http://www.pingwales.co.uk/security/welsh-hacker-returns.html By Robert Andrews 03 December 2004 The Welsh hacker whose escapades sparked panic about a potential World War III has returned to computer crime, planning a Hollywood-style heist to steal a valuable painting. But Mathew Bevan's latest electronic raid won't attract the long arm of the law - it's just an experiment staged for a television show due to be screened in December. Bevan won notoriety 10 years ago when he was arrested on suspicion of breaching and downloading data from US military computer networks in an effort to uncover evidence of a UFO conspiracy. Aged 21, he was charged with conspiracy after allegedly entering the secret Air Force Research Laboratory system in New York using a rudimentary PC in the back bedroom of his parents' Ely, Cardiff, bungalow. A British court later acquitted him after prosecutors abandoned their case and Bevan, whose hacker alias was "Kuji", renounced hacking to become a respected computer security consultant. He has now been enlisted to join a crack team of five reformed criminal masterminds set the challenge of using their underworld expertise to pull off high-profile thefts for The Heist, a three-part Channel 4 series starting Tuesday, December 7, at 9pm. In the show, the Welshman teams up with arch villains like armed robber Terry Smith, who once escaped from his jail term, and Joey Pyle, a former gangster and friend of the Krays. "Basically, a group of experts is brought together and set a task of performing a robbery under strict conditions, as real-life as possible," said Bevan, now 31, who studied computing at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, and is originally from the Llandaf area of the city. "Each episode covers a different robbery or task and, in each, I am the technology guru or hacker, monitoring and advising each step of the way. "No real criminals who intend to pull off these kinds of heists would actually employ hacker skills to get the job done. The only hacker skills used are my brains. "It's very similar to performing penetration exercises, only the top brass know what's going on, so essentially it is a real-life test of the organisation. There's nothing like a bit of James Bond!" But Bevan, who will appear on Richard & Judy ahead of the first episode, sets his own brush with the law apart from those of the ex-con colleagues on his team. "I never threatened or hurt anyone with my actions," he said. "Everything I did was on a computer screen from my bedroom; some of the other guys were a little more forceful with their actions. It becomes clear that I have a completely different way of looking at things than the others. "Victims" in each of the three shows approved the simulated attacks, welcoming the test of their own security. In the first episode, the team is given four days to steal a painting, The View From The Bandstand by UK artist Andrew Gifford, whilst on display during the London Art Fair at the Business Design Centre. Bevan is on board to scope out weaknesses in the electronic systems of a building regarded as impregnable. In subsequent shows, he uses his keyboard skills to attempt to smuggle a £1m car overseas and to kidnap a prize racehorse. "He's the only one of the ex-criminals in the series who hasn't been convicted," said a Channel 4 spokesperson. In his March 1994 hack - which has become part of internet folklore - Bevan, who is from the Ely area of the capital and has explained he turned to hacking at school to escape bullying, was also said to have mounted attacks on Nasa, Nato and Pentagon computers. Pursued by both Scotland Yard and the FBI, the case produced a hailstorm of hype from news media revelling in computer crime stories - normally the attention hackers crave, until they find themselves in the dock. Though reports claimed the Pentagon regarded Bevan as the number one threat to US security, many of the headlines focused on accomplice Richard Pryce's transfer of a database from a Korean nuclear laboratory computer to the New York machine, which sparked fears of an atomic spat between America and North Korea until it was discovered the lab had, in fact, been in South Korea. Pryce pleaded guilty and was fined £1,200. Following his acquittal at Woolwich Crown Court in November 1997, Bevan reformed and became a so-called "white hat" - a talented hacker who turns his skills to benevolent or commercial use like auditing security systems for a price. Operating under the name Kujimedia, he has since worked as a consultant for the likes of Nintendo and now lives in Wiltshire, from where he advises leading brands on design, viral marketing and online strategies. _________________________________________