I was a blackhat hacker and went to jail for 2 years - still on parole.

If you were a hacker and sent to prison, shouldn't one of the conditions of your parole be limited internet access? Anyway, how did you learn to hack?

I'm from germany, there are not such parole rules here - which makes sense since a normal TV would be enough to hack into my neighboors WLAN.

"Learn" hacking, good question. Most people ask how or when i started hacking. I think you can't "learn" hacking, your mindset has to be "hacker"-like. Most people are pleased how their phone, laptop or clock works. I was never satisfied until i understood HOW it worked and HOW i can use it for other things.

how would you hack into a wireless network with a tv? it would have to be a smart tv or something right?

Yeah, kinda. If i would be not allowed to buy a smart tv i still would be able to make a normal tv to a smart tv. Circuit boards are no black magic.

I call bs

So. Why? Because its actually magic to bring a signal to a device?

Cause youve given no evidence and everything you say sounds like it came from a first year CS student who has been watching too many hacker movies.

Ok. Yeah, you are right. Its impossible to modify any type of device - they are given by god and can't be changed. Some people shouldn't be allowed to use modern technology.

So tell us more about how you would hack your neighbour's wifi network with a TV

https://www.jann.cc/_images_big/wifi/wifi_schematic_complete.png < WLAN adapter

www.tresselt.de/images/wlanant1.jpg < WLAN Antennas.

Done. The rest is simply looking into the TV for an interface to connect it. Every device is a computer nowadays, even your coffee machine. Now your stupidity will come through again and will tell me there is no interface... i just build one again, its about going the extra mile and not being satisfied with the technology you got from amazon and will never understand because "it works lel"

Uhm, you wouldn't be able to make a normal LCD TV without network connection into a smart tv. I really don't think you'd be able to McGyver wifi into it using shoelaces and a tin can.

No one restricts me from buying a circuit board and a couple of other electronic components. I think today i would find many components i would need in a fridge, a radio and a coffee machine. All you need is something that can receive - and we are living in a world where a WLAN USB adapter is smaller than your pinkies fingernail and costs less then 10€ on amazon.

wow, that's impressive, jerry rigging a computer out of a tv, a circuit board, and a few chips and so on. I though i was pretty good with computers and i'd have no idea where to start on that.

I didn't say its easy! But i rather would go back to jail instead of being "free" without internet.

Are you now In Germany or USA ?

germany. Its pretty late..eh..early.. my SO is sick so i have to take care of her - and i don't want to wake up with her vomit in my face...

What would you say are the most common security mistakes that "Non-Computer People" make?

They click on every link and trust way too many peoples.

How old were you when you started hacking and how old were you when caught?

My dad told me i was trying to access the password protected PC when i was 4, so you can say i started hacking before i could even read.

Is the goal of hacking simply for the fun of messing shit up? Or is the focus more on money? How did you get into hacking?

My goal was money. The police seized about 70.000€ in bitcoins and 20.000€ in cash. I can't understand those for-the-lulz hackingcrews, they got no professionalism.

I had the mind of a hacker since i was a little kid. I was interested in how things work and how i could use something for other things. My dad bought a PC when i was 2 - 66mhz beast machine. So i grew up with BASIC and learned C when i was 13.

Wow, that's well over $500k based upon the growth of bitcoin value over the past couple years.

Hard to say if he was quoting the value at the time they were seized or the value they would have today if he still held them.

I try not to think about how much money it would be worth now... it was 70.000 at that time.

Did you ever realise you could get that money easily from you know working on the industry?

Nah thats hard, my english is too bad to work in a different country and german companies don't understand that they also need hackers, not only IT college kids. (no hate to the college kids but your feets are dry!)

Hej man, been reading this AMA for a while now, great AMA btw, one of the best ones I have read in past couple of years.   I wanted to reflect this

german companies don't understand that they also need hackers

  I was also into a bit of hacking myself, in time when I didn't care much about consequences of my actions, and my personal/professional image. Luckily I managed to go to college, and finish it without any problems whatsoever, and I have been working for quite some time now.  

