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Teenage Hacker Is Blind, and in the Crosshairs of the FBI

wired.com — the FBI thinks it has identified the culprit in the Colorado swatting as a 17-year-old East Boston phone phreak known as "Li'l Hacker."

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  • CrimsonRiot, on 02/29/2008, -24/+8Good Article
    • Audacitor, on 02/29/2008, -22/+5IS! THAT! ALL!!?
      /obscure
    • linkin2, on 03/01/2008, -0/+4Innocent at first, Matt's worst instincts surfaced after he fell in with a gang of telephone ruffians -- men as old as 40 -- who eventually fingered the teenager when they were swept up in an FBI crackdown on swatters late last year.
  • everfresh59, on 02/29/2008, -24/+2l33t
  • Audacitor, on 02/29/2008, -22/+7It sucks when a hacker goes south like that. Sure, they could always set up a "hacker's playground", but it'd never be the same. Here's to Matt.
  • Sidzilla, on 02/29/2008, -12/+160I think the problem with a lot of gifted people is more boredom than malice. I think this kid could be a major force for good in society if he was pointed in the right direction. Good luck to him. I hope he doesn't end up in prison or worse.
    • buzzedlightyear, on 02/29/2008, -6/+172good luck pointing him in any direction, he's blind.
      • subliminalurge, on 02/29/2008, -4/+49Just grab him by the shoulders and turn him. Mission accomplished.
      • fichek, on 03/01/2008, -1/+1Damn that vas evil, but funny
    • ElAssoWipo, on 02/29/2008, -8/+72I hate that reasonning. Blind, smart or triangle, he's still a ***** *****. People could've died from his prank.

      And the only thing that makes him a hacker is this reporter's lack of vocabulary. It's just a punk who made a prank call using a widely available service.
      • Monarch818, on 02/29/2008, -4/+16The Author of the article is one of the most famous hackers in the anals of hacker history. He's actually better and almost as infamous as Kevin Mitnick. So I think his vocabulary is very good when it comes to hacking.
      • isunktheship, on 03/01/2008, -0/+11what you got against us triangles.
        • Enasni1212, on 03/01/2008, -0/+6Yer too damn pointy. 'S unnatural.
    • signal15, on 02/29/2008, -1/+22Many companies have strict policies against hiring "hackers". But the reality of it is that many of the security consultants they bring in either still are or were. Some of them have even been convicted.

      Some of the most brilliant security consultants I've worked with are the ones that were on the wrong side of the law.
      • spudlyo, on 02/29/2008, -0/+19The author of the article is a former hacker hired by Wired magazine.
      • campigenus, on 02/29/2008, -0/+9The companies have policies against _convicted_ hackers. It's a big difference. ;-)
    • johndi, on 02/29/2008, -3/+24He's a manipulative sociopath. How is that a "gift" that can help society? If anything he's the perfect example of how the informant system is so screwed up. As long as you cooperate you don't have to follow the law.
      • jcaino, on 02/29/2008, -4/+3frank abagnale?
        • johndi, on 02/29/2008, -1/+9They aren't even in the same league. Frank was a hell of a con man, but he didn't have a sadistic streak. This kid has also been given the chance to reform and work with the Feds. There is no indication that he has a desire to change or even remorse over the harm he has done.
          • jcaino, on 03/01/2008, -0/+1i was just citing an example of cooperating with the law...which is the only reason that f.a. is a free man.
          • stoppedcode12, on 03/01/2008, -0/+1The reason for his stubbornness is because he's a kid, give him 30 years, and he'll be able to truly understand the impact of what he has done.
      • oxdeltaxo, on 03/01/2008, -0/+5It's called social engineering, its easy. It can help, for example when the guy got free food for the homeless because he convinced a restaurant the were u.c's.
    • subliminalurge, on 02/29/2008, -3/+14*****.

      This kid's problem isn't boredom. Boredom might be a valid excuse for playing to much WoW. It's not an excuse for committing federal crimes that waste taxpayer resources and could result in someone's death.

