[iwar] The secret life of a cyber hero (fwd)

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2002-08-17 19:10:29
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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Sat, 17 Aug 2002 19:10:29 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [iwar] The secret life of a cyber hero (fwd)
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[FC - perhaps a secret superhero - or perhaps not.  There are many who
toil in this arena without recognition but also without violations of
law.  While I appreciate that some are motivated to do good things, part
of being a real superhero is doing it within the bounds of legality.]

The secret life of a cyber hero By Gary Dimmock Ottawa Citizen
http://www.dimmockreport.com/hackerunmasked.htm

The mystery hacker whose online infiltration has led to several arrests of=
suspected child predators -- including a California superior court judge=
-- was a 19-year-old loner who penetrated 3,000 computers around the world=
from his parents' basement in Langley, B.C.

In all of this, the Canadian hacker has remained anonymous, even in police=
affidavits -- until now.

Dubbed "Citizen Tipster" by police, Brad Willman, spent night after night=
writing a Trojan Horse program that gave him complete control over every=
computer that downloaded it.

Alone and in the dark, he sat for up to 16 hours a day monitoring hundreds=
of targets, secretly reading their e-mail and tracking their every step=
online.

He started keeping files on the targeted users. He tracked them for almost=
three years --recording everything. The majority of his targets were=
ordinary people -- but some in the files included priests, social workers,=
soldiers, police officers and justice officials. 

He catalogued each file by degree of risk and focused on suspected=
child-porn producers and molesters.

This was his life. He had no friends in school and skipped the prom. Even=
these days, his only entertainment away from the computer is going to the=
odd movie, alone.

The son of a coffee shop owner, Mr. Willman, a.k.a. Omni-Potent, finds if=
hard to socialize and rarely answers the telephone. He can only be himself=
online -- staring at the screen and chewing sour candies.

Though never publicly credited, Omni-Potent is the same mystery hacker who=
led the Mounties to the capture and conviction of an Alberta man who=
offered his eight-year-old daughter up for sex through the Internet in=
1999.

The hacker's investigations have exposed suspected child predators across=
Canada, the United States and Russia. Some of the suspects included foster=
parents, social workers and justice officials.

He has also helped find child victims.

He first set his fingertips on a keyboard at the age of five and taught=
himself to hack by the time he was 14.

He began targeting online child predators three years ago. He started=
turning in suspects two years ago, ignoring police threats that if he=
didn't stop he'd be arrested for breaching privacy.

He did all of this, for up to 16 hours a day, on his free time and in=
secret.

And it began as a game.

"I was just playing around with this program I wrote. I wanted to see how=
it worked. Then I got way more curious about what these people were doing.=
It's exciting to see something you build actually work. It means I have=
actually helped out. It challenges me and makes me work," said Mr.=
Willman, now 21. 

The program, disguised as an image, allowed him to retrieve anything --=
undetected -- once downloaded. He posted the image on several usenet=
groups used by pedophiles. In reality, the downloaded image was simply one=
retrieved from the user's own hard drive.

Some 3,000 users around the world downloaded the Trojan Horse program--=
giving him full control of targeted computers.

"Then, I would stay up late at night to see what I could drag out of their=
computers, which turned out to be more than I expected. I could read all=
of their e-mails without them knowing. As far as they were concerned, they=
didn't know their e-mails had even been opened.

"I could see who they were chatting with and read what they were saying as=
they typed. I judged these people by reading their incoming and outgoing=
e-mails. I was more interested in actual abusers or producers. That was my=
priority --not the people that were just downloading images."

Sometimes the work was overwhelming, what with tracking every single e-mail=
for hundreds of people. "It did get quite busy. It was a lot of work to=
keep on top of it."

The motive behind his investigations was always to protect children "who=
can't protect themselves."

He often ignored police threats of arrest and instead pressed ahead,=
particularly in the case of Orange County Superior Court Judge Ronald=
Kline. After reading the judge's electronic diary, he concluded it showed=
an apparent plot to sexually exploit young boys at a private health club.

"Sure, a violation of privacy you must cry, but if you have nothing hurting=
kids, the future of the world, then there's no reason to worry as that is=
all that Omni-Potent protects," he said.

In several interviews with the Ottawa Citizen, the hacker expressed=
frustration with police reluctance to pursue his information about child=
pornography producers. In some cases, he says police in Canada and the=
United States ignored his evidence packages.

In some cases, he says U.S. police and the RCMP have backed away from=
offers of reward for tracking down online child predators. 

"Omni-Potent's service thus far has been provided without cost to the=
public. Not one dime has been provided to Omni-Potent and yet there has=
been tremendous success in providing accurate information.

"Technology is everyone's enemy whether they realize it or not. It is after=
all, technology which helped to find me and mess up important=
investigations by attempting to lift my veil," he said.

Mr. Willman says he measures his success by his "contribution" to=
protecting those who cannot protect themselves.