Thing is honestly that not just college kids are better, but safer bet as well.  

If you had a company and you had to work with someone who doesn't care if he is going to jail tomorrow, or who is going to find and exploit stuff in my internal network and has police files to back it up, and someone who (most) probably likes what he is doing, finished school for it and has no criminal record, who would you choose from?

 

Also, you specified that hacking is a mindset, a mindset in which anyone who likes technology and programming can get into. It would take some time to train a person that is true, but even then span of what you could be able to do, and what trained person would do, would not be bigger than 5%.

  Don't get me wrong, I was like you once, but in all honesty things work like this. Thank you so much for your AMA.

You are right! If i would have to look for a security-expert i wouldn't take the criminal, i would take the college kid but there is a bit of bitterness in me. I learned that stuff without someone telling me about how things work. Sometimes it feels like my knowledge would be less worth.

Also the stuff about mindset is true, i don't want to tell anyone who hasn't that mindset they couldn't be hackers - they may just need a little bit longer to get their stuff together - i have to say i think everyone has this mindset in ANY subject, music, tech, biology (hey SO!) or even fucking cooking. They won't be better at the same level of knowledge but those "talented(?)" peoples may are faster in their area of expertise.

Is it easier to hack through a laptop, or through social engineering?

Depends on the situation. Getting as many victims as possible? Random spreading. Hacking a specific target? Social engineering.

Thanks for the answer! If you don't mind me asking, was it more lucrative (monetarily) to use a shotgun approach, or go after a precise target?

The shotgun approach gives you the basic income you need to pay your bills and food. Specific targets are paying your BMW, the bigger bathtube and your trip to new zealand.

Was it all worth it?

Yep. To be in jail sucks but i visited all the countries i'm interested in, i had fun and the most important part - my SO is still with me.

Hey op, any possibility of you becoming an information system cyber security expert ?

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/6cfgm2/i_am_a_certified_information_system_auditor_cisa/?st=J2ZMQD92&sh=6549981c

Its hard in germany to get such a job without a college degree. But i will try it as soon as i can!

Is there any advice how to better understand "inside" processes of hacking? Where do I start if I interested in this kind of stuff? Just started getting cybersecurity degree but have nothing "behind".

I looked up your post history, you seem to be interested in gaming. Try gamehacking - pick a singleplayer game and look up 3-4 youtube videos about "Gamehacking hexedit / Cheatengine".

Its like diving in the ocean, you have to start at the beach to get anywhere near the seabed. When you understood how this gamehacking works try find out WHY it works.. and then try to find out where those numbers come from...then go deeper! oh even more numbers!

in 2-3 days you should understand whats going on - that has absolutly nothing to do with web- or appsecurity but you will get into that mindset you need to understand those digital security things.

Ah, and try having sex with your gf on LSD in a tent in the nature, if you are into camping.. just sneak in for the act and come out after it to enjoy the nature again. FYI.

how'd you meet your partner in crime or what medium did you meet them through?

He asked for a malware developer in a forum almost 10 year ago. It was fun so we continued working together. We are still good friends.

Still friends after he ratted on you?

His kid was born ~2 weeks before the police kicked in his door. He lowered his sentence by years by "ratting" on me. I don't know what i would have done so i can't hate him for that... Also, when you choose to be a criminal you have to know that it could happen.

How do you differentiate a good hacker from a great one? Is there such a thing? Or like all are hackers in their own way and you can't compare them like you can't compare length and weight.

A good hacker knows stuff, a great hacker assumes stuff.

Who were the primary victims of your crimes? Were they large organizations or normal people? Do you feel remorse for any of the victims?

The most money i made with companies, i stole their secrets and sold them. When i started i blackmailed people, cheating husbands and spouses are paying much money to save their already broken relationship.

