IamA 25 year old computer hacker just released from state prison after doing 2 years for a juvenile hacking case. AMA!

Probation against internet devices? That's worse than hell man! It's worse than no sex!

Yes - the consequences are devastating. I have no idea how I am going to support myself for the next 5 years. As strict as they are (as evidenced by not even being able to use a non internet connected device), I do not think they will even let me have a job in which using a computer is not a primary aspect but a secondary one.

It's really hard to stay motivated and sober knowing that these next 5 years are going to be a major struggle.

Do you have the option to move to another country and find work.there?

No, as stated my country's federal laws prevent me from moving to another country while under the supervision of a states department of corrections.

You are obviously not gonna get a white collared job even if there was no probation as such, due to the kind of charges you got. are you looking out for blue-collared jobs?

While not actively looking, I am quite aware that this is probably the only route that I am going to able to take. You are quite right that even if I did not have the restrictions, the felonies would be a major hurdle.

mining, sanitation, custodian work, oil field, construction, mechanical work, maintenance, carpentry the list is never ending..dont lose hope!

Thanks. Unfortunately I think that whatever is wrong with my brain that makes me especially good at hacking makes me shitty at spatial tasking. I am not good with my hands. But...none the less...I will figure it out...I have to, I have no other choice. I can not live off my parents teat forever.

There is nothing wrong with your brain. I would argue, and I believe a lot of people would back me up on this, that you're ahead of the curve.

What the school system did was wrong. They violated their oath as educators and they are the ones who should be put in prison for it. They could have used you as an asset and given you a really good career in a world that more than anything, needs intelligent people who understand computer networks.

Instead however, that administrator decided to ruin your life out of some silly 'tough on crime', 'no tolerance' bullshit policy.

He should have been put in prison or better yet, shot in the face for ruining yet another child because of political bureaucracy.

From the bottom of my heart OP I really wish I could give you a career. I wish I was in a position to give you something because I know that the world is a fucked up place.

I often think about how many lives are ruined on a daily basis because of shit like this and it boggles my mind that we allow our own children to be thrown in prison because the adults don't quite understand how the world functions.

They are stuck in the past and need to die off because of it. We, speaking as a 27-year-old man, need to take over and remove the old codgers from the world. All of them. We are smarter then them and need to take our dominant place in the world's figurative food chain.

But I digress...I wish I was in a position to give you a job OP or at the very best vet you for something like that.

I want to believe that a lot of criminals are actually good at something and are not just a waste of skin. I want to believe that by giving them a chance and allowing them to excel at something they are good and passionate about that they can become a contribution to society.

However that will never happen as our country is run by those with more money imaginable. Those who put people in prison for profit and those who dominate over the meek because they have more zeros attached to their name.

I can only hope that one day the balance of power changes and the meek and low rise up above the oppressors to change the world for better.

---

Edit: Thank you to whoever gave me gold!

I don't deserve it in the least, but I think we as a country need to stand up and fix the problems that exist within our society. There are a lot of them and nothing can be solved by one magic, silver bullet. One issue at a time is how we need to approach these things and we need to do it sooner rather than later.

It all starts with you. Take action, do something and get involved!

Wow. Thanks man. You seem really sincere and your post made me feel better.

Listen to this guy. He said all the things I wanted to think, but couldn't formulate into words.

The only thing I would add is you shouldn't throw away your talent with computers or 'hacking' (constructive destruction,) just because of this shit.

At one point your dream was to get an internship at a company doing security infrastructure stuff or whatever. And in five years you still can. This is just a detour.

So take advantage of the temporary detour to do something completely different! Something you might never have done or experienced. Work some crazy jobs and get crazy stories. Be a bartender. Be a bouncer. Be a cab driver. Work construction, and learn to be handy. Wash dishes. (Read the book Dishwasher: One Man's Quest to Wash Dishes in All 50 States, it's great.) Be a writer! It doesn't matter if you suck at it, because it's all about the experience.

I don't know, that's my advice. But I can honestly say if I were in your shoes I would be pretty distraught too so I can't blame you for being down on yourself. You got proper fucked, and it's not your fault. And you didn't deserve it. But maybe you can try not to let it get you down because that's giving what happened to you more control over your life than it already has.

I wish you the best of luck with everything! I don't really know what else to say..

Again, it's posts like this that really energize me and make me feel good. Thank you. Really, thank you.

How are you using reddit right now?

As stated, a group of my friends are here dictating my replies.

