I've been asked to do this. Not sure how I can help. I may never return to Reddit under this handle again.... AMAA, you can understand why I can't tell you all.

This is the original post http://www.reddit.com/r/RBI/comments/xmntj/justice_is_ever_so_slightly_closer_xpost_from/

I'm very tired, so kind people of Reddit, fill in the blanks to anyone that doesn't know.

You're welcome to follow me on Twitter @paddyhack

Okay, to answer some reoccuring questions:

  • If you want to learn to hack, there are a plethora of resources online. Google is your friend. Have a look for "hackthissite"
  • No I will not hack a site for you. Fuck off.
  • I don't plan to do anything else in the near future.

The OP of the previous thread got in touch, he's fine, and he's not fired, if a little paranoid for his actions. He asked me to let you all know.

Thank you for coming. I hope that I could share some light on the subject. I am finished for now, but I will remain answering select threads of conversation before I go back to bed. It's been fun. I may never reappear in this guise. ;)

Take care, and be good to each other... I may have to come back.

Paddyhack

Comments: 956 • Responses: 68  • Date: 

razzmatazza341 karma

OP have you tried hacking into the Department of Defense while getting a blowjob from a hot blonde and at the same time having a gun pointed to your head?

paddyhack464 karma

I find this scenario highly unrealistic. I mean come on, a blow job from a hot blonde? Srsly? Everything else in that story seems legit. P.s. loved Swordfish.

[deleted]51 karma

[deleted]

paddyhack84 karma

I'm clearly in the wrong place.

PieInYaEye78 karma

Notice, they didn't mention which gender.

paddyhack96 karma

Notice I didn't say which I prefered.

paddyhack9 karma

We have a deal.

bastardman327 karma

Did you create a GUI interface in Visual Basic to help track IP addresses?

paddyhack586 karma

Nah man, I'm to leet for that. I used COBOL. ;)

EDIT:Downvotes?? This was a joke. I actually hate the phrase 'leet'.

user9967292 karma

[deleted]

paddyhack211 karma

Out of all the languages I've learned, or even just heard about, this is a new one. As a prize, I give you LOLCODE and Brainfuck.

SketchyThaClown67 karma

I could never pick a language to devote myself to. And now I've found LOLCODE.

paddyhack32 karma

KTHXBAI

doch_doch126 karma

Is it weird that I find hacking really sexy?

paddyhack212 karma

It's not. Trust me.

paddyhack369 karma

Unless you're willing to put out... in that case it's super sexy.

doch_doch102 karma

a/s/l ;)

paddyhack199 karma

Haha, I'm not close enough to Germany, but thanks anyway. :)

Atwotonhooker85 karma

Dude, you just gave up on a sure thing!

SwisherSweets31 karma

doch_doch...

Dont get his hopes up.

paddyhack12 karma

Disturbingly accurate. ;)

melodyne53108 karma

I've always been interested in what possesses a hacker to hack, i have a few questions:

1) Why did you hack? 2) did you make a living off of it? 3) Where you given contracts to breach government security or big corporations?

paddyhack198 karma

1, I needed a hobby 2. No, but if I was an asshole I'd be rich 3. Nope.

Jiminpuna101 karma

A white hat for you sir. Well maybe with some black stripes but still, well done.

paddyhack193 karma

I'm a little grey, but fuck it.

SketchyThaClown87 karma

Grey hats have the most fun.

paddyhack77 karma

And 10 times the chicks of white hats. (10 x 0 = 0)

24oi94 karma

How long have you been out of the game, so to speak?

paddyhack148 karma

Over a year or so. I made the decision to quit as I was getting too paranoid. Were there people after me, etc.

CowzGoesMoo58 karma

Was it the government? Did you find any cool secrets that you want to share? :D

paddyhack112 karma

No, and no.

Undeniablu41 karma

So what's your new replacement hobby?

[deleted]150 karma

fapping

ThatJesterJeff18 karma

Hey, fapping is way more than just a hobby!

vebent25 karma

paddyhack112 karma

I'm in talks with a sponsorship company at the minute to live my dream of making my fapping career go fulltime.

24oi92 karma

Are you a reverse engineer by nature? Have you always been the type to take things apart and figure out what makes said thing tick?

paddyhack183 karma

Yes! You get it. Well that's part of it. The other part of it, which was a major learning point was the human side of it. "There is no patch for human stupidity" is a great quote.

