Jonathan James was enjoying breaking into the computer network of schools in his city when he was only 13 years old, before he penetrated the Bell South phone website and replaced the home page with ironic messages to prove his genius, saying, "This is just evidence of poor security for Bell South."
The French newspaper Le Figaro opened with this introduction, an article by Didier Sanz, in which he reviewed the story of a small hacker who called himself "Comrade", who was living in his family's house south of Miami, and had a great experience in computer security, he gained by persevering and passionate about this device since he was in He was six years old, until his father confiscated the apparatus from which he was spending the whole night sitting in front of him.
As his skills developed, the Windows system was no longer sufficient for Jonathan James, who began installing more sophisticated tools on his Linux computer, and the more he advanced his skills, the more he wanted to test his capabilities.
15-year-old attacks NASA
James has the opportunity on June 29, 1999, as young as 15 years old, when he discovers a way to break the security of a computer system at the NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and has access to 13 computers.
From this adventure, Jonathan James got the software and information related to the space project, only to know later that this was the temperature and humidity control program on the International Space Station.
The process did not go unnoticed, as agency security officials noticed the intervention and decided to separate their computers for 3 weeks, tightening the security of their networks and rewriting all programs, and radical measures that cost the agency thousands of dollars.
Just learn
James did not attempt to steal confidential information, but all his concern was knowing how to set up management software, and he told BBS TV in 2001 that "the only reason I downloaded the source code from NASA was because I was studying programming in the science department, and of course there is no It is better to learn than to read programs written by the government. "
James takes his learning to the next level after a few weeks, when he attacks a section of the US Defense Department, which was just created to monitor the threats to the United States, using a secret method of access, which enabled him to install spyware on a computer in the agency.
This allowed him to intercept thousands of calls and messages exchanged between employees, which ultimately enabled him to obtain the user names and passwords that allowed him to access 10 military computers.
In an analysis, James said, "The government has not taken adequate security measures on most of its computers. There is a serious lack of knowledge in this field, and the most difficult part is its awareness."
Door Investigation Office
James is slowly moving away from the applied business that he was claiming to do for training, taking his pirate game, driven by the taste of risk and a sense of pride, indicating later that what motivates him to piracy "is the presence of power at your fingertips, you can control all the computers of the government, the army and large companies ".
Meanwhile, the authorities took harsh measures against him, and on January 26, 2000, 12 police and federal agents rang the doorbell of the family’s home, James says, “As I understand it, they called a friend of mine who gave them some information about me, then they came to my house My mother woke me up and told me that the FBI was at the door. It was very bewildering. I went out and saw a lot of people were carrying rifles and bullet-proof vests with the backs of them saying “FBI” and “NASA” and “Ministry of Defense”.
the prize
The court decided that James stole $ 1.7 million of computer and data programs, to face at least 10 years in prison and a fine of thousands of dollars, and he pleaded guilty to two counts of commutation of the sentence, eventually to be sentenced to 7 months in prison with a two-year house arrest, He is prohibited from using computers with the obligation to write letters of apology to NASA and the Department of Defense.
The writer says that the young man was pursued by his ghosts again, after a group of hackers stole bank details and passwords from computer systems in major retail chains in the United States, the FBI immediately believed that Jonathan James was involved in the case, and they searched his family's home and interrogated His parents and friends.
Loss of control
Although James swore his innocence, the investigation was repeated when the police, among the correspondence of the suspects, found references to a mysterious CJ named alleged to have infiltrated, indicating the initials of the name Jonathan James.
After a new FBI visit to James's house with further interrogation, Jonathan James was found dead in his bathroom, with a handgun in his hand, and he left a suicide message, writing: "Frankly, I have nothing to do with this case, and I have no faith in the judicial system. I lost control of this situation, and this is my only way to restore it. "