      I hope he sits in prison for a very, very long time. Then we can talk about "boredom".
      • HonoredMule, on 03/01/2008, -5/+4Bored intellectuals are not entertained by such drivel as WoW. They are in need of mental stimulation and challenge not met by pedestrian games aimed at the average skill-level. Often that kind of meaningful intellectual challenge is only found in real life environments approached as a system to be gamed. And you have to admit there's a lot of appeal to that for someone who can handle it.
        • SuperCow1127, on 03/01/2008, -0/+3There's plenty of ways to intellectually challenge one's self with "outside the box" approaches to real life environments that don't involve breaking the law or putting people's safety in jeopardy. There's a tremendous difference between being a successful, mentally stimulated contributing member of society, and being a successful, mentally stimulated, dangerous criminal.
      • Sidzilla, on 03/01/2008, -1/+2When statistics released today indicate that one in every one hundred adults in the US are in prison today, I think it is way past time we admitted that our system of justice is broken, perhaps beyond repair. It isn't deterring people from committing crimes and it isn't rehabilitating criminals. As punishment goes, it is ineffective because it is kept from being anything other than a way to restrict someone's movements. This kid probably has an IQ that dwarfs most people's, he has a disability that enhances the use of that mind in ways that most people can only imagine, and he needs to have his criminal tendencies fixed. If prison would do it, I would say go for it. Short of a death sentence we are looking at putting him in advanced criminal training for a few years and then unleashing him on society again. I'm not a bleeding heart liberal by any means, but as a pragmatist I think this needs to be addressed in a non standard way.
      • stoppedcode12, on 03/01/2008, -1/+1It's not boredom. Try addiction.
        • HonoredMule, on 03/01/2008, -1/+1Boredom leads to addiction. It gets you started, then requires bigger hits when the mild stuff doesn't thrill anymore.

          Another simpler way of putting it: idle hands are the devil's workshop.
      • RebelReform89, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1Yeah, and I'd love to see how a blind kid is going to handle his boredom by playing WoW....That's a mite difficult, don't you think?
    • potisreallygood, on 03/01/2008, -1/+1Makes me wonder if any of these people had something to do with the mcdonalds girl that was told to blow her old manager.
  • arzim, on 02/29/2008, -16/+15I agree with Sidzilla. Hopefully this kids matures a little enough to realize that he's really wrecking his chances if he continues along this path.
    • norman619, on 02/29/2008, -4/+4Na he just takes off the black hat and dons the white hat and makes money as a security consultant. Look at Kevin Mitnick and others.
    • hellotyler, on 02/29/2008, -1/+2He should still have to pay his dues. Its not like these were victimless crimes.
  • banning, on 02/29/2008, -19/+5Yea i hope Matt is able to stop his evilness by the time he is 18, i would hate to see someone with such talent go down the drain... It would kick ass if he could use all this skill for good and not evil... haha he's like a super hero that has to make a choice... JOIN THE X-MEN buddy!!! here's to Lil' Hacker
    • greenlight2001, on 02/29/2008, -1/+12Dude, shut up.
    • TheAkolyte, on 02/29/2008, -5/+1I bet if he kills a lot of sith he'll get enough light side points to be good by then.
    • picsectionpleez, on 03/01/2008, -1/+2Don't you have some homework your mom told you to do?
  • AdrianLamo, on 02/29/2008, -6/+26This is one of Wired's better-researched hacker articles in some time. I hope it makes the front page here.
    Shame nobody ever lent this kid a braille Playboy, though.
  • DarkDx, on 02/29/2008, -13/+2Reminds me of neo.
    • Akaman01, on 02/29/2008, -4/+12You remind me of fail
    • CannedMango, on 03/01/2008, -1/+1He reminds me of Whistler from Sneakers.... because he was a hacker who was blind.
  • ElAssoWipo, on 02/29/2008, -6/+67That's not hacking. Maybe it was in 1984, but not anymore. It's a 5$ party trick.

    http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a ...
    • Lith25, on 02/29/2008, -5/+2If Paris Hilton can manage to spoof caller ID, I bet any one could
    • norman619, on 02/29/2008, -3/+3Only $5? What a jip!
    • xxMarka, on 02/29/2008, -2/+14even if spoofing a number isn't hacking - he apparently did other things that I would classify as hacking.