I remember dumping a few thoussand email usernames and passwords (cleartext) off a site and writing a script to make them log in to their email addresses. Had about a 75% hitrate. Basically, if you use your email password anywhere else but your email account.... you're gonna have a bad time

FelicianoX88 karma

Time to change my email password!

paddyhack226 karma

24oi15 karma

So true. And funny how 98% of people do exactly that! I've always had the itch but never the right environment to learn I suppose. Love the fact that people such as yourself can have a complete understanding of things from the most basic components on up.

paddyhack30 karma

That's the key. You sometimes need to know the ins and outs of stuff to see gaps in the fence.

HankHillWearingACape85 karma

Have you ever thought of taking down child porn sites? Or even terrorist websites?

paddyhack36 karma

I have thought about it, but that's a whole new level of dedication. From what I remember, those sites are only found on .onion. I've used that before, but always got pissed off with the latency issues, and ragequitted. If the opportunity presented itself, sure thing.

rpg78 karma

How come you post your twitter on here and on the defacement page telling people to follow you? Are you just another wannabe hacker seeking reputation on the internet like the majority of "hackers" on Twitter who revolve themselves around each other?

It's cool that you took down a group of scammers but I'm curious about the other stuff.

paddyhack137 karma

Nah dude. Internet rep is as important as Reddit karma. It's worthless. It was a calling card if anyone wanted to send me a message, that's all. Ironically, I hate those bastards with a passion,and this was my first deface per se. The reason I did the deface was to prove that I took down their entire system piece by piece irreversibly. I do understand where you're coming from.

That was another reason I decided to quit. Too many bitches just wanting to deface random sites 'for the lulz' and the knock some poor assholes site offline with a front page deface, they demand respect. Hope I made myself a little clearer. Excellent question. Possibly the best one I got tonight. :)

KimJongUno43 karma

So... "the jester"... not a fan?

paddyhack49 karma

Oh I remember jester. Don't remember what he got up to. There were plenty of others that pissed me off though

gnopgnip66 karma

What did the scammers do to make you come out of retirement?

paddyhack136 karma

If you read the previous posting, you'll see what happened. Whenever I hear of shit like this, I almost instinctively do a reconnaisance on their site, look for obvious holes, etc. I spotted one almost immediately, and posted to Reddit saying that I found something nice. I have no time for assholes like that.

24oi87 karma

And we all thank you for your swift and effective action! I can't stand assholes such as them either but don't have the know how to take action like you did.

paddyhack124 karma

Thanks bro. It's nice to know that people cared.

UltimateHemorrhoid66 karma

If you were to hack someone's facebook account, how fast could you do it?

paddyhack230 karma

I am not a God. It depends on a ton of variables. Having access to their laptop to begin with is an excellent start. The question I ask you is, why the fuck would you want to hack someone's Facebook?

thatgamerguy491 karma

why the fuck would you want to hack someone's Facebook?

Probably to post a status about how his friend is gay.

paddyhack488 karma

"I luv kissing boys. Lol"

UltimateHemorrhoid41 karma

It was a dumb question, I apologize. Let me ask a new question. How many major sites and/or systems have you taken down in your career as a hacker?

paddyhack94 karma

I generally don't take down anything. The majority of my breaches are probably still undiscovered. I don't want to give a number,

UltimateHemorrhoid39 karma

I respect you for keeping the number unrevealed. Good night Paddyhack

paddyhack44 karma

Thanks dude.

antonbe32 karma

Facebook is pretty simple to hack if they're using Wifi, especially if you have access to that network already, like in a coffee shop.

paddyhack62 karma

AFAIK, only when it's using http, and not https, but I could be wrong.

fluffyponyza38 karma

FireSheep

paddyhack61 karma

Yes. There are other methods out there but this requires NO experience to run. Spooky.

fluffyponyza51 karma

Yep. I'm a big fan of ARP poisoning, and then using MITMproxy. You'll be surprised at how many people install the root CA cert when prompted (I normally route them to the cert when they access Google). Hotel wifis almost never have AP isolation on, so it's perfect for this sort of thing.

