Every black hat hacker has an origin story. Just as the hands of circumstances, seemingly woven by fate, shape anomalous incidents in history caused by powerful figures, a hacker is born in a similar vein. Meanwhile, influence is the shaping force that makes the hacktivist.
This is an interview with the new leader of Black Forums, known by his alias USDoD—a name he handpicked to troll the FBI after his infamous InfraGard data breach, which contained information on more than 80,000 members of the FBI’s non-profit organization and information portal, InfraGard. His name alone sparked jokes around the internet to the tune of “DoD hacked the FBI.”
USDoD inherited the legacy of its predecessor, Astounding. Black Forums, which also goes by the names BlackRose, BlackSec, and SparrowSec, initially existed as a component of The Five Families. Nevertheless, with a change in leadership came a change in direction regarding the future of Black Forums.
As USDoD explained, Astounding charged his successor to withdraw from The Five Families and to pursue their goals independently, as before. As Astounding started shutting down their online assets during his transition from leadership, ownership of the Black Forums Telegram group was bestowed to USDoD, seemingly without much ceremony. But for those familiar with Astounding, nothing was ever done without careful consideration.
It was because of Black Forums' renowned reputation that I was drawn to his story, trying to learn and understand this enigmatic persona operating from the recesses of unknown corners of cyberspace. With that said, it is often difficult to glean such stories due to the need for anonymity and OPSEC.
What I learned ultimately changed everything I thought I knew about him, which shed significant insight into the mind of a prolific hacktivist with extraordinary capabilities, with empathy being one of his strongest characteristics, regardless of the complexity of the person behind the mask.
It is important for him and should be important for our readership, to understand that he is, firstly, a living, breathing person like the rest of us despite the elaborate, larger-than-life cybercriminal portrait painted by industry cybersecurity reports. Like many of us who avoid the news due to its excessively negative nature, which steals happiness and personal peace, he resists it so as not to become disillusioned with the world.
Therefore, it is imperative to consider that the spirit of hacktivism, at its core, is a labor of love and a personal sacrifice for the preservation of humanity. This spirit is accompanied by a deep philosophical hatred for injustice by abusive powers that prey on and victimize society.
Hacktivists are a force of social vindication, however idealized that sounds.
With that being said, the story of USDoD thus begins here.
Booting up
“I got my first computer in 97,” UsDoD reminisced, as he recalled a time when Microsoft Windows 95 was the consumer operating system of choice. “[I]t was a simple configuration, I believe it was a Pentium 133, very old, but I was fascinated. [A]t the time, there was already Google, the first version of Google. It reminds me a lot of what Craigslist used to be like nowadays, there were categories of sites that we wanted to visit. I was quite young and even had difficulty getting the names of the sites in my head.
“I felt "connected," but not in the networking sense. It was as if a world of possibilities had opened up to me.”
As I thought upon his words, I recalled something similar written by The Mentor in his 1986 essay The Conscience of a Hacker, perhaps more famously known as The Hacker Manifesto:
“And then it happened... a door opened to a world... rushing through
the phone line like heroin through an addict's veins, an electronic pulse is
sent out, a refuge from the day-to-day incompetencies is sought... a board is
found. "This is it... this is where I belong..."
Hacktivism: the origin story
UsDOD described his very first hack, the one that propelled him onto the next and the next. He explained that it wasn’t until between 2 and 4 years after he got his first computer that the world of hacking unfolded, and thus his journey began.
“It took a while, I would say, between 2 and 4 years after I got my first computer.
I aroused my curiosity very quickly, but I was a very young child, so I ended up making certain mistakes. For example, I downloaded a program to create a virus, but I was mistaken and ended up being infected by something executable.”
He told me that in the early stages of his hacking journey, he had two defining moments that had a great impact on his life, which occurred within a space of three years between each act.
The first happened in 1999 when he managed to use social engineering to expose a pedophile who was part of a certain gaming community. However, his next feat would happen in 2022, which certainly validated his role and identity as a cyber vigilante.
“A few years later, undergoing some training, I gained root access to a federal agency in a certain country after uploading a web shell exploiting a cross-directory attack.”
He had been hired to investigate Monsanto, the agricultural biotech giant, for evidence of alleged corruption by looking for data contained in federal investigative records that could shed light on the company's activities behind the scenes. This was nearly a decade before Anonymous made headlines for a succession of cyberattacks against the industry giant.
However, his hacktivism ideology was significant, denoting a stance of neutrality rather than picking sides in geopolitical conflicts. “I like how the geopolitical can put people and organizations/governments in different spaces but with related goals. I never got into a geopolitical influence due to the fact I run my own s**t”.
USDoD continued, saying, “I can partly f**k any government I want because I don't have a flag or don't follow orders from a king. I have my own flag and that is the black flag. I'm, by nature, a pirate. Back in the day, I already fought against corruption, and I don't pick sides. I play both sides and always win.”
