

FBI agents, posing as potential customers from a mock company called Invita Computer Security, lured the Russians to Seattle and asked the pair for a hacking demonstration, then arrested them. Gorshkov was sentenced to three years in prison; Ivanov has pleaded guilty but hasn’t been sentenced.

But the Bush administration has toughened anti-hacking laws since Sept. 11 and increasingly lobbied foreign governments to cooperate in international computer-crime investigations. The United States and England were among 26 nations that last year signed the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, an international treaty that provides for hacker extraditions even among countries without other formal extradition agreements.

There have been other, high-profile hacker intrusions into U.S. military systems.

In one long-running operation, the subject of a U.S. spy investigations dubbed “Storm Cloud” and “Moonlight Maze,” hackers traced back to Russia were found to have been quietly downloading millions of pages of sensitive data, including one colonel’s e-mail inbox. During three years, most recently in April 2001, government computer operators watched as reams of electronic documents flowed from Defense Department computers, among others.

In 1994, two young hackers known as “Kuji” and “Datastream Cowboy” were arrested in England on charges they broke into the U.S. Air Force’s Rome Laboratory. They planted eavesdropping software that allowed them to monitor e-mails and other sensitive information.

(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

23/3/2001

By Percy Mashaire

Do you still remember the Love Bug, a virus that wrought havoc
throughout the Information Highway and caused millions of dollars in damage? You may or may not remember, but the threat is far from over. ?The number of potential attackers is increasing,? says Matias Impivaara, a wireless security solutions marketing manager at F-Secure, a Finnish security software provider which has branches in Asia, Europe and North America.

The emergence of mobile Internet has brought wireless security concerns to the fore. As companies develop and link their infrastructures to the wireless world, they have become more vulnerable to security threats. ?The more complex [the systems are] the greater the threat,? says Impivaara. Experts maintain that WAP (wireless application protocol) gateways are particularly vulnerable to attacks by viruses, spam (unsolicited messages) and file theft. ?There?s nothing about WAP that enables enterprises to say ?we?re secure,? one expert, Matthew Bevan of Kuji Media Corporation, is quoted saying. He believes that currently it is too expensive for hackers to penetrate the system, but that once the technology gets more applicable and available the temptation to break in will be much greater.

Bevan believes that any data that does not travel through a fixed link is particularly vulnerable. Like Impivaara, he points out that mobile terminals (mobile telephones and other handheld devices) are currently plagued by insecurity. ?A WAP device is really just a mini-computer that anyone can hack into if they can write code small enough,? he is reported saying. According to Impivaara, F-Secure has adopted ?a proactive? approach towards wireless security. Recently the company signed an agreement to provide anti-virus WAP software for Sonera Zed, a subsidiary of the troubled Sonera Corporation. The system monitors HTTP content for viruses and filters out undesirable material from the network traffic. F-Secure has also developed security software for PDAs (personal digital assistants).

Nokia, has in the meantime teamed up with anti-virus software provider, McAfee, to provide security for its Nokia Network Application Platform. The two companies are working together to prevent network viruses originating from laptops from being transmitted to networks.

Gartner, a technology research company, believes that wireless viruses will not be an issue until 2005. That?s not too far off and companies must be ready and prepared to confront the threat.

(By Jay Lyman, www.NewsFactor.com) – After drawing the ire of the online file-swapping community and Internet users at large, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) Web site was defaced and taken offline Wednesday. The defacement, described as “the funniest hack ever” on a forum site, resembled the normal RIAA site but featured such links as “Piracy can be beneficial to the music industry” and “Where can I find information on giant monkeys?”

After drawing the ire of the online file-swapping community and Internet users at large, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) Web site was defaced and taken offline Wednesday.

The defacement, described as “the funniest hack ever” on a forum site, resembled the normal RIAA site but featured such links as “Piracy can be beneficial to the music industry” and “Where can I find information on giant monkeys?”

Fix in the Works

While the RIAA would not acknowledge that its site had been hacked or defaced, the group, which has tried to prevent Napster ( news – web sites)-like online file sharing, admitted that its site was offline.

“There’s a problem with our site that we’re fixing,” an RIAA spokesperson told NewsFactor. “It should be back up shortly.”

The spokesperson would not comment on whether the association is a favorite target of hackers or is disliked by an array of Internet users.

Defacement Cheered

However, distaste for the RIAA and its legal offensive on Internet music file-sharing services was apparent in posts to forum site Fark.com, which generally cheered the defacement and jeered at the recording industry.