Go to a beach. Florida, S. Cal, Hawaii, wherever - why not? Live the life, bra.

For cash - work in a restaurant, whatever. There are so many non-computer/internet things to do. Stretch out. Do tour guides. There is so much shit that you can do. Just expand your mind. Fuck the internet and computers. Use this as an opportunity to discover other things.

You know, that is some of the best advice I have received from this thread. Seriously.

Wow, that's rough. But if you didn't vandalize anything like you said, what charges did they arrest you on?

Edit: inbox blown up. I get it guys. There was no way the school district could have known his juvenile tricks were harmless, so they had to cover their bases.

I was charged with unauthorized use of a computer for each time that I accessed a resource that I did not have permission to access or went outside of the terms of service document that I signed when I began the school year.

You mean the terms of service actually has writing you should read? Well I'll be damned.

In my state, it is a felony to violate a private companies terms of service, even if you are not otherwise breaking the law.

Now that, I did not know.

So are you now classed a felon or has it been removed from you record as you were a minor?

(I'm not from America so I'm not sure on the laws)

Yes - I have a record that will always follow my name and social security number. Even though I was a minor, I was charged as an adult. Thus all of the adult consequences follow me.

How does that work? I mean, why bother having the minor distinction if they'll just charge you as an adult anyway?

I should have been charged as a minor and then bound over (legal term) to adult court. This did not happen. As such, my family is deciding whether or not we can spare the money to appeal this and possible vacate the conviction although the county would probably reindict even though they could not sentence me to any more prison time.

Was there more to this story?

It sounds odd, the way you described it.

You were simply looking for security flaws, and pointed them out, and did no damaged, nor blackmailed the organization? In that, they decided to throw the book at you? What country are you in?

(I do appreciate your time, sorry if I sound like a dick)

There is more to this story although not in the hacking aspect. I did not blackmail them although they claimed that they felt threatened.

The more to the story part is that when they seized my computers and cell phone at the time the authorities found consequentially sent nude images of a then also aged 17 year old female on my phone.

I was charged with Pandering Obscenity for those images even though the nude party was consenting. Being a minor, she was unable to consent in the eyes of the law.

The "book was thrown" at me by the police who submitted the charges to the grand jury although I was shown mercy by the judge and prosecutor who agreed to a sweetheart deal of a plea bargain.

What you did is pretty much extortion. Their view is "OK, what happens if we don't pay or hire him?". That is the implied threat.

" it would be a shame if someone were to come along and exploit these holes I found."

You may not have intended it but that is what it looked it.

That is so obvious now, but before I read your post, that thought did not even cross my mind. Seriously.

appreciate the reply, and that indeed sucks.

It sounds like you were on your way to being a productive member of society, I just hope the years you spent away have not 'ruined' the idea of a normal life for you. I can understand it's hard to forgive and forget, and hopefully your experience helps in some way, moving foward.

Thank you for this positivity. The two years in prison certainly resulted in a lot of conditioning but not so much that it can not be unlearned. I too think that my experience is a net positive. At least, I will try my best to make it be.

How did you learn to hack? How old did you start? Have you had sex in prison?

I started with computer at around age 9 with a Commadore64 and began hacking almost immediately although I did not know what hacking was. I truly began hacking at age 11 with the advent of AOL. I was part of the AOL hacking scene and was one of a very few people outside of AOL who knew FDO91 and the back end of the AOL system. From there I progressed to the carding scene and after my expulsion from the school but before I was charged I was heavily involved in the activist hacking scene specifically working with OpIran.

As far as learning how to hack... I think my brain was just wired that way. I see vulnerabilities without looking in everyday systems. Structures, processes, procedures, systems, whatever it is security flaws just stick out to me.

People often ask me how I learned how to hack and I usually reply that just as some people can disassemble a car engine intutively without a manual so to can I learn a system quickly and with ease.

Well, this is embarrassing to talk about but yes I did have sex in prison. Only two people, and only a total of about 5 times. The sex was a result of what I would call a "bromance". In both cases, the other party was "straight" yet we shared a deep emotional relationship and acted on it a few times.

Bromance? People really do get lonely in prison.

To be fair...I did go in being gay... (speaking about the other parties) when you are 24, hip, good looking and straight...BUT...you find your self emotionally intement with another dude in prison (lol!)... perhaps it's just a consoling euphemism to call it a bromance...?

Care to elaborate on the last part there?

Haha, well - what would you like to know? I'll be as verbose as I am comfortable being.