      "Matt says he ordered phone company switch manuals off the internet and paid to have them translated into Braille. He became a regular caller to internal telephone company lines, where he'd masquerade as an employee to perform tricks like tracing telephone calls, getting free phone features, obtaining confidential customer information and disconnecting his rivals' phones."
      • norman619, on 02/29/2008, -1/+19The activity in the quote is called social engineering. Messing with the phone system is called Phreaking which is basically hacking the phone system. So yes it's hacking.
      • hellotyler, on 02/29/2008, -6/+5It's also fraud if he was getting free phone features.
  • serrebi, on 02/29/2008, -15/+2It's nice to see blind people doing something more then sending angry, or stupid emails. Wow, good for him, to bad he got caught etc.
    • PATSCRU, on 02/29/2008, -0/+11where are these angry stupid emails from blind people you speak of?
  • itzmattu, on 02/29/2008, -2/+14Phone phreaking? Man, what is this, Hackers?
    Honestly though, new technologies like VoiP, and the SpoofCard service they mention in this article are really aiding in the elevation of small time hacks.
    • SocialPoison, on 02/29/2008, -7/+5Mess with the best, die like the rest
    • sarixe, on 02/29/2008, -5/+1and articles like this are hurting them
      • ViRiX, on 03/01/2008, -0/+1I don't think so, this will get them a lot of new customers.
        In PR, there is no bad publicity.
  • TelTech, on 02/29/2008, -19/+1WOW, I just used the service they mentioned and it really worked!! I went to http://www.spoofcard.com/freecall.php and they have a free trial to call anyone and make the caller ID say whatever you want!!! If you buy their service for $10.00 you can also change your voice to sound like the opposite sex and record your calls. The craziest part is that SpoofCard claims that this is 100% legal... What is this world coming to???
    • AntzNZ, on 02/29/2008, -3/+9Why does that sound like an advertisement?
    • sq2shooter, on 03/01/2008, -0/+3A google search will give you links to someone else that does it FOR FREE. Dummy.
  • Roger, on 02/29/2008, -1/+154"... fell in with a gang of telephone ruffians -- men as old as 40 -- who eventually fingered the teenager ..."

    There's gotta be a better way of saying that.
    • elamr, on 02/29/2008, -3/+26unless your wilth NAMBLA
    • talonstriker, on 02/29/2008, -2/+23At first I took it literally and went "No wonder he turned bad...poor kid"...
    • colincornaby, on 02/29/2008, -15/+2That's what she said.
      • stopbrorape, on 02/29/2008, -2/+12it's funny on its own, the "That's what she said" comment just ruined it.
    • ichserbe, on 02/29/2008, -2/+12I had to read that part twice to see that they didn't mean literally.
    • grangeryoung, on 02/29/2008, -4/+1I know what you mean i had to read over that about 5 times before I understood what they actually meant.
    • hellotyler, on 02/29/2008, -5/+1Heh, I didn't catch that at first.
    • beloitpiper, on 03/01/2008, -1/+11I laughed at "gang of telephone ruffians". This article sounds like it was written in the 1880's.
    • fxu1989, on 03/01/2008, -0/+2Thank god I'm not the only one with a dirty mind here XD
  • elamr, on 02/29/2008, -9/+1MAD SKILLZ! sounds like a supervillain
    who's got rights to this Hollywood movie script?
  • pathogenal, on 02/29/2008, -13/+18At least he won't need to close his eyes while they're raping him in prison.
    • sarixe, on 02/29/2008, -5/+3you apparently don't know why people close their eyes while getting raped then...
  • aenima987, on 02/29/2008, -9/+2"Innocent at first, Matt's worst instincts surfaced after he fell in with a gang of telephone ruffians -- men as old as 40 -- who eventually fingered the teenager when they were swept up in an FBI crackdown on swatters late last year."

    WTF?
    • manitoba98xp, on 02/29/2008, -4/+1finger (v): search for on the computer; "I fingered my boss and found that he is not logged on in the afternoons"

      It's not that common anymore; it was more so in the days when everyone used UNIX (including the finger command and protocol).
      • venom8599, on 03/01/2008, -0/+3Sorry to burst your nerd bubble, but no. In this case, "--who eventually fingered the teenager..." is used as opposed to "--who eventually pointed the finger at the teenager...." As in to say that they pointed him out to the authorities.
        • manitoba98xp, on 03/02/2008, -0/+1Ah yes, you're quite correct. Though interestingly enough, I cannot find that definition in any dictionary, which is perhaps why I was unfamiliar with that usage. :)
      • csw1342, on 03/01/2008, -0/+1Snitch, rat, squealer, turn coat, informant
  • spudlyo, on 02/29/2008, -0/+12This article was written by Kevin "Dark Dante" Poulsen, a phone freak of some stature. The book "The Watchman: The Twisted Life and Crimes of Serial Hacker Kevin Poulsen" by Jonathan Littman is an excellent read which I highly recommend if you're interested in phone hacking.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Poulsen
    http://www.amazon.com/dp/0316528579
    • xsquirrel378x, on 02/29/2008, -3/+2i lost respect for poulsen after he became the chris hansen of myspace.
  • hs112186, on 02/29/2008, -1/+9""He doesn't understand what it took a long time for me to learn," Daniels adds. "Everything you think is another world is really the same old world.""
    • nanosec, on 03/01/2008, -0/+2That's got to be one of the wisest one liners I've heard in a long time.