Among posts at the online forum were: “Yeah! Stick it to the man!” and “That hack is like six levels deep. Someone put their time into this. Sweet.”

“There is a growing sentiment of ill will toward the RIAA, the Motion Picture Association of America and content owners in general,” Yankee Group senior analyst Mike Goodman told NewsFactor.

Goodman said that despite the RIAA’s legal contentions that free online music trading violates copyright law and constitutes piracy, the majority of consumers resent content owners’ efforts to clamp down on file sharing.

“It’s a bit more of a radical reaction,” Goodman said of the defacement. “But it underlies a much more mainstream feeling that we’re going to share our music online and you guys are infringing on that.” Goodman pointed out that the general feeling among consumers is that file sharing is an inalienable right.

Industry Cries Foul

While studies, including a recent Yankee Group report, have indicated that free online music trading will flourish until legitimate, licensed sites offer the content, ownership and portability that consumers want, the RIAA continues to blame free online music trading for declining CD sales.

Music CD sales declined 7 percent in the first half of this year, costing the industry more than US$280 million, the RIAA said this week.

In addition, an RIAA-commissioned study indicated that increased music downloading from the Internet corresponds to reduced CD purchases. The RIAA, which has leveraged copyright law against peer-to-peer site Napster, among others, has warned that it might pursue individual users of free online file trading services.

Technology Revolution

Goodman said the RIAA must take the defacement seriously but can do little about it other than increase the site’s security. He alluded to the explosion of free online music trading by saying, “Technology is causing a revolution in the way consumers consume content.”

He pointed out that content owners are trying to impede this revolution, but “it’s not a particularly consumer-friendly approach.”

06:05 Monday 27th December 1999
Will Knight

People may associate it with the US, but
hacking – both legal and illegal – is an international phenomenon. And Britain has its own distinct history of computer exploits

Hackers are often thought of as sinister computer criminals or a grubby and degenerate social underclass. In reality the history of hacking includes some of the greatest technological and intellectual innovations in modern times alongside the better-publicised computer crimes. Many prefer to draw a line between experimentation and programming, on the one hand, and illegal or destructive computer activity (often referred to as “cracking”) on the other.

Hacking is intricately linked with the emergence of the open- source movement, the development of the Internet and the creation of computers, as well as the emergence of a new techno-savvy subculture. The contribution that Brits have made to this saga has been woefully under-represented in the histories of hacking that have proliferated on the Web.

Here, then, are some of the milestones of British hackerdom.

“Hacking might be characterised as ‘an appropriate application of ingenuity’. Whether the result is a quick-and- dirty patchwork job or a carefully crafted work of art, you have to admire the cleverness that went into it.” — Eric Raymond, The Hacker’s Dictionary

1940

Alan Turing and other cryptanalyts apply the scientist’s theory of The Universal Turing Machine at the Government Code and Cipher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park to crack the German military’s legendary Enigma code. These tweed and corduroy cyber-cowboys received virtually no public acknowledgement for their exploits because of national secrecy as well as the lack of mean handles such as “laser boy” or pHr3Ak!n tUr1N9.

1952

Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) located in Cheltenham takes over from GCCS as Britain’s answer to the US’ NSA (National Security Agency). In charge of developing and implementing computer surveillance technology, GCHQ still plays a vital role fending off the malevolent forces of freelance British hacking.

1960

BT introduces Switched Packet System (SWP) paving the way for increased phone hacking.

1981

IBM introduces the first Personal Computer (PC)

1982

Thieves hack into the telephone line at Lloyds bank in Holborn in order to disable its alarm system.

1983

Head of the metropolitan computer crime unit Ken McPherson predicts that in 15 years all fraud would be computer related.

1984

Ribert Schifreen and Steve Gold break into BT’s prehistoric Prestel messaging system and gain unlawful access to the personal account of beloved royal patriarch Prince Philip. Estimated to have cost Prestel customers a grand total of ?11, Schifreen and Gold are fined ?750 and ?600 respectively.

1988

Peter Sommer creates the influential classic “The Hacker’s Handbook” under the pen-name of Hugo Cornwall. Although now largely outdated, the book is a testament to the heritage of phone phreaking in Britain and contains memorable guides to subverting all manners of computer and telecommunications networks.

