JamesTheHaxor

It was nice to feel a part of a community that recognized my skills, and to feel like a valuable member.

I have Aspergers, and to this day I still spend most of my time at the computer. I don't have any friends in real life so it was nice to be part of a community who were just like me. That was the main reason. But yes, also because I could.

I had no issues committing illegal activities at the time. I was mentally unstable, drinking heavily, smoking too much weed and getting very reckless.

Push a screwdriver into the PSU whilst chanting "we are anonymous".

Jail wasn't difficult no. I never had any issues. People used to constantly ask me if I can help them hack a bank, hack their way out of prison or other ludicrous requests. I didn't mix with the drug addicts I mainly mixed with the white collar criminals as they seemed to be more intelligent.

No. The jail time has ruined any chance of me getting a full time job in security. I can't get security cleared. I was offered a job mid last year for a large well known company. The role required writing software to run security audits and lots of pen testing. But, it required the highest level of clearance. I can't gain employment because of jail time.

Sorry for the long response. I was caught up responding to other comments and didn't realise this was at the top.

On my main machine I use QubeOS. I use Tor (via an old Dell machine) and a VPN. I set up the VPN myself and regularly set up new servers and switch them. I adopt different personas and never link anything back to my personal accounts. Just little habbits.

I have some things like my Soundcloud, Github etc that I'm not too concerned about. Stuff like that I don't mind if it's out in the open.

My machines use full disk encryption. If possible I will use public hotspots and randomly change my mac address so that no little clues are left on the router to confirm my machine connected to it.

I try to do as much as possible to keep certain things private and unlinked. I'm only human though.

I don't do anything illegal these days though, so I'm not as worried about having to hide certain bits of sensitive or incriminating data :)

I'll come back to this later if I have time. I need to answer some more comments.