Doesn't this post rather negate the claim in the OP that you just "wrote a report"?

What I meant was that during that time in my life, (around age 17), I was not involved in any illegal hacking. Prior to that, yes I was. But as far as my actions involved with "my victim" the school district, I did not vandalize or change anything (except security settings which allowed me to escalate my privileges) and only wrote a report documenting the hole that I found.

Get yourself a selectric and a red pen and become a technical editor for big sw/hw firms or textbook publishers.

With that same selectric, you can write in any of the tech-heavy genres.

Would you like to work for me negotiating a website development contract? I know I am not technical enough to catch all the flaws and loopholes.

I would be honored to have a conversation about negotiating a dev contract. May I ask you to PM me with contact details? Thank you.

Do you really think you will be able to go without using the Internet for five years (or however much longer you have left)? You are going through the effort of having a third party involved presently, which makes sense since you haven't been out of jail for long, but I feel like that can't and won't last.

If anything, I picture you making an attempt at living an Internet-free life, maybe making it a few years, and then snapping and going full-on hacktivist, unleashing your wrath on the system which turned you into the monster you will soon become. It's like the IT version of V for Vendetta.

I have not thought that far out. I am taking each day one at a time.

I too (and others) have imagined a scenario where I act out my angst in some cyber terror act but the reality is that I hate prison and will not do something to send me back. Even though I am decent at hacking, with the added hurdles in my life, I do not see it as something that is profitable to spend time on thus I will likely move on to more mature hobbies and hacking will slowly fade out as something in my life.

What are some of your other hobbies? I'm sure you've found something into which you can invest your time.

Also, thank you for doing an IAMA. The fact that you have to go five years without accessing the Internet makes you an interesting cultural figure. Have you considered documenting your experience?

P.S. As a philosphical anarchist, I find it bad ass that you chose to use your hacking prowess to become a whitehat hacktivist.

I am a ham radio operator or otherwise known as an Amateur Radio Operator and I truly enjoy that. I like to work on cars and tune performance cars as it is a form of hacking. I also like to play table tennis haha. I play video games but technically speaking I am not to play online.

You know, documenting 5 years without internet use would be quite interesting wouldn't it. It would show how asinine the decision is by the parole board in regards to someone just getting out of prison trying to get back on their feet.
I do not think I have the resources to do this nor do I think that I have the skill - but I will ponder the idea.

I think the decision to be whitehat/grey/black is somewhat built in. Truly I fell into the grey side of things because the culture that I thrived in was the Anonymous community which had several blackhat elements (although only blackhat relative to the laws of the country of the observer and target...).

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I will consider it. It turns out that I am working with a reporter from Forbes and one from NYT. One is reporting on the experiences of hackers in prison and the other is writing about my activist hacking activities and experience in Anonymous. Perhaps I will tap one of them about this angle. I appreciate your support and interest, for real.

I play video games but technically speaking I am not to play online.

Didn't you say you can't use offline devices either?

Aren't consoles considered computers by the government (being that they are fully functional computers)?

Wow! I never considered this!

Why did you not appeal to the court regarding their decision? In other words, if you hacked the system to show in fact the flaws of your school districts infrastructure, and infact show yourself to a system administrator, shouldn't that be enough evidence to prove you were operating in good faith? Hope everything works out for you smoothly, and you get back to your passion of IT work at some point in the near future.

We hired a verified good lawyer. Good faith was not in play here because I did access resources that I was not permitted to access, regardless of my intent.

The only appealable item and one that is currently being decided on by my family is to appeal the fact that I was not first charged in juvenile court (as I was 17) and then bound over. This was a procedural error. We could probably win that appeal (jurisdiction appeal) but the county would likely reindict although I would not be subject to any more prison time.

What are your or others thoughts on this?

[deleted]

This is a good point. What other advice do you have?

Do you think that as a lay person I could successfully navigate this appeal?

You need to file that appeal. Regardless of the county's ability to reindict. Work doing anything you can, save and scratch the money away, and do it. The difference it will make over the rest of your life is unfathomable if you can get the felony off of your record. Not to mention that you would be able to use computers again, which sounds like something you have both passion and a talent for.

I guess my fear is that I don't understand all off the possible outcomes of an appeal and perhaps I can make my situation worse? I mean I know that is what a lawyer is for but even then they make mistakes.

How scary was it in prison? Was the first night really emotionally draining on you?

