Despite the fact that he knew he would be found, A.K. continued to bypass Facebook's security measures and infect thousands of computers. Until it all ended on July 2, at 7.30 in the morning when seven police officers from the Cybercrime Investigation Unit, dressed in plain clothes and accompanied by a prosecutor, knocked on his door...
After spending five nights in the GADA detention center, in the same cell as those accused of drug cases, he apologized last Monday and was released with restrictive conditions. "I consider what I did to be an investigation. For some, I am a cracker or a hacker. For others, I may even be a criminal," A.K. told the newspaper "Kathimerini.".
A.K.'s meeting with the newspaper reporter took place at his lawyer's office. He agreed to speak without his full name being published. As stated in the relevant article, he is 27 years old, with a thin beard and blue eyes. He is wearing jeans and a gray T-shirt with the inscription: "I sync therefore I am". A.K., along with a 31-year-old accomplice, who was arrested on the same day and has also been released after pleading guilty, are charged with felonies that could lead to many years in prison.
Digital currency
According to the indictment, the two young men spread the Lecpetex malware through Facebook messages, with which they gained access to other users' computers. They then stole passwords from these users' emails and accounts and used the infected computers to generate the digital currency bitcoin. According to the police, they cashed in these bitcoins on electronic exchanges. The value of one bitcoin is valued at over 450 euros. The Hellenic Police say that the two young men infected over 200,000 computers. A.K. does not reveal the exact number. However, he had a map on his laptop with the devices into which his software had penetrated. "Only in Central Africa and Alaska was there no computer," A.K. says jokingly.
After monitoring their phones and digital traces, the authorities arrived at the homes of the two hackers. The head of the Cybercrime Investigation, Manolis Sfakianakis, described them as geniuses. “People with above-average intelligence, who stand out for their abilities,” he said. And Facebook thanked the Greek police in a letter for arresting the two perpetrators. These days, A.K. hopes to accept a job offer from abroad. His lawyer says that some companies are already interested. If there is an agreement, he says that the ban on leaving the country that has been imposed on the 27-year-old may be lifted.
With grades "at the base"
A.K. does not consider himself a genius. He did not study computer science, despite what was published in the media in the previous days. He grew up in a prefecture of Thrace and completed his second year of high school at a school in Germany, where his family now lives permanently. “I finished school at the limits of the base,” he tells me. “Precisely because all I was interested in was going home and sitting at the computer.”.
He started playing games at the age of 12 and three years later, after conversations he had on IRC, he started dealing with forms of programming. He did not attend any school. Since he was 17, he has lived alone and his priority was, as he says, work and self-preservation. He tried to study Computer-aided Building Design at an IEK in Koufalia, Thessaloniki. However, he did not even complete the first semester. He has worked in internet cafes, but also in illegal casino slot machines, passing the money that players gambled to the computers. A few years ago, he says that he tried to get hired as a programmer at Volkswagen in Germany. He passed some online tests, but a few days before the interview, he returned to Greece. "I did not feel comfortable in Germany. I had to have someone above me telling me that everything would be fine. I am a stressful guy," he says.
He has been living in Athens for the past two years. It was here that he met his 31-year-old accomplice. “This guy and I would write code in rock bars and cafes. We would drink beers and have our laptops in front of us,” he says. “He was the first person in my life who understood how I think and how he thinks. We filled in each other’s gaps.”.
Together they created Lecpetex, a name given to the software by Microsoft. They themselves called the software “Pepe” and the infected computers “ferrets.” When I ask A.K. the source of inspiration, he rolls up his sleeve and reveals a tattoo of the cartoon Pepe the Pooh on his right arm.
They sent Lecpetex as an attachment to Facebook messages. Any user who opened it would forward it to their Facebook friends in the same way. “When it got on a computer, you couldn’t close it,” A.K. says of the malware. “That didn’t do anything. It just waited, listened. It was the first piece of communication with the outside world. Then we would send another program, which would transfer the information we wanted.” The other program could give commands to intercept passwords and electronic wallets. Or even use the power of the infected devices to produce bitcoins. A.K. says they usually put the bitcoins in online lotteries and if they won, they multiplied them. However, he says, the number they had produced was “very small.” “We didn’t make any money. We did our own thing,” he adds.
His lawyer, Spyros Karanikolas, says that A.K. and the 31-year-old did not cash out other users’ bitcoins or withdraw money from electronic accounts. “There is no evidence to prove that the two children had any financial benefit or harmed others,” he claims. “They did whatever they did to test their strength and abilities.” The indictment states that the two hackers stole the security code of the Ministry of Merchant Marine’s email. “We opened an email and it was the ship itineraries that the companies were sending to the ministry, nothing more,” says A.K.
Unlike the police, he claims that they never infected movies, games or songs that are pirated on the Internet and downloaded by users with the software. They simply discussed on the phone the possibility of resorting to such solutions. “For us, the audio recordings are illegal and should not be part of the case file,” says Spyros Karanikolas. However, this seems to indicate the two young people’s addiction to computers. There were periods when they would fall asleep at seven in the morning, after hours in front of their screens. “Facebook had no financial or technical loss. It was trying to protect its users and we were playing catch with it,” says A.K. “It’s a matter of imagination and practice.”.
Source: planet-greece.blogspot.com
