p2p news / p2pnet: "In the six hours between crashing into bed and rolling out of it, the 21-year-old hacker has broken into nearly 2,000 personal computers around the globe," says Brian Krebs in a Washington Post column. "He slept while software he wrote scoured the Internet for vulnerable computers and infected them with viruses that turned them into slaves."

He then says, "The young hacker [aka 0x80], who has agreed to be interviewed only if he isn’t identified by name or home town, takes a deep drag of his smoke and leans back against the couch to exhale. He smiles. This is his day job, and his work is finished in less than two minutes. In two weeks, he will receive a $300 check from one of the online marketing companies that pays him for his services."

"Only if he isn’t identified ….."

Included with Krebs’ piece was a pic and, "Brian, I don’t know if you’ve caught onto this yet or not, but it’s all over Digg.com and Slashdot," says ‘omar c’ in a follow-up post to another Kreb column.

"Basically, readers downloaded the photos of 0×80 and checked the metadata, finding the city these were taken in. Then using Google Local/Maps, found where a gas station, stripclub and convenience store intersect in said town.

"Check out this blog for more details – http://fishbowl.pastiche.org/2006/02/19/the_perils_of_metadata."

"Omar c – I am aware of it, yes," says Krebs. "Thank you."

"Are you aware of what a ‘confidentiality agreement’ or ‘trust’ is?" – asks drew.

And, "Wow, I’m very curious how this occured, if you (or whoever is at fault) did indeed betray the identity of your source you do realize that you have basically betrayed a legacy of protecting journalistic sources (that at the WaPo includes the most infamous of such, Deep Throat), not only that but you have inadvertnatly (we can only assume it was inadvertant) destroyed faith in the concept of journalists protecting their sources, making it more difficult for future sources to come forward. I know you didn’t mean to do what you did, but you can’t imagine the implications of this, not to mention the implications of this on past stories," says Adam Jacob Muller.

"With the release of this information, readers on slashdot have narrowed the location of where this guy lives to within a very small area, plus the generic information you gave us, male, 21, limit to probably <10% of the population of a town of less than 3000. Restrict based on the area and your left with a very small pool.

"Wow."

Yes. Wow. What would Bob Woodward say?

Stay tuned.

Also See:
Washington Post column – Invasion of the Computer Snatchers, February 19, 2006

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