This makes me think that if you had gotten into my phone and looked for blackmail material you would just get depressed and move on lol.

Anti-hacking tactics: Give so many depressing informations about yourself to the hacker so he feels the urge to hug you and sends you a pizza instead of taking your money.

Did you ever reveal their secrets if they didn't pay?

Yep. Its funny because either they told their partners what they did, their partner asked them what they did with all the money or they simply had no money left. They were buying time, not security.

Lifeprotip: If someone is blackmailing you - don't pay, you can't win.

Do your terms of release prohibit you from directly using internet connected devices?

Nope, i'm from germany. Beside that, a TV would be enough to hack my neighboors WLAN.

Thanks for the AMA and I am curious about your list of crimes. Do you think you would have gotten the same sentencing if you committed fewer of those crimes, but still of the same caliber? "Dealing with stolen digital data" and "sabotage of computers" seems to go hand in hand, and I am just curious if the aggregate collection makes it more or about equal severity in the eyes of the law

Do you see a path to becoming a white hacker or what are your plans for future work?

In that kind of letter they write everything down what they know about, i got it before there was a trial. I wasn't charged for everything since some things belongs together like you said. Forming of a criminal organization without rewarding or approving a commited crime sounds pretty unsuccessful.

I got a "okish" sentence i had a clean record and that saved my ass. A previously convicted person could have been in prison for 7-8 years.

I think about working as a freelancer in IT but since i know how much money there is on the other side.... maybe i should get away from that stuff completly.

Coolest thing you've done? (hacking related)

Asking my SO for her number back then. I met her 4 years before i went to jail and she is still with me, i'm lucky.

I was at a bar, spoofing and sniffing WLAN and testing a new tool i made at my laptop. I was almost through and then this girl came in, i had low self-esteem so i didn't even though about speaking to her - that changed when she got her laptop out, a laptop covered with hacking related stickers. Long story short: I spoofed the wlan, blocked her out of the internet and asked for her number as a ransom. She laughed and gave me her number. She worked as a IT trainee and we came along.

Don't know what happened in my brain in that moment, i was a fat, shy guy at that time and suddenly i asked out this beautiful girl.

This sounds like something that would happen in Mr Robot.

$15 pizza coupon and a shout-out in the series and i'll give them the rights to use it!

What do you think caused you to steal money? Was it a lack of money growing up? Poor parents? Society pushing people to be consumers and want the best of everything?

Congrats on upgrading you education while serving your sentence! All the Best for you in the future!

I had pretty low self-esteem at the point i started being a blackhat. All i wanted was money, coke and bitches. Ended up with a girl who deserves a ring on the finger and gets it soon.

Have any of your victims sued you. Have the courts contacted your victims and informed them of your information so they can sue you?

Nope, i got my sentence and there are not enough evidences for a civil trial. Beside that, if a company would sue me i would have pay...but lovely german laws would also give me the rights to use/own what ever i paid for. So that won't happen.

Apart from Hackers (1995), what is the most realistic film about computers/hacking?

I can't remember any "realistic" movie. Mr. Robot is pretty realistic.

I was going to ask what your thoughts were on that show

Well i just started season 2, since... well i had no chance to watch netflix in jail!

I love it, a bit too much politics and better-world-stuff (yey, i'm a full capitalist.) but when it brings more realism to hackers-culture in tv its fine. I hate it when someone is interested in hacking and thinks everything you need is fast fingers.

What are mainstream but unknown things you would recommend people to do so they avoid being hacked?

Is the average android device owner at risk?

Annd.. Would most IT graduates/ppl who know how to program very well be able to hack someone?

Mainstream but unknown - thats easy. Antivirus-Software is "uselessish". They need a piece of malware before they can detect it, if you are one of the first 1000 infected persons you are infected before the Antivirus company even now about that malware. Also, malware mutates. Its possible to let a malware update itself with a fully undetactable version of itself every few hours and as soon as the antivirus company detects the "strain" of the virus, the hackers will know and they start to spread a newer - more unique version over their victims. Maybe you got a message "YOU GOT INFECTED CLICK HERE TO DELETE" by your antivirus tool but the newer malware is already on your device and you are only deleting the older version.

