| What makes a hacker become a hacker? We | | | | the system manager's passwords give me access |
| pondered, then asked one. | | | | to?" So Ispent the next ten months trying to find them |
| Once the first person anywhere in the world to be | | | | and, eventually, I did. |
| prosecuted for computer crime, Robert Schifreen now | | | | IQ: And? |
| travels the globe talking and advising businesses on | | | | RS: There was this rumour about a fabled Prestel |
| security matters, and recently authored the book, | | | | system manager's menu called Page 99 and I'd found |
| Defeating The Hacker. | | | | it. I was like a kid in a sweet shop. I could access |
| IQ: Where did your hacking career begin? | | | | anything including 50,000 customer passwords including |
| Robert Schifreen: School I suppose. My form room | | | | that of HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. |
| was right next to the computer room and I could | | | | IQ: You were eventually caught and arrested though? |
| always hear them whirring away. Sheer curiosity just | | | | RS: Yeah. I told one person, they told someone else… |
| hooked me. | | | | there was no hacking specific legislation at the time |
| IQ: Where did you go from there? | | | | though, so they charged me with forgery and the |
| RS: I started at a computer gaming magazine in about | | | | heinous crime of misappropriating £8 worth of BT's |
| 1983, which fuelled my fascination. I guess I was just | | | | time over 2 years. The first trial lasted 9 days and I |
| naturally inquisitive. What really set things in motion was | | | | lost. But we won on appeal in front of the Lord Chief |
| the realisation that computer security relied so much | | | | Justice and I was acquitted again when it went before |
| on passwords. That fanned the flames even more. | | | | the House of Lords. So I like to say I won 2-1 on |
| IQ: Was there a specific point where you thought | | | | aggregate. They ruled that a computer password |
| "wow Iʼm a hacker…?" | | | | wasn't tangible and so couldn't be forged. |
| RS: Probably when Micronet launched on BT's Prestel | | | | IQ: Do you think todayʼs hackers start life in a similar |
| system in 1985. | | | | way? |
| IQ: How so? | | | | RS: I'm not sure they do. For me it was pure curiosity. I |
| RS: I wondered how hard it'd be to hack into and gave | | | | wasn't some evil genius or even very clever. I just |
| it a go. It asked me for a 10-character username so I | | | | exploited other people's mistakes. But it's different now. |
| just hit the number 2 key ten times and hit enter, not | | | | IT was still in its infancy back then, but these days our |
| expecting much to happen. But then it prompted me | | | | reliance upon IT is now total. Also the rewards are |
| for a password so I tried 1,2,3,4 and suddenly I was in. | | | | potentially massive for the resourceful cyber criminal, |
| That was when the bug truly bit me. I thought, "If I can | | | | and at relatively low risk. |
| see all this with one random password, what would | | | | |