A Virginia hacker catches the attention of federal law enforcement

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/a-virginia-hacker-catches-the-attention-of-federal-law-enforcement/2014/09/27/51251eee-1405-11e4-9285-4243a40ddc97_story.html

By Justin Jouvenal
The Washington Post
September 27, 2014

The agents from the Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service 
showed up on Muneeb Akhter’s Springfield doorstep in mid-July, he said, 
soon after they learned that he claimed to have created a hack so powerful 
it was like printing virtual money.

The cybersecurity expert and self-described hacker, who started college at 
16, had casually told co-workers soon after starting work as a DHS 
contractor that he could add money to major retailers’ gift cards without 
spending a dime.

Now, as the 22-year-old and the agents sat around his family’s dining room 
table, the officials wanted to know how. Akhter thought they might arrest 
him as he explained the hack, but instead, he said, they extended an 
extraordinary offer: Work secretly as a hacker for the government.

“There is no university we can go to and just recruit people,” a man, who 
Akhter said is a DHS agent, is heard saying on an audio recording of the 
meeting that Akhter’s family made. “The people we’re looking for might be 
the people they have concerns about because you have special skills that 
we need.”

[...]

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