Android devices are at high risk, i had about 1500 infected android devices in my victim list. Some people use online banking on their mobiles and some people chat with their affair. "500$ or your relationship is over and all your nudes are public. Here is my bitcoin adress."

"Most" people who know how to program or know how systems work will now "how" to hack something but will struggle when it comes to trying a new attack technique.

I heard that using data for email and banking and stuff is best for preventing theft. Is this true?

Sorry, i don't understand, using data?

4g

Ah, no thats not more secure. Everything is interceptable.

Secure banking or online banking. Choose one.

Ah and check the ATM for skimming tools.

This! the size of the tech needed to skim is ridiculously small and can look exactly like the original machine with only a few millimeters of difference, always jiggle and gently pull to check that there isn't a skimmer attached.

I work in the ATM industry. New tech is out there called 'shimmers'. You can't even tell one is installed because there is nothing external on the atm

All those possibilities and i'm sitting here and can't have fun with it. :[

How was life in prison?

I would say easy. When you are a hacker, a dealer or something like that you will never meet any murderers or shit like that in prison. Germany understood that prison is like an education center for criminals so they don't put hardcore criminals with guys like me in one house.

I remember the first 3 months the best, because when i arrange with your situation every day is the same - you go to school, you talk to your friends, you write letters, you workout and wait for the next visitors day

The first 2 weeks were the hardest, i came from traveling the world, spending money on shit without even looking at the pricetag, having a wonderful SO to sit here and wait. "Will my girlfriend leave me? Will they find all the money? What are my parents thinking? How long will i be here?"

My mates in the cell were cool and i got my own cell after 3 weeks and started school after 2 months. Sometimes i played chess with one of the guards, another inmate teached me to play guitar, we watched soccer with the guards at bigger events. My house-mates were guys like dealers, fraudsters or thiefs so there was no violence at all. But i wasn't allowed to go where i wanted, so i will not do that shit anymore.

Did you make a lot of money doing the things you did?

and

Is it still possible today to make that level of money doing the same things or have things changed? (recent strict KYC regulations on everything to do with finance online seems to be a bit of an extra hurdle - or maybe it is meaningless?)

The police seized about 7.000€ in bitcoins and 20.000€ in cash. Well, thats what they seized. :)

Today you can make even more money with the same things, even with the same techniques.

KYC? Use bitcoins, trade from person to person or just steal someones identity. The rest is social engineering, the security system can be perfect - humans are not.

EDIT: typo - 70.000€ in bitcoins.. i just leave it there for the laughs.

Did they get all of your money or only a tiny amount and you still have a bunch of money squirrelled away. I would think a hacker would know how to hide money.

Not a cop

Ask me again in 3 years. Periods of limitation are funny things!

... more fun to leave the mistakes in place :)

so, obviously you can't say if your still into it: but lets pretend you don't do it anymore: how has this affected your outlook on things? are you really prepared to go 'get a job' earning X/hour when you used to pull in many times that ?

I'm not a blackhat anymore, i will never go back to jail thats sure.

The outlook has changed, i was able to fly to spain when it was too cold, when it was too hot i took the next machine to sweden. Whatever job i'll find, i will never have that luxury

Is there a computer language for hacking much like when you develop a website?

Any language can be used to take control over a system. Also, most attack techniques to get access to a system without a trojan or backdoor is performed by a tool.

is possible for you to help me crack my neighbors wifi password? /s

but have you ever tried to hack a wifi password? cause I mean internet bills kill you

Its way better in germany than in the USA! I got 200mbit and i pay about 49€/month.

Do you hold it against your former 'partner' for giving you up? Would you have done the same in his position?

No, he had a infant at that time. His sentence was 6 years before he "betrayed" me, after it it was 4 with a possible parol after 3 years.