Subduing enemies through dark pranks
However, every hacker has prank stories. Some could argue that depending on the shade of the hacker’s hat, some pranks might be darker than others. Personally, I keep most of my cards close to my chest. Nevertheless, USDOD shed insight into some of his past hacker antics, emphasizing that they were necessary and thereby justified.
“There are some organizations connected to the police and the local government, where they place rewards or simply put up wanted posters for people for different crimes,” he explained. “I got access to these systems, and I put rewards and real photos of people I didn't like, so I put all my rivals wanted for rape. They were real enemies in my life or simply rivals.” He was sending a message - a message well received, I imagine.
In my experience as a former blackhat hacker, it isn’t unusual for skilled hackers to demonstrate an extraordinary show of force when contending with persistent enemies or personal threats. We typically don’t attract normal enemies. We are often hunted by individuals possessing a very dark psychology, including the worst narcissists with a god complex, Machiavellian cyber trolls, sociopaths, and stalkers.
He then explained that sometime after the deed was done, the system admins managing the organization's website simply shut the site down for maintenance. Interestingly enough, they didn’t reopen the site until five months later and built it from scratch, avoiding using any code from the previous version.
Dissatisfaction with conventional education
Our disillusionment with the education system runs deep. As someone who can never stop quoting The Hacker Manifesto, its author also shared a profound disillusionment with the education system because he found its monotonous nature unstimulating, along with its apparent inability to challenge students who grasp concepts faster than others.
For him, school was an unexciting experience, and he didn’t seem to be able to offer his mind anything tangible or interesting. For one, he was daydreaming about computers and endless possibilities.
“Since I was young, I disliked every school I ever started to go to. I never was able to adapt in school to start to learn. For me, [it] feels a waste of time. I spent my time growing my social skills in school and talking with everyone rather than studying at school. I disliked just sitting around and learning. After a while, I quit school and started learning English on my own and studying cyber sec on my own at home doing my own research.”
Varying ethical shades
He described his ethical worldview, clarifying that he is not entirely blackhat but also conducts whitehat activities, which he would prefer not to disclose at this time. One thing I personally find annoying is how nobody has arrived at any agreeable conclusion to the different ethical hats hackers wear, and yet it is still a popular topic. This is because the hacker’s perspective is still a mind that remains misunderstood.
I asked him if people overcomplicate these things.
“Yes, even myself can be complicated sometimes. We have to align ethics in our line of duty, which can be hard sometimes. There are some boundaries that I just won't cross. I won’t attack hospitals, child care facilities, nuclear power plants, poor people, and countries that have a civil or military conflict.”
That is, unless these are engaged in some form of public corruption, hurting members of society. After all, part of the hacktivist's unwritten creed is to fight corruption wherever it can be found and without inadvertently causing harm the the very people they are devoted to defending.
For example, he recalled a time when hacking a hospital was necessary after finding reasonable grounds for corruption. He was visiting New York in 2012 for cancer treatment and found himself bonding with a hospital employee while he was a patient. He confided in her about his suspicions and the findings themselves, and she aided him in his investigation.
Without divulging specifics, he found that the hospital had a long history of receiving billion-dollar government funding. Since the organization controlled virtually all other hospitals that treat cancer throughout the entire country, the owners live obnoxiously rich, lavish lifestyles in Miami and New York and have wealth spread across the American continent.
The day before he planned to leak the evidence to the media, she vanished without a trace, and no amount of effort on his part could uncover what had happened to her. This caused the USDoD tremendous distress. Not only had the woman he closely bonded with disappeared, but he was now worried that if he moved forward with the leak, he might disappear, too.
He hired a private investigator, but they came up empty-handed, which was unusual since the investigator should have been able to obtain records or confirmation of her employment at the hospital.
He was never able to find her again.
This not only struck him with fear and hesitancy to follow through with the data leak but also provoked a deep sadness and a greater disdain for the insurmountable corruption in the United States.
“They are powerful, and I almost died trying to expose those pr*cks,” he said.
A message to hackers of the world
Whenever I have the opportunity to interview a hacktivist, it presents a unique opportunity to help shape the next generation. In our subculture, the teachers of today, if you can find them, will influence the hackers of tomorrow and ultimately shape their ideology and impact the ethical choices they will make.
USDoD shared the following words, saying “My word to everyone who’s starting in this world is to open their heart, their mind, their brain and their body and explore every aspect of hacking. You have the power to change the world and if you have time, love, and desire to learn and create something great you have more than most people will ever have.”
He finished by saying, “If you are simply above average, you will be ahead of any people, including some who live it. This is because there are not many competitors around the globe, and believe me, you just have to be 50% above the average [intellect]. You don't need to be the best. I'm not the best. I'm just above average.”
“Repeat after me… ‘I will never steal from the weak and vulnerable.’ All the rest everyone is allowed to do.”
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