The “Mad Hacker”, also known by the slightly less intimidating handle Nick Whitely, is arrested and accused of running amok on the computer systems of the Ministry of Defence and MI5. Whitely claimed to have gathered evidence of Conservative government surveillance of the Labour party and CND. Despite this extraordinary behaviour, Whitely served only two months in prison in 1990.

1990

Briton Tim Berners-Lee co-invents the World Wide Web, paving the way for thousands of script kiddie Web site defacements and denial of service attacks.

The Computer Misuse Act is amended to make it illegal to gain unauthorised access a personal computer or to alter the data on a personal computer without permission. Only a handful of individuals have, however, even been charged under this act. It remains far more practical to prosecute for software piracy and bizarrely even for stealing electricity.

1992

A group of three hackers calling themselves the Little Green Men are arrested, although one famously escapes prosecution after pleading computer addiction.

1994

This is the year when a couple of Limey computer tricksters give the might of the US government a bit of a shock. Matt Bevan and Richard Pryce, AKA Kuji and Datastream Cowboy, made headlines in the national press when they broke into the computer network of a modest little American government compound called the Pentagon.

Group of Russian hackers are arrested in London after breaking into the computer systems at Citibank and stealing more than $10m, one of the few instances of computer fraud that have reached the papers. The International Chamber of Commerce recently admitted it was aware of a number of cases of organised computer extortion and theft. Hardly surprisingly, however, no other British financial institution has ever come clean and admitted to having been targeted by computer hackers.

1996

Conservative Party Web site is cracked in Britain’s first ever politically inspired piece of Web defacement.

1997

Coldfire (Leon Fitch) is arrested after alleged hacking activities. While on bail, he is charged with cloning cellular phones.

A group called Milw0rm, containing a number of British hackers, targets Indian nuclear bases at the time of India’s controversial nuclear testing.

Paul Spiby is arrested and accused of nefarious telephone activities.

Pipex Dial 0800 loophole allows free unauthorised Internet access until details of the flaw were inadvertently published in underground magazine Port Sniffer.

1999

Endorsing the view that one politician is as good as the next, another bunch of crackers deface the Labour Party’s site, much to the annoyance of the supposedly techno-savvy new government.

An individual is apprehended for alledgedly gaining illegal access to a 0800 number created by a BT employee and enjoying the luxury of totally free Internet access (the case is ongoing).

Computer hacking appears to have entered public consciousness (albeit with particularly negative connotations) to such an extent that even the technophobic Tory party blames hackers for the exposure of its shady financial dealings.

British cyber activists attempt to co-ordinate even the most technologically inept into a mass denial of service attack on the World Trade Organisation. Misfires somewhat, but still illustrates the growing importance of computer “misuse” to the average Brit.

06:06 Tuesday 21st November 2000
Will Knight

The UK’s most infamous “black hat” hacker,
trying to go straight?

A UK hacker who made a name for himself cracking commercial Web servers and posting political messages on corporate sites, says that he/she is now keen to move into legitimate security work.

“Herbless” says that he (or she) is hoping to land some paid work but has already helped many companies secure their networks — free of charge. The benevolent ex-hacker claims not to be a malicious individual and says his “black hat”, or illegal, activities have never stretched to stealing personal or financial information.

Herbless says that he has only ever revealed a vulnerability when he’s felt that security has been completely ignored and argues that his past misdemeanours should not be seen as a black mark against his character. “I would argue that they are assuming that ‘wrong’ and ‘illegal’ are the same thing, which is not always the case,” says Herbless in an email.

“All that time I was also helping companies secure their networks. If I was in the network of a company and discovered credit card details or such things, I would immediately inform the systems administrators making sure that the general public didn’t find out until the problems were fixed.”

The activities of Herbless nevertheless caught the imagination of the public and the press because of the political nature of the defacements and the high profile targets. In September, Herbless broke into a number of Web sites belonging to HSBC bank and posted pages criticising the government over fuel taxation. Herbless also struck UK government Web sites to protest about the government’s stance on smoking.

The uncomfortable nature of this past behaviour leads some experts to question whether Herbless would make a trustworthy employee for any computer security company.

Matt Bevan, who was arrested in 1997 for breaking into computers belonging to the Pentagon, has since founded his own security company, Kuji Media Corporation. He suggests that even if Herbless doesn’t choose to reveal his past misdeeds he could face a tough time. “His illegal activity may come back and bite him,” he says.