Could you describe the process you used to compromise systems?

many random infections: Hacking well known sites for a short period of time, so no one notices it. Spreading malware over p2p networks - stop pirating movies, porn or games from those places.

sniffing mobile devices: Go out with our laptop and setup a WLAN access point (sector antenna in your backbag is pretty useful.) sniff everything.

Companies: Tricky.. social engineering and hacking is involved, pretty much at the same time. To hack a company you have to be a really good liar because you will most likely have to call them at some point. Sometimes there are security flaws but thats not always the case and when thats your full-time job you can't wait for those lucky days.

Cheers for the AmA, couple of questions

I don't really know much about Hacking so what's 'social engineering'?

Did you ever 'pull the trigger' on people you blackmailed (actually sent evidence of cheating to an SO) and did you feel guilty if you did ?

What direction are you trying to take your life in now? What job ideas you looking into etc?

Social engineering is "hacking a human". Thats pretty easy if you are a good liar, because most people try to help, being nice and don't think people have bad intentions when they want THEIR help.

I pulled the trigger, never felt guilty. Well.. maybe once.. because the spouse was also cheating and i didn't know... imagine to milk 2 cows at owns...

I was busy getting back to normal life the last weeks, its kinda funny to go outside to buy stuff when you didn't do it for 2 years.

I'm thinking about freelancing as a IT-guy, which will be hard since i was a blackhat and got a criminal record now. And i know how much money is on the other side, i don't know if i should do that step and go back to hacking.

What are your rig's specs?

Gaming:

i7700k @ 4.8ghz (fucking silicon lottery)

16gb RAM @ 3000mhz

1080

---

VM-Workstation (SO's baby but i touch it sometimes)

Ryzen 1700 sleeping at 3.2ghz

64gb RAM

2x 980ti

64GB ram?! Wow, does she even need that much?

She could even use more, she works with virtual machines and biology/physics/math (please don't ask me, i can build you an EMP from a microwave oven but i can't tell you the difference between a cell membrane and the mitochondria.)

Edit: for "special" people out there, this post contains exaggeration for explanation. I can't build an EMP from a microwave oven... i also need a coffee machine.

Are the hackers working for the police in Germany (I'm German too) even considered any good? I always assume that the real geniuses join the "dark side" instead of helping to stop people that steal/hack common folk like I am.

They are good IT-guys. But they are bad hackers, most of them never got their feet wet.

Have you ever hacked someone you already met and disliked?

If so, what did you do to them?

Nope, all business never personal.

But i thought about it, a friend of mine was accused of raping a 15 y/o girl. Problems: He is gay and we were in London during the "rape" together with his boyfriend and my girlfriend.

If that guy would have being arrested i would have fucked up that girls life in a pretty damn bad way.

Did you go to school to learn everything you do, or did you pick it up on your own?

I never went to school for anything hacking related, in fact i was bad in school! I almost dropped out and only got the lowest graduation possible in germany (Hauptschulabschluss 9 years of school). In prison i managed to get a higher graduation (Realschulabschluss).

Do you hate your partner in crime for turning you in? or do you understand his situation and forgive him? Would you have done the same in his place?

No, he was a fresh father - his kid was born 2 weeks before the police kicked in the door. He lowered his senctence to be with his kid. No bad blood there.

Were you initially mad at him when he first turned you in though?

Sure, it was an extreme situation for me. But everything went back to normal after some days.

Is it as easy to hack into MacOS as into Windows?

Well, its never "easy". You have to think about the cost-benefit factors.

Windows: Many users - also many stupid users with online banking and stuff.

MacOS: Users with money and more creative persons because Macs are superior to Windows when it comes to that stuff (i hope nobody things otherwise and yes, they are too expensive for their shitty hardware)

Aiming for Windows gives you a large victim pool, aiming for MacOS gives you a way smaller victim pool but more likely the victim has money or/and needs the system for his work.