Prison was pretty fucking scary. Never mind the first night, the first 18 months was emotionally draining. Imagine having to be hyper vigilant even in your sleep! I eventually established myself and became "comfortable" but it was a major struggle. The currency of prison is sex, violence, intimidation and gang politics. It is a world I was completely unfamiliar with.

I was involved in 5 fights, 4 of which I lost brutally. The 30 second to 1 minute period leading up to the fight in the absolutely most scariest because you don't know how just how bad this person is going to hurt you. No question you are about to get hurt and be subjected to pain, but no idea how bad.

Also, anything of value you had to fight to keep. Shoes, food, special clothes...if you did not fight when tested, it would be taken. If you fought and lost when tested, it would be taken less often. It sucked. Prison fucking sucked.

You can not talk your way out of situations because the net IQ is incredibly low. People talk in prison with their fists.

How badly hurt did you get and were there ever any punishments on either side for fighting? Did you earn more respect when you won that one fight?

The worst injury I incurred was an undiagnosed broken nose. I am pretty sure it was broken because I heard a massive crunch and felt an extreme pressure that felt like my nose was pointing in a non-nominal direction. Otherwise I had a few black eyes and busted lips, nothing major.

There are punishments for having injuries for fighting. You go to the hole for having obvious fight damage even if the other party is not identified. Obviously you NEVER tell on the other inmate.

And to be honest, win lose or draw, you earn the same respect. Winning a fight is icing on the cake but the act of engaging in combat is what really earns respect.

So having friends type your replies isn't violating your parole? Couldn't you just tell them how to hack a system? Seems like banning you from internet devices has a massive loophole...

In the documents that list my sanctions, it only says I am not to use or posses an internet access device. It would be up to the parole officer to decide if my actions constitute a violation and then it would be up to the parole board to rule in agreement with the parole officer.

My lay friends and I talked about this before commencing the AMA and we agreed that since there is no criminal intent and since I am technically within the parameters of my sanctions by having someone else type, that this action does not constitute a violation of the rules.

Dude you are more than likely breaching your probation with this AMA, notwithstanding your attempts at anonymity and relaying through a friend. What do you hope to achieve? Any half decent prosecutor could make a case that you are using the internet. With the greatest respect it seems like this is the same poor judgement that landed you in your current predicament.

I don't really have any specific goals in doing this. I just thought it would be interesting and fun both for myself and the reddit community. I do not disagree with you that overall and especially at looking at all of my life decisions that you are correct in expressing that I demonstrate poor judgement. It is what it is, I don't deny or rebuke your conclusion.

From a legal standpoint though, having my friends dictate my answers should be enough of an air gap to prevent legal action. It is not as if I have criminal intent, mens rea I think it's called?

That's fucking stupid.

*"Hey this kid found security flaws and is offering to help us out! What do you think we should do?"

"Well, since he's a minor, and seems genuinely willing to help, let's put him in jail and charge him as an adult so the record will follow him for the rest of life, possibly ruining it."*

How did you resist the urge to beat the absolute ever loving shit out of whose idea it was to press charges?

At some point I considered professionally embarrassing him but I realized that I would only hurt myself. At this point I can only look forward and make the best out of my situation. That is not to say though that I completely agree with you lol.

I suspect you went to jail because you DID embarrass him.

Yes, other people have said the exact thing.

Do me a favor: go back to your school and ask to see this person. When you see him, just stare at him. Assert dominance.

LOL! Alpha as fuck! A skill I polished in prison haha.

Jezus christ that's messed up. The way you have been treated is truly outrageous. I wish you all the best in dealing with this situation.

Recently some guy from the Netherlands hacked into the Blendle website and told them about it (just like you did). They thanked him, fixed the issue and gave him a cake. Then he did it again. They then offered him a permanent job and he got hired immediately. This is how your situation should have been. He now has a steady job doing what he loves, instead of serving prison time, and instead of having a criminal record, he actually enjoys some positive fame: There has been a positive article about how his hacking skills got him this job in one of the national newspapers. It is ridiculous to see how much the outcomes of both of your situations differ, while they started out so similarly.

Again, good luck. It angers me to no extent to see how "justice" gets served by such ignorant people. I can't imagine how you must feel.

Edit: For anyone who wants to read the article about the Dutch hacker: You can read it on Blendle, ironically. (In dutch, sorry)

That is reason number 644 that I want to live in the 'Nederlands'!

Why do you only hack 25 year old computers? Have you tried doing more modern ones?