In the case against Judge Kline, U.S. detectives credit him alone for=
breaking the case. "The diary he retrieved gave us the probability that we=
needed to get the search warrant," said California Det. Ronald Carr.

The search warrant unearthed more than 100 images of young children engaged=
in sex acts.

In police affidavits obtained by the Citizen, the judge admitted that he=
authored the journal. The judge has not been charged with any crime for=
keeping the electronic diary, but has been charged with possession of more=
than 100 images of child pornography. Since that indictment, an alleged=
molestation victim has come forward and the judge now also faces=
sexual-assault charges dating back to 1976.

In the electronic journal, excerpted in police documents, the author writes=
exclusively about his sexual interest in young boys. The journal entries=
span May 2000 through March 2001 and detail the author's deviant sexual=
urges and the times and places where he meets young boys. These details,=
and his written thoughts about cases before him, made it easy for=
authorities to conclude the retrieved diary was genuine.

The judge, a Little League umpire, had contact with numerous boys at ball=
games, in a mall and at a private health club -- where he befriended=
vulnerable young boys with the hopes of exploiting them.

"You can't just charge in like you did with (a boy). How do I encourage him=
without pursuing him too hard? You have great entr=E9=A5 in the separation=
of his parents," says an entry dated June 6, 2000.

The next day, the author writes: "I gave a lot of thought today about this=
business of approaching these kids too fast ... He doesn't strike me as a=
lonely boy like (boy) was. You have to make them come to you or it just=
doesn't work," says a diary entry dated June 9, 2000.

After reviewing the journal, Det. Tracy Jacobson concludes in an affidavit=
that the author is a pedophile. "He refers to the child as 'gorgeous' and=
writes about how and when to approach the child, and plans his moves=
carefully. It is further my opinion these are the type of comments only a=
pedophile or a child molester would make," Det. Jacobson said.

In the journal, the author seems fixated with young boys and often writes=
about the problems of enticing them to be alone with him. He talks about=
buying them baseball tickets and giving them a tour around town in his=
Porsche Boxster. According to California Motor Vehicles records, a 2000=
Boxster with the licence 4HTV361 is registered to Judge Kline.

Sometimes, he found it hard to control his urges. In one entry, the author=
writes about sitting next to a young boy at a pizzeria, and rubbing his=
back "with no resistance at all." Other times, the author wrote that when=
he was preparing to give a drive to a boy to a ball game, he likened it to=
getting ready for a date.

Because the author was noting the names of the boys and tracking their=
movement, Mr. Willman feared he would molest one of the targeted boys. In=
turn, the hacker forwarded the electronic diary to Predator-Hunter.com, an=
Internet organization created to stop child exploitation.

"Parents in a number of countries, I think, owe Omni-Potent a debt of=
gratitude for doing what he did. I don't endorse what he did as being=
legal, but law enforcement should seriously look at putting guys like him=
to work because they are obviously not getting the job done," said Wendell=
Krueth, president of the Predator-Hunter.com.

The Internet group conducted its own probe, then forwarded the files to the=
California Department of Justice. On May 8, 2001, Irving police Det. Ron=
Carr was assigned to assist the department in a probe into alleged child=
pornography.

He concluded the journal was genuine, then set out to track the hacker who=
built the case. Three months later, after tracing him to a Web site, Det.=
Carr travelled to Langley, just outside Vancouver, to interview Brad=
Willman, known only as "Citizen Tipster."

The hacker explained how the Trojan Horse program worked and then agreed to=
hand over his hard drives to police. They also wanted him to thumb through=
his files -- a tall order, he said, for one person.

"They wanted everything right away. I had to dig through all the=
information. And to go through my archives when it's just one person is=
pretty hard. They said they would see what they could do about=
compensating me for my time but I never heard from them again."

In the time it took to search his archives, he lost too many days to resume=
monitoring other targeted users. "When you're reading every single e-mail=
for hundreds of people it's impossible to keep doing it when you lose a=
week. You're too far behind."

The judge is now under house arrest in a two-storey home at the end of a=
cul-de-sac in Irvine, California. It will be the judge's defence that=
because the electronic diary, the cornerstone of the case, was stolen, the=
federal grand jury charges should be dropped.

The defence will also argue that the diary was stolen by a hacker who was=
working on behalf of law enforcement -- a charge Mr. Willman denies.

For now, Mr. Willman, at the behest of his parents, has stopped hacking.

"They liked what I was doing but they don't want me to do anything=
illegal."

Sometimes he regrets his online life. "My whole life has been online. I've=
literally spent half of my life on the Internet. I'm anti-social in real=
life. I've been on the computer too much to keep friends. I'm trying to=
get out more. And don't tell me about meeting girls -- boy oh boy."

He is now working hard to launch a computer security career and thinking=
about moving out of his parents' basement to assume a new identity so he=
can hack again.

"If I am ever to come back, it'll be on my own terms and no one will know=
ever again who I am."

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