'Faith Manages'

September 18, 2003 2:20 PM

Meet Adrian Lamo, the so-called Homeless Hacker. He surrendered to the FBI Tuesday after breaking into the NYTimes intranet, and now he's speaking out to anyone who'll listen.
posted by Yelling At Nothing (17 comments total)

Sounds like a pretty smart but odd character.
posted by zeoslap at 2:36 PM on September 18, 2003

and now he's speaking out to anyone who'll listen.

Aren't we all.
posted by LeLiLo at 2:40 PM on September 18, 2003

Are you mentally preparing yourself for a possible prison sentence?
Faith manages.

Whoo hoo! BtVS reference in dah house! ...but uhm.. dude, she's way fictional you realize that doncha Lamo?
...And who am I talkin' to?
posted by ZachsMind at 2:50 PM on September 18, 2003

/takes some pride in the fact that he had to click to figure out what the hell 'BtVS' meant. That will cost me a few nerd points.
posted by Space Coyote at 3:00 PM on September 18, 2003

Does anyone else get a strong sense of personal integrity here? Maybe a bit dramatic and immature at that, but that's what I'm getting.
posted by weston at 3:40 PM on September 18, 2003

That sucks that he wasn't being malicious.... And looking at time anyway. Face it, if the RIAA can try to use legal means to look into our computers, then we should legally be able to access corporate networks if they're insecure. What's that, theres money involved? There's freedom involved too.
posted by Keyser Soze at 3:48 PM on September 18, 2003

Anyone that quotes Buffy the Vampire Slayer deserves prison time.
posted by angry modem at 4:01 PM on September 18, 2003

So you believe in fate, not free will?
Not at all.
That's so lame. Ph34r me I'm NEO.

For a real story about the hacker-life check this out
posted by carfilhiot at 4:05 PM on September 18, 2003

Fuck carfilhiot... I wish there were still some REAL hackers left on the scene.
posted by Keyser Soze at 4:10 PM on September 18, 2003

Real Hackers.
posted by willnot at 4:21 PM on September 18, 2003

Anyone who quotes from BtVS can come sit by me.
XANDER: All right, back to basics. A little old-fashioned state-of-the-art hacker action.
posted by ZachsMind at 5:01 PM on September 18, 2003

More like hacks.
posted by Keyser Soze at 5:19 PM on September 18, 2003

This interview reaches so many points (even if superficially, but no biggie given the lenght of it ) it's hard to ignore it.

In a few lines he targets :
a) government. He doesn't seem to want "no government" like some pseudo right wing radicals want, but a better, efficient government with a clue.
b) difference between letter of law , reality of law and how it influences our lifes.
c) propaganda , admitting that using the "they should be chasing terrorist" is just a spinning, worthless excuse
d) sound understanding, even if maybe superficial of laws of physics and how they may have parallels among the laws of social systems
e) fact that beings in prisons aren't numbers but human beings (often a forgotten fact)
f) understanding of how prevalent is the need to something never done instead of repeating the same
things without innovation

Seen that before, if not totally brilliant, this guy is noteworthy even if he's only a script-kiddie (but the sensation is he knows his stuff)
posted by elpapacito at 5:26 PM on September 18, 2003

You know, I always thought his whole "find security holes to point 'em out" gig would make a cool line of work, a la Robert Redford in "Sneakers." (And let's face it, any time you can describe your job as being like Robert Redford's, that's a bonus, innit? If anybody knows of any films he did where he played a line cook in a chain restaurant, let me know, m'kay?) However, it is kind of a big, fat ethical gray area, and I'm not surprised he got busted for it eventually. (Even though he could have done much, much worse things with the info he snagged. I mean, he had Rush Limbaugh's home number--I'm sure there are folks right here on MeFi who would at least contemplate doing something nasty with that...)

and was it Buffy, or B5?
posted by arto at 7:48 PM on September 18, 2003

His homepage is titled Faith manages which is the first hit on Google. An interesting page, I really liked the story of Gutei's Finger. Also if you view source, it reads, "< !-- if you can read this secret message, you are malicious and mischievous :) -->" heh. Most seem to be referencing B5 on the web, but the idea is in the Bible and buddhism.

"The Dude abides."
posted by roboto at 7:04 AM on September 19, 2003

If he hacked your server you'd want him locked up. I sure would.
posted by khisel at 8:01 PM on September 20, 2003

Don't presume to speak for me, khisel. From reading the articles about the way he operates, I don't see any particular reason to expect I'd want to see him locked up if he hacked my server(s). I've been in that position; I thank the guy, fix the hole, and carry on. Come to think of it, I've been on both sides of that situation before.
posted by hattifattener at 12:32 PM on September 30, 2003