Always uncovering, never malicious.

paddyhack47 karma

This.... This is a field that I have the most interest in. I've been studying Networking the last year, so seeing how ARP poisoning works is fascinating. MITM. Lots of fun with that!

securitytheatre27 karma

Working in network security and vulnerability management/pen-testing, I can tell you that expert understanding of networking is the most key part of pretty much every area of it-sec.

paddyhack41 karma

Exactly. When you see how traffic flows up and down the OSI model (and the protocols inbetween), you gain a massive insight. I think that Wireshark was the best tool for me when I was understanding what happens on the network.

Bearzilla7561 karma

What do you find the most fulfilling thing about hacking?

paddyhack130 karma

I suppose for me it's the danger element. Being somewhere that I'm not supposed to, and getting one up on a person. Also, the education of learning it was the biggest thrill for me. If you've ever learned to pick a lock, you know what I mean.

Bearzilla7550 karma

On a side note where can you learn to hack?

paddyhack292 karma

Hacker 101 - "You don't learn to hack, you hack to learn"

Boneclinks61 karma

Are you afraid of getting caught for this or any and all other escapades you have been involved in?

paddyhack87 karma

Not any more. I was very paranoid for a while. I've taken precautions to make sure that I don't leave any trail, and any trail that may be found, doesn't lead back to me.

irapedmspacman32 karma

b b b b b b botnets?

paddyhack85 karma

No, just common sense.

Servious96 karma

7 proxies.

paddyhack119 karma

Prevents backtracing.

ICantThinkOfAnythin53 karma

I'm a scrub when it comes to "covering your tracks." Is it even possible to go "7 proxies deep"? I know the whole 7 proxies thing is a joke, but I was wondering if there was any truth to that at all.

paddyhack102 karma

It's technically possible, but the latency (delay) of your connect would suck balls. Even tunnelling 2-3 servers has shitty lag. I may have always been using sucky tunnels though!

irapedmspacman24 karma

irish?

paddyhack58 karma

Yes. It's no secret. :)

the-sheep20 karma

Did you study in Ireland? I'm in DIT at the moment, Curious to know what college you may have gone to.... and thanks for the AMA... Really interesting

paddyhack36 karma

Thanks. No I don't study in college at the minute but I see that DIT have a digital forensics course that I'd love to do.

rwat12855 karma

How good are Chinese and/or Russian hackers really? Does China or Russia really have an advantage over the US in terms of cyber warfare?

paddyhack101 karma

I'm only speculating, but I believe so, yes. One main advantage would be the "no fucks given" attitude as it is believed that the chances of getting caught are slim to none. Where the USA would find and prosecute 'cyberterrorists', it is feasible, that theses people could be drafted in as their country's internet army. Again, pure speculation.

[deleted]6 karma

internet army

now here's a term that's quite a bit different than the context I usually read it in.

Do you think country's will/are doing this? An "army" of computer/tech related people to fight "cyber wars" (as the movies would call them)

paddyhack13 karma

With counties relying more and more on a network infrastructure, it would be foolish to assume otherwise. Stuxnet is an example of this that seems to be a Govt funded mission.

Pyrovx44 karma

When will hacking in real life work the same way as it does in movies?

paddyhack128 karma

The question I ask is.... When will hacking in the movies be the same as in real life?

You see glimpses of nmap running in The Bourne Ultimatum, then they try to penetrate The Guardian Newspapers server to gain access to the guy's email account. A plausible tool to use there.

Hack the Gibson? When the fuck did a security system look like a NES?

movzx28 karma

Have you seen Person of Interest (TV show)? I'm actually impressed with the lingo they use. It's not totally batshit. They still suffer from MovieOS, but I get a kick out of calling my girlfriend in to the room and saying "That thing he said is correct! Those are real words!"

paddyhack39 karma

"I have worked around the algorithmic bypass module by redirecting the UDP headers and rehashing the proxy ports, spoofing the scanner sockets with a 256bit AES encryption". All the words seems to make sense, but together, are complete bullshit.

24 and NCIS are classic offenders of this.

MustLoveVaginas39 karma

Can You Release Romney's Taxes?

paddyhack30 karma

.... and done.

paddyhack37 karma

Request: Can someone please email this person http://adamsteinbaugh.com/2012/08/03/searching-for-info-on-thelocaldirectoryassistance-com/ and point him to the previous page? He was looking into seeing if TheLocalDirectoryAssistance.com was fraudulent, and also if it was linked to a “Yellow Pages” scam. Yes it was.