Hahahahahaha! Because SELinux was always set to permissive in those kernals and there was no kernal mode protection! haha good one!

http://i.imgur.com/2RMOh.jpg

Hahaha nice.

I like to think your friends are dictating questions, and when you get an image reply, they print it out and bring it over to you and then note your reaction.

My ink jet is getting quite the work out...

Do you think the outcome of your case would have been different if the jury/judge/prosecutor were all very tech savvy?

You should join the conservation corps and get ripped while you live in the woods.

I think perhaps the outcome would of changed slightly but I am not sure how. I initially got a sweetheat deal of 2 years probation. The judge was old and was not tech savvy. The procesutor was middle aged and very intelligent although I do not know anything about his level of tech knowledge. I only fucked the probation up because I started using heroin.

And, I will at the least, good what the Conservation Core is lol. Can I stay in my state and participate?

What was prison like as an inmate who didn't commit what many would see as a particularly nasty crime? Presumably you were locked up with violent people, did you find yourself in harm's way because of the nature of your crime with other inmates taking advantage of you?

Honestly to me the idea that you were locked up with rapists and violent criminals for hacking into a school website is baffling.

There was a mixed reaction. A lot of the real criminals had a little respect for me because of the technical nature of the crime. They thought that since I was convicted of computer hacking that I had access to fake ID's and the like. My favorite was that I was often offered money or drugs to change someone's out date lol.

Oddly, the prison gangs treated me well because again they thought I could do things with computers that would further their enterprise. I would be pretty straight up with them and tell them what was possible and what wasn't.

Some of the more hardcore criminals for instance the aggravated robbers and others that primarily used violence just saw me as a mark. They knew that someone locked up for hacking was not street smart and was likely easily intimidated (which at first I definitely was).

How would you hack Gibson?

Crash and Burn, of course.

Holy crap that's rough. I spent my final year of highschool shutting off thousands of computers and servers on the school districts network, but mostly shutting down then locking out my teachers, just for 15 min of free time in class.

Do you think your punishment was/is extreme, seeing as you had no malicious intent, and were only 17?

How was prison like for you?

Honestly - I did exactly what I was charged with. And no, the plea deal reached was not extreme. I was giving a chance to not go to prison. I fucked it up by doing drugs. So, it was pretty fair to be honest. Now, all of the additional sanctions such as not being able to use a computer - that is extreme. I honestly don't know how to deal with it.

And outside of what I have already posted about what prison life was like: Prison was rough, it was hard, and it was scary. Violence, sex and intimidation are the currencies in prison. The C/O's do not give a fuck and are just as corrupt as the inmates. Drugs are easier to get than on the outs and the whole place has an extremely dark energy about it.

Bad luck man, I hope you manage to get through to the other side :(

In your opinion, what was the worst part of your punishment: the jail time, the ban, the sentence hanging over your head, or something else?

The worst part was being away from my friends and family for 2 years. The internet is a luxury, family and friends are necessities for me.

Thanks for your encouragement. :)

What are your tools of choice?

Truthfully, nmap is about the only tool I use. Now a days - a huge majority of hacks is done via SQL injection which is simply executed by passing URL's with the injection payload. Sometimes I will use tools like sqlget and Blind SQL injection brute force (a perl script). I use nmap of course too when profiling a target or netblock.

When doing broad large scale attacks, I will use metasploit to quicken up the pace of target detection.

What's your views on Net Neutrality, NSA and Snowdon? Do you think that we live in one of the most repressive intelligence eras in terms of tracking? Would you consider yourself a freedom fighter against this tyranny?

Now this is interesting:

Regarding Net Neutrality- Carriers absolutely must stay neutral. Prioritizing or shaping traffic based on content is unacceptable. After seeing just 2 years of change when I got out, I noticed that the web is far more commercialized then ever before. Facebook, youtube, even google are all annoying to use now because their methods to monetize their service are in your face and overbearing.

Now as far as the NSA and intelligence collection and surveillance- Any decent hacker knows that SIGINT collection has been going on for years and years. We know that ALL traffic is and has been collected for more than a decade. But the reality is that MOST of the SIGINT processing is done autonomously and algorithmicly. Only a tiny fraction of collected SIGINT turns into a humanly interfaced intelligence work product and I am ok with that.
Snowden, in my opinion, did not do much except make the general public aware of the NSA's mission. He did reveal technical tactics which were interesting to read about but he did not reveal anything new as far as big ideas.

There is no questions that we live in a time period of the most robust signal surveillance ever. But as I stated, it's almost all autonomously processed and it truly is for the greater good of this country even if the humans involved are misguided at times.

