Adrian Lamo
Lamo was a grey hat hacker who was both excited and concerned about the rise of the World Wide Web. In the early days of the World Wide Web, he felt that others overlooked the importance of internet security. Lamo would break into corporate computer systems, but he would never cause any harm to the systems. Instead, he would offer to fix the security flaws for free, and if it was not fixed, he would notify the media. Lamo hoped to be hired by a corporation to try to break into systems and test their security, a practice known as red teaming. However, by the time this practice was common, his felony conviction prevented him from being hired.
Adrian Lamo, then 20, used an unprotected content management tool at Yahoo in 2001 to modify a Reuters article and insert a false quote attributed to former Attorney General John Ashcroft. Lamo frequently hacked into systems and then informed both the press and his victims. In some cases, he would assist in cleaning up the mess to improve their security. However, as Wired points out, Lamo overreached in 2002 when he hacked The New York Times' intranet, added himself to the list of expert sources, and began conducting research on high-profile public figures. Lamo was dubbed "The Homeless Hacker" because he preferred to roam the streets with nothing more than a backpack and frequently had no fixed address.
- Born: February 20, 1981Malden, Massachusetts, U.S.
- OccupationThreat analyst, journalist