EDIT: Wrong link

Thank you so much

goodreverend36 karma

Ha. That's me. Don't worry, I've been following along here and on Twitter. I just wanted to build some evidence and describe how the scam operates, and share with people how to track down scammers, similar to the series Popehat did. I was using some purposefully vague language about it maybe being a scam to avoid the risk of defamation liability.

paddyhack5 karma

Thank you goodreverend! All your suspicions were confirmed.

shallowpersonality37 karma

I read the thread about 12 hours ago and saw the youtube vid of the guy giggling and having fun trying to hinder the bottom feeder. Now I'm reading about your progression the case and developments.

Can you do an "explain it like I'm a 5 year old", on what it takes to ruin a bottom feeders payday. If it's too complicated, fugetaboutit.

I fought the law-The Clash

paddyhack60 karma

Since you posted a favourite of mine, I'll bite.

Apart from ruining his business, if you're able to put a name or a face to the perp, you have done a lot. This method is called doxing, and requires no hacking skills per se, but good knowledge of search engines. Say I give you a name and a city along with a few details. You google them and maybe you come up with a phone number, a website, an email address, Facebook page etc. A lot of scammers hide behind a persona, and once they are revealed, that can do a lot of psychological damage to them. As dox gets posted around the web, their name gets associated with their past. You can let the 4channers and script kiddies do the rest. That's one answer. I hope that suffices.

shallowpersonality23 karma

I asked my question before reading about cleartext and passwords (no clue, just sounds ominous). I got scared.

Your description sounds like the bottom feeder will become exposed. From there they will have to do 2 things: 1. Create a new identity to continue making money and 2. Try to avoid any heat brought upon by the exposure. Hopefully the cops will become interested. From the original thread I remember $100,000 being a # for official interest. $500/scam x 200 scams = $100,000.

pic of a girl on a skateboard

to dissuade any hacks pointed at me. "I just wanna ride, man." Thanks

paddyhack33 karma

Personally, I have no time or desire to ruin anyone's life that's a decent person. I even feel a little bad for ruining this shmuck's business. In other words, you're fine for now. ;)

Holycity28 karma

How do you feel about anonymous?

paddyhack91 karma

The real anonymous are fantastic in my opinion. Hactivism at its finest. It's the wannabe anons that hang out in Hackforums.net that are the cancer. I have never personally performed anything under the anon banner nor would I want to. Some of those guys are on a completely different level of skill, and most of their targets are legitimate. I haven't been following up on them recently.

SketchyThaClown29 karma

Oh God, Hack Forums is equal parts hilarious and depressing to read over. 1337h4x and Skiddies at their finest. I dunno, while they make themselves an incredibly easy target, they did color my view of person security. If some jackoff preteen with a prohaxxor mentality and too much caffeine can root a system downloading (virus infested) kits off a forum, God forbid anyone ever encounter a real hacker. At least, those with darker shades of hat, anyway. Security, be it physical or cyber, is fallible. TOOOL and Defcon have pretty much confirmed that for me. If I know that a chain lock can be opened with a rubber band, and a hotel door with a tool that can be recreated with some wire and fishing line? Not to mention about five other ways? Then the saving grace is really that, at the end of the day, most of us just aren't worth the effort. I've got a lot of respect for hacktivism, because it's apparent that the people that got hit? Made themselves a big, bright target, and didn't bother to take the measures to protect themselves when they did. Is it legally accepted? No. Is it morally alright? Sometimes. But intention means a lot. And I'd like to believe that, short of the black hats and the script kiddies out there, there's a lot of self-challenge and moral judgement behind, at the very least hacktivism, if not most grey/whitehatting as a whole.

paddyhack41 karma

"need 2 hck faecbuk. hlp pls."

Wigglez127 karma

What are your thoughts on DDOSing? A lot of professional gamers are having major problems with being DDOSed during tournaments (resulting in them being forced to Forfeit)

paddyhack76 karma

Fuck ddossing. It can have its benefits taking down large websites if done properly but other than that it serves no purpose only for a skiddie to claim that they 'hacked' a site.

davver25 karma

What do you think of the Flame and Stuxnet viruses?

paddyhack23 karma

Incredibly dangerous if you believe that they are backed by a Government.