Today i would also aim for Mac users.

Do you use backtrack Linux ?

I used it! Great OS, everything you need. But Archlinux is my favorite when i had to choose a main-hacking-OS.

For you to hack a phone what information would you need about it?

(Or what kind of contact with it)

For a specific device i have to touch it, know the owner, or have control over the WLAN access. Most infections are random.

But you would let me use your phone when i have to call my mom because Uncle Freddy just died...

Danke für's AMA.

What's the most disturbing/funniest/interesting content or secret you found on a victims computer?

Did you ever feel sorry for a victim?

What's the best thing about prison?

How did the police found out the password of your bitcoin wallet?

Gerne, werde das AMA morgen wohl auch ins de_ama packen.

disturbing: child porn.

funniest: a woman who liked to take pictures of her husband naked and photoshoped different faces on his dick end nipples.

interesting: A man was trying to find evidence for extraterrestrial bacteria on earth. I'm far from being a conspiracy theorist but that stuff gave me chills.

Nope, never felt sorry.

Food. We were allowed to cook our own meals, 4 different nations all together in one kitchen trying to cook noodles is funnier than it sounds.

My bitcoin wallet was on a USB drive, it was not encrypted at this time - i don't know why it wasn't. And it was absolutly the only one i had. Mhm.

What can I do to reduce my risk of being hacked? Beyond not cheating on the gf? From what you've said, I'm assuming "never connect to a public WiFi" is step 1.

Yep.

Step 2: Don't use auto-connect on your phone. Your phone is always scanning for a wifi it "knows". You were in a hospital and used "Hospital Free Wifi"? Your phone remembers that and will try to connect to any Wifi called "Hospital Free Wifi". Anyone can setup a access point with that name.

Step 3: Linux. Not because its so cool and safe - its just a little market for malware devs - a profitable market but too small to use many resources on spreading.

Step 4: Don't give people access to your phone, your laptop or computer. Nos: "Hey i need to call my mom, can i use your phone please?" "I forgot to charge my phone, can i plug it into your laptop?

Step 5: Don't click on any link, don't open any email attachments.

Op,how old are you ?

I'm in my verrrry late 20s

If it was not for your partner revealing your identity, do you think you would have ever been caught?

Sure, everyone makes mistakes. Maybe i would have done a mistake the next day or 25 years later.

How long did it take you to be able to effectively use ransomware?

I never used actual ransomware. I was blackmailing "active" not by encrypting their datas and ask for money. When i found evidence of them cheating i told them. Simple. They can use their device but they know i'm watching them. Don't know what caused more damage to the victim, the financial blackmail-stuff or the psych stress of being watched and lost your privacy completely. Still no bad feelings about it, they were cheaters.

Any recommendations to us people who want to protect their security and privacy online?

Encrypt your internet. Use a VPN, don't click on every link you come across, don't trust people (thats really important, people need to understand that not everyone is a friend).

I'm the wrong person to ask this question to be honest, i'm so far away from a "normal" user that my security arrangments would take the joy and ease from any normal user - i would say delete your facebook, reddit etc - only use throwaways on virtual machines and split your entire personal life from the internet.

Did you ever have that feeling in your belly of "this is wrong, I shouldn't be doing this" when you were doing it? If not, do you feel that in retrospect?

Are there any specific hacks which you wish you hadn't done?

No, not at all. I never hacked "good" companies, any kind of organization, hospitals or political parties - even when i didn't like their views.

When it comes to normal persons, whoever cheats on their partner was free to go for me. Maybe some people say thats sad, bad or evil, well its even more sad or evil when those persons pay me a couple hundred bucks to not tell their partner - a partner they don't love enough anymore to tell them the truth by theirselfs (makes that sentence sense? My english is bad and i'm tired). Because... you know, thats how blackmailing works, you pay once and you are free.. hahaha. No.

How did you continue the blackmailing? Did you just come back 2 months later saying you wanted €300 more?