Something that the general public does not really know but top tier hackers do know is that there exists an odd relationship between high quality hackers and United States Intelligence Agencies. Hackers who find them selves interfacing with these entities are often reluctant to admit the existence of such relationships but I assure you, from personal experience, that these relationships are common. That being said, hackers who are engaged with these agencies know that there is an extra level of scrutiny applied to their collected SIGINT and that is a fact of life that is simply dealt with. When you start fucking around with breaking into enemy state's electronic resources, weird things happen.

And no - I do not consider my self a freedom fighter against the tyranny you are talking about. It is not a battle that can be won nor is the fight worth fighting. The US Gov will squash like a bug any one who puts up a substantial fight in this department. Also, I am not personally motivated to take action against this surveillance - I simply accept it as a fact of life.

Is learning the language of computers to understand how they work to the point of hacking difficult?. ...how would one get started if ignorant beyond the normal use of computers

I feel like 1000 people asked me that: "How do I hack?". I would answer: "You can not build a race car engine before you can build a go kart engine."

Meaning, learn the basics. Learn how the web and networks works (TCP/IP, HTTP, etc). Learn what applications run the web, networks, etc. Learn WHY things exist, what problem do they solve, then you can understand what resources they use and from there you can understand why exploit vectors exist.

Start from the ground up. It will fall in to place after a certain point.

Ok since you know security flaws, would you probably know how to break into other high security networks? Government agencies. If so, why haven't they realized what an asset you are?

After being expelled from high school but before being indicted, I was recruited to do some work for some high end customers. It was related to the activist hacking I was doing.

Raped?

How do you make money now without the use of a pc?

What did you do in jail to pass your time?

What do you do now out of prison to pass your time without the use of a pc?

Thanks!

Interestingly, I am gay although I was not initially open about it for fear of abuse. Thankfully I was never sexually abused although I was threatened numerous times.

I do not make money now. I live with my parents who support me at this time.

I was a dog handler for most of my bit. I trained dogs for 4 Paws for Ability which took up a lot of time per day. I also played an hour of table tennis everyday and got quite good. I also did a lot of drugs at the beginning of my bit. Additionally I spent a lot of time writing my friends and responding to people who wrote me after seeing my profile on WriteAPrisoner.Com

The gay part probably would have helped when the officers found the nude pics on your phone. "But officers, I'm gay!"

Lol - I was in denial at that point. I was trying to will the gay away by pretending to like girls.

Honestly, You should make an attempt at disability. See if they would see their own punishment as hampering your ability to work. I have heard of less getting awards. Have you thought about doing this?

I have never thought of this. This would be very funny if it succeeded and I feel like there could be no downside to the attempt. What advice do you have? Thanks for the idea!

Wow, why were you arrested if you reported the flaws?

As stated, each access of a resource that I did not have permission to access or any action that violated the terms of service constituted an "Unauthorized use of a computer."

Out of interest, what about moving countries? Is that allowed/possible. Can use tech again ;) And i'm sure someone would be happy to employ you for your skills.

Again, my country's federal law prohibits me leaving the country while I am under the supervision of a states correction department.

Where did you pick up you overall computer knowledge just forums or other means?

I really just did a ton of trial and error. I read books when it came down to learning protocols such as TCP/IP and the like. As far as programming, I was just self taught. I would view VB modules and learned how they worked and then would edit and combine them to do what I wanted.

Forums wern't really all that big when I was learning how to hack, in the early 2000's. I remember Lenshell.com was a site I frequented.

Have you seen Halt and Catch Fire on AMC? If not, you should, I think you might like it.

I have not even heard of it, I will have someone look it up for me.

Why'd you do it? That something is possible doesn't mean you have to do it. These stories never end well and you couldn't possibly have thought it was helping them. After you found the first flaw you should have immediately contacted them.

I always compare cases like this to for example someone who inspects every nook and cranny of my house, trying to find ways in that aren't "secure enough" over the course of months, sometimes even getting into my home. Do you think you deserved to be arrested?

Now look - I was 17 at the time and using copious amounts of drugs. Clearly I was not making the best judgments. At that time - no I did not think I deserved to be arrested. At this point in time, I still do not think I deserved to be arrested. 1) I was a minor. 2) I did no harm. 3) I offered to show them the holes.

I guess my question to you is: If you secure your house but miss that one nook, and it is that one nook that provided the way in, how would you feel?