MrCool8786719 karma

What made you want to become an amazing hacker in the first place?

paddyhack55 karma

A. I'm not amazing. Far from it. I just figured out a bad system, and ran with it, B. I'm a techie. I love all things tech. I live and breath it,

Under_Doggy_Dogg18 karma

Do you find it ironic that the guy(s) seeking revenge here are probably going to be in waaaay more trouble than the scammers? I can see how they could easily explain away what they were doing, close up shop and move, or even refund a little money to the loudest complainers and go forward. The voicemail hacker laid out all the evidence the prosecutor would need in posts and Youtube videos.

paddyhack64 karma

I see your point about the video. I admit to what I did, and realise that it's legally wrong, but morally, I feel fine. If I get caught, I'll deal with the consequences. This was my choice. It wasn't for fame or honour, it was because it was the right thing to do.

drum_playing_twig64 karma

Are you Batman?

paddyhack44 karma

No, I am not the hero Gotham needs.

Dajego17 karma

Can you name any internet/book sources to get ino hacking/cracking? For example which coding language would be a good start, etc.?

paddyhack53 karma

First up, change to Linux for your everyday system. Secondly, learn the command line languages (Bash, and Python). Have an understanding for web languages, especially PHP alongside MySQL. That's a good foundation. A passion for IT is mandatory.

Learn about the technologies associated with what your target is. I am still learning everyday, so pick a topic that seems feasible, and go from there.

A site I haven't been to in a while is securitytube which will show you some stuff.

Take a basic look at what's possible, pick one, and stick at it. It's almost impossible to be excellent in all fields.

yourtehdiction13 karma

How much would it cost to hypothetically teach someone everything you know?

paddyhack21 karma

Someone with a decent understanding of tech would get to me in a year if dedicated. The majority of it is learning the tech behind the hack.

Grinch42012 karma

How much schooling have you had for this? Or is it mostly self-taught?

paddyhack37 karma

All self taught, If you have a passion for something, then learning it is fun!

24oi29 karma

And thank Linus for the open source community and the endless knowledge it provides!

paddyhack27 karma

Yeah totally. Big love to Torvalds.

Holycity10 karma

What system do you use? Linux? Also are macs hard to hack or is it just they're not wide spread enough to be worth the time?

paddyhack37 karma

Macs and Linux are cousins underneath it all. When you're looking to infect as many PC's as possible, you'll look at the stats, realise that 9/10 home computers are windows, and dedicate time scripting an exploit for that platform. If Macs were in the majority, there'd be an increase of exploit research and therefore more virii. There are other reasons to, but that's a major one.

paddyhack28 karma

Sorry, yes I run Linux on all my systems.

Fjols19 karma

[deleted]

paddyhack5 karma

For my main machine, I use Mint for it's lack of headaches. I put Arch on my netbook deliberately so I was forced into learning about more of the Linux backend. Best decision I made.

24oi10 karma

How are you still awake??

paddyhack16 karma

I was going to bed 6 hours ago... Oh well. Coffee and nicotine are keeping me in check for now. I'll probably have to call it a night for a few hours, and answer any questions when I wake. I'm good for now though

Theaznlazo9 karma

Do you have any suggtions in terms of password strength? I know different passwords for other accounts is a great idea, but are their any other ways to protect myself? I feel as if the need is high, any account can be cracked.

paddyhack21 karma

There's a thread in adviceanimals about passwords. The biggest lesson I've leaned was to have numerous passwords. If I crack a site, chances are I'll have your email address and password that you use to log into the site. Chances are high that this is also your email password.

lonex5 karma

What made you get started ? Was it love to discover ? or a sweet revenge ?

paddyhack13 karma

Yeah basically, the love of the possibility of breaking into systems. Not to do damage, but to peek inside

thebigrip11174 karma

How did you learn how to hack?

paddyhack29 karma

As I posted before, you don't learn to hack, you hack to learn.

Get an old wifi router and turn on wep encryption on it. See if you can break into it. I'm giving you no clues. There's your challenge.

Don't just download software and run it. Find out WHY you can crack it, and why this doesn't work for wpa for example.