Prison Personnel Lets Super Hacker Use Their Computer

Guess what happens next. 

Before we tell you, let’s give you a little background. Before he was arrested in 2011, Nicholas Webber described himself as the world's "most wanted cybercriminal." At the tender age of seventeen, he created the site GhostMarket, where he gave tips on harvesting credit card data and writing computer viruses.

But that’s not all; he also provided a clearinghouse for hundreds of thousands of stolen credit cards. Webber used stolen financial data to buy high-end electronics and reserve rooms in luxury hotels, including a penthouse at London's Park Lane Hilton.

This infamous British hacker, who was responsible for as much as $22 million in financial fraud before going to prison,hacked into his its computer system after he was allowed to use a computer while attending an IT class.

Needless to say, Webber didn't need any lessons in information technology. It is a mystery as to why the prison allowed him to take a class and access a computer in the first place. They either didn’t know about his past crimes or didn’t care. Let’s give the prison workers the benefit of the doubt and say that he gained access to the class by bribing another inmate who looked like him and then wore sunglasses and a hoodie to disguise himself. 

Although the incident took place in 2011, it has come to light now because the worker whom the prison blamed for the hack—and who was subsequently fired—is suing his former employer. Michael Fox (wait, is that his real name or is this yet another case of identity theft?) claims he had no idea Webber was a hacker when he allowed him into the class.

Officials continue to assert that Webber did not access private data. But according to The Daily Mail, the hack caused "major panic" at the prison, and issues began happening that had not happened previously.

HM Isis, the brand-new, $150 million facility where Webber is imprisoned, has been "bedeviled" by a series of technological breakdowns, most related to its state-of-the-art biometric system, where prisoners must swipe their fingerprints to move from one section of the prison to another. According to an inspection last January, the system broke down once every day for five days. We're sure Webber had nothing to do with it.

Many online business owners are just as naïve as this prison worker – allowing vulnerabilities to exist on their websites and servers without ever scanning to see what they are so that they can remove them – simply because they erroneously believe that everyone should worry about hackers except them.