  • andrewh925, on 02/29/2008, -10/+3"...ruffians - men as old as 40 - who eventually fingered the teenager..." eww
    • schuchwun, on 03/01/2008, -0/+2your lame. learn to read above and see that you my friend are too late to comment on that quote.

      dumb ass
  • d38as3r, on 02/29/2008, -7/+2WTF is with all these stories from 2005?!???? thats 3 years ago people!
    • santaliqueur, on 02/29/2008, -1/+2I know, I agree. Pretty current for Digg.
    • stoppedcode12, on 03/01/2008, -0/+1Did he(matt) go jail?
  • sunyata76, on 02/29/2008, -1/+5Wow, that call is creepy-sounding.
    • dyreschlock, on 02/29/2008, -2/+1yeah definitely. those are my exact thoughts. chilling!
  • digh, on 02/29/2008, -1/+4Since when is swatting "a new type of nasty hoax"...
  • exomni, on 02/29/2008, -2/+44"he poses a unique challenge to the federal justice system, because he is blind from birth"

    Who the ***** cares if the ***** is blind? How does that change ANYTHING? Some law against throwing blind ***** in jail?
  • dsgncr8or, on 02/29/2008, -0/+2uh... wow! pretty screwed, and constitues a false police call, and ain't that like a federal crime?
  • Eldorian, on 02/29/2008, -1/+5Hope he enjoys federal pound me in the ass prison. That *****'s just not cool.
  • HPMNick, on 02/29/2008, -8/+0It sounds like he is being set up to me... I doubt a blind 17 year old who has been doing it for 3 years, but happen to have a ton of much older and more experienced phreakers, happens to be the one who is causing all the damage.

    My guess is that they've either convinced an impressionable disabled kid that he was doing something he wasn't... or they've convinced him to take the fall...
  • sonicomega, on 02/29/2008, -1/+1yeah Boston!!!!
  • murderthegovt, on 02/29/2008, -9/+10HACK THE PLANET!!

    THEY'RE TRASHING OUR RIGHTS! THEY'RE TRASHING THE FLOW OF DATA!

    HACK THE PLANET!!
    • jb0nd38372, on 02/29/2008, -0/+3Yeah but you've gotta hack a gibson, until then your just small time :)
      • isunktheship, on 02/29/2008, -0/+2btw my other name is Acid Burn, and I have nice bewbs ^__^
  • sn0t, on 02/29/2008, -0/+22I don't care if he's blind, I'd kick the living ***** out of him for that.
    • csw1342, on 03/01/2008, -1/+1I was rolling that around in my mind. Should I openly admit to wanting to beat a blind person? It sure as hell sounds fun.
    • fxu1989, on 03/01/2008, -0/+2Just bitch-slap him, run around him, slap him again, run around, slap him ...

      To kinda throw him off .... hilarious.
  • thedogfatherx, on 02/29/2008, -2/+3What a dick. Hope he likes his jail cell.
    • subliminalurge, on 02/29/2008, -1/+2Actually, I hope he's very, very miserable in his jail cell.
  • SceptreData, on 02/29/2008, -1/+5Just in case any of you are somehow thinking this isn't that bad, listen to the audio clip on the site. It will convince you pretty quickly that this kind of thing is ***** ridiculous.
  • harrisbradley, on 02/29/2008, -3/+6True story... back in high school (1992) we got a computer with braille (sp?) input/output for a student who was blind who had a high level of interest and skills with computing. Two weeks later our school was locked down by the Feds (wasn't the last time, someone threaten the prez via school computer 2 years later) and the blind student was arrested on charges of weapons trading. Thought I'd share that amongst my digg buddies. this along with the biggest US traitor spy, since B.Arnold, the guy who worked for the Russians having graduated from my high school, I say Go Hornets!!!
    • twitchr, on 03/01/2008, -0/+2Woah! I remember that guy! He used to come by and smoke on the steps behind the field. he wasn't allowed within a hundred feet of a computer!
    • harrisbradley, on 03/01/2008, -0/+2Ahh, the steps behind the soccer field. That brings back the memories. I bet the kids are still there smoking and burning.
  • rhakes, on 02/29/2008, -2/+6"Who's the best out there?" says Jeff Daniels..."The little blind kid is one of the best. And that's a fact."