Exactly.

a partner they don't love enough anymore to tell them the truth by theirselfs (makes that sentence sense?...)

It definitely conveys the point! But, assuming that you're trying to improve your grasp of English...

The plural of "Theirself" is "Theirselves" - but the second person pronoun that flows best in the sentence you wrote would be "Themselves".

Makes that sentence sense?

Is German grammar applied directly to English - the typical phrasing would be "Does that sentence make sense?"

Aber dein Englisch ist sehr klar. (Ich lerne Deustch... Deustche spreche, schwere spreche.)

I appreciate that! Thanks!

Serious question: On what parameters do they classify a prisoner to be 'nice'?

I had school to get a better graduation, i finished that, i never had problems with other inmates.. i even remembered the birthday of a guard. Just be a normal person, don't start to eat peoples hearts and stuff.

What one piece of advice would you give to someone who shares your mindset of "must know how it works", but doesn't actually know anything about the subject?

Look for anouther subject, maybe one you know more about. An inmate had also this kind of mindset but was into music so he listened to new songs until he understood how they were played and learned to play them on his guitar. That guy was a fucking genuis.

To clarify. I work with computers. I just don't yet have the in depth knowledge of them and there is so much information that I don't even know where to start.

Do you like videogames? Try gamehacking.

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/6ckiya/i_was_a_blackhat_hacker_and_went_to_jail_for_2/dhvmi5v/

Thanks a lot for answering! Ugh I've got soo many questions! These are the last ones:

So, knowing my IP how much info can you get? How could you get to my history?

Should ppl be worried about google/youtube that always track everything you do?

Could someone hack me while using skype and chats online?

No, someone knowing your IP isn't dangerous. VPNs are not only for IP obfuscation, they are for encryption. Someone could hack your wifi access password and could read all information send over that access. Also that works with server that are between you and the receiver's server. So encryption is #1 priority.

Knowing your IP will most likely tell me in which city you are... thats nothing too dangerous, you can't track an IP to its owners house.

When i want to find out something about you i could simply read your posts online. I could assume from this informations that you like fishing (for expample) and i could look at different famous fishing-websites with your alias - ColdnBlind_me. More informations etc etc. you see where i'm going. Everything what you write is something personal and everything personal could be something bad in someones hand.

You don't have to be "worried" about google or youtube tracking you. You aren't scared of your government - hopefully. Google and all those tracking sites are like governments right now. They are interested in their users but they are just numbers to generate money. If you ARE worried, you have to go a long way to be really "untrackable". There are e-biometrics and stuff which makes it almost impossible to use the internet without being tracked.

Skype and some online chats are peer-to-peer which means they can see your IP adress. They could start a DDoS attack on your IP and your internet will go down for a while but as long as you don't click on any links or receive any executable from them everything is fine.

I'm unfamiliar with the term blackhat. What does that mean?

Whitehats: Hackers who attack systems with approval of the owner (mostly after hiring)

Greyhats: Hackers who attack systems without the approval of the owner but they will send a email or something to the owner and let them know what happened - and how to fix it.

Blackhats: Hackers who attack system without their owner knowing and will cause shit for maximum profit.

Have you ever watched Babylon 5?

Me and my dad were Star Trek fans to the max, no time for Babylon.

Hi hacker_ama, your post has been removed because:

Your post has been removed because it lacks adequate proof.

Unfortunately, the links or photos you've posted could have been posted by anyone, and they don't prove that you are the person doing the AMA. Your proof needs to be something that connects the fact that you're doing an AMA with your identity. This could be something like a photo of you showing what you're doing the AMA about with a sign that has your username and the date. It could also be documents (partially redacted if desired) with a note that has the username and the date.

Here's a link to the section of our wiki that discusses proof.

Please let us know when the proof has been added by replying here and we'll put the post back up. Cheers!

Please contact the mods if you need further assistance

http://i.imgur.com/cO0bb0o.png prooferino?