Another consultant, Neil Barrett of security firm IRM, has seen one recent security evaluation by Herbless. He says that although he has technical ability, this doesn’t detract from his dubious past “He’d have to work in a team and they’d have to be able to trust him not to do something stupid,” he says.

The presence of hackers with a dark past within legitimate companies has become a controversial topic in recent months, with some companies stating that they would never employ someone who has been involved in criminal activities. Some experts, however, believe that previously “black hat” hackers inevitably find their way into companies.

15:27 Thursday 30th November 2000
Will Knight

Says security break-in at two international servers not its fault

Computer security firm Network Associates was left embarrassed after two of its corporate Web site were defaced Wednesday although it claims it is not its fault.

A group calling itself Insanity Zine defaced the Brazilian homepages of two Network Associates sites: www.nai.com.br and www.mcafee.com.br. The defacement represents as a major embarrassment for a company that produces software designed to protect computer systems from security threats.

A spokesman for Network Associates in London, however, defends the situation saying that, unlike the company’s other International Web sites, these Brazilian sites are held at a separate ISP in Brazil. The spokesman says Network Associates chose to host the sites in Brazil because it makes their performance more efficient for Brazilian users.

“It is embarrassing,” he says. “Our Brazilian sites are hosted by an ISP over which we don’t have as much control as we’d like. We’re obviously now going to have to look at hosting it ourselves.”

Matt Bevan, a computer security expert with his own consultancy, Kuji Media, says the incident should be a warning for other large companies. “Maybe it is a wake-up call for companies with other parts around the world. It looks bad for them.”

The page featured outbursts in English and Spanish claiming to have taken control of the company’s software. The Network Associates spokesman says that the company’s internal network was not infiltrated and none of its software could have been altered. “They just changed a page, that’s all,” he says.

06:01 Friday 7th July 2000
Will Knight

First published: Wed, 07 Jul 1999 16:35:17 GMT

A Welsh ex-hacker, famed for cracking the Pentagon’s
computers from his Cardiff bedroom, claims inadequacies in UK law and erratic media coverage guarantee leniency for British hackers — even for serious offences.

Mathew “Kuji” Bevan, who was acquitted of endangering the national security of the United States by the High Court in November 1997 says, “The American media has quite an anti hacker view. Over here they have a much more positive attitude. They believe in the ‘cool hacker’, the anarchist kind of thing. In my case the press was saying ‘Cardiff boy done good’ and that sort of thing. I had a very positive response from the press… it makes are real difference to the number of successful prosecutions there are over here.”

This follows claims by U.S. hackers that the media can actually provoke hacking, and comes just days before this year’s biggest and most hyped computer security spectacle, Def Con 7.0 in Las Vegas.

“I can’t remember the last time I read about a British hacker being prosecuted,” says Kevin Street, anti-virus guru at Symantec. “However, you must remember that there is a lot of shame that goes with being hacked and companies are not exactly keen to promote it,” adds Street.

Bevan believes that another UK hacker, Paul Bedworth, got off lightly during his trial in 1992 despite overwhelming evidence against him, largely because of the sympathetic attitude of the British press towards hackers. “Although there was a great deal of evidence against him, the jury really fell for his defence — that he was addicted to computers,” says Bevan.

Bevan concedes however, that the British press are a fickle bunch who either love you or hate you, sometimes with devastating results.

Another British hacker, Nicholas Whitely, nicknamed “mad hacker” by the tabloids, was given a prison sentence in 1988 largely because his particularly destructive hacking of ICL and various universities — wiping files and bringing down hundreds of computers — prompted outrage in British papers.

Bevan believes there are other fundamental differences between hackers in the UK and the US: “Hacking probably seems less prevalent over here because British hackers know better than to hack at home. British law is also less geared towards convicting hackers. The 1990 Computer Misuse Act is very vague. It’s designed so that it won’t have to be regularly updated. Most hackers who are convicted are charged with other offences such as fraud, criminal damage or even software piracy.”

Peter Sommer, research fellow at LSE, and author of the Hacker’s Handbook says: “The term ‘hacker’ has become a very convenient trigger word for the press. They are always trying to get a sexy angle. Often they have gone for the idea of the little kid taking on the huge corporation.”

Sommer believes it is not the law that restricts the number of successful cases against hackers in the UK. “The law is fairly effective. The cost for the police and the judicial system prevent prosecutions. If someone is just accessing a computer without authority and not doing anything else illegal, there’s little point in prosecuting them.”