    Hmm, Jeff Daniels...Blind kid... My guess is Li'l Hacker is still mad about the parakeet incident.

    "You sold my dead bird to a blind kid? Petie didn't even have a head!"
    • disoriented, on 03/01/2008, -1/+1priceless

      but the question is...is his name billy, in 4c? or billy enforsee
  • SocialPoison, on 02/29/2008, -3/+1Geez all the Hacker's jokes... hahaha
  • RaggTopp, on 02/29/2008, -10/+1Lol....phreaking.......ahahahahahaahaahahaahahahahahaha.....by a 17 year old.......ahahahahahaha

    He's 17 years old, I bet he's never even read a single issue of 2600 let alone knows what it is.

    This kid isn't a hacker, phracker, phreaker, or whatever buzzword you want to use.
    • quiznos, on 03/01/2008, -1/+2"I bet he's never even read a single issue of 2600 let alone knows what it is."

      Considering he's blind, I doubt he read that either.
  • ZephyrNinety, on 02/29/2008, -2/+1Sounds like *****
  • TnTBass, on 02/29/2008, -0/+8I can't say I feel bad for the kid. He had plenty of opportunity to co-operate and avoid trouble, but his arrogance has blinded him to the fact that he is already caught, just hasn't been arrested yet.
    Any intelligent person has got to start reconsidering their actions when they have the FBI sitting in their house asking specific questions about what he does and who he knows.
    He truly is not smart enough for his IQ. You would think he would learn to cover his tracks better.
    • nanosec, on 03/01/2008, -0/+1Amen to that.

    • darlyn, on 03/01/2008, -1/+1But then again, he *is* blind and has formed an addiction he can't break without help. I feel sorry for him; he has landed himself in a whopping heap of trouble and cannot do anything to help himself.
  • wrillo, on 02/29/2008, -1/+3silly me, I thought phreaking was a thing of the past!
    • nanosec, on 03/01/2008, -0/+1Yeah, you can't really call this guy a phone phreak. Maybe phone annoyer, phone harraser.
      At least Poulsen the author of that story had the good presence of mind to try to win cars with his skills. :)

  • Khabi, on 02/29/2008, -1/+4When the FBI comes knocking, he won't see it coming.

    Somebody had to say it.
  • artmaster, on 02/29/2008, -0/+37"Because he's underage, Wired.com is not reporting Li'l Hacker's last name. His first name is Matthew..." - "And while Matt was on the party lines, his mother, Amy Kahloul, could sometimes be heard in the background..."
    • DCB360, on 04/11/2008, -0/+4Maiden name probably. They list his initials as M.W.
    • automate, on 03/01/2008, -0/+2And they have now taken down the name, after Matt requested them to. Seems that he can dish it out, but cant take it himself.
  • Wuss, on 02/29/2008, -2/+4"Innocent at first, Matt's worst instincts surfaced after he fell in with a gang of telephone ruffians -- men as old as 40 -- who eventually fingered the teenager"

    sorry, couldnt' resist.
  • SecrtAgntMan, on 02/29/2008, -6/+0"who eventually fingered the teenager when they were swept up in an FBI crackdown"

    okay??????
  • lukeduke, on 02/29/2008, -0/+1You'd think at 17 he'd use his skills better, like not paying for the 900-976 numbers. Of course, that may be why he's blind.
  • wellyuk, on 02/29/2008, -2/+2That blind, blind and blind kid probably plays a mean xbox.
  • IsaacCubed, on 02/29/2008, -0/+2If you listen to the recorded audio on that page, I like how if somebody calls 911 saying they are going to kill 2 hostages outside of that department's county, the dispatcher has to transfer them to another department. I find that hilarious.
  • grodrigu, on 02/29/2008, -0/+1All your phone are belong to Matt
  • tisk, on 02/29/2008, -3/+2What is Matt's favorite color?

    Corduroy!

    You'd also be correct if you answered "velcro"
  • Stupidumb, on 02/29/2008, -2/+2How would the kid like it if I exploit his blindness by sneaking up on him and punching him in the face? I call it blynd-punchyng.
  • JohnDaily, on 02/29/2008, -0/+0Another great article by Wired this week.
  • pittpat, on 02/29/2008, -0/+1www.spoofcard.com is fun though (FTA)
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