The Art of Intrusion: The Real Stories Behind the Exploits of Hackers, Intruders and Deceivers

Chapter 9

On the Continent

You see little pieces of information, and the way things are phrased, and you start to get a little bit of an insight of the company and the people that are responsible for the IT systems. And there was kind of this feeling that they knew about security but that maybe they’re doing something a little bit wrong.

— Louis

 

 

At the beginning of Chapter 8, we cautioned that the nontechnical readers would find parts difficult to follow. That’s even more true in the following. Still, it would be a shame to skip the chapter, since this story is in many ways fascinating. And the gist can readily be followed by skipping over the technical details.

This is a story about like-minded individuals working for a company that was hired to hack a target and not get caught.

Somewhere in London

The setting is in “the City,” in the heart of London.

Picture “an open-plan kind of windowless room in the back of a building, with a bunch of techie guys banding together.” Think of “hackers away from society, not being influenced by the outside world” each working feverishly at his own desk, but with a good deal of banter going on between them.

Sitting in this anonymous room among the others is a guy we’ll call Louis. He grew up in a small, insular city in the north of England, began fiddling with computers about the age of seven when his parents bought an old computer so the children could start learning about technology. He started hacking as a schoolkid when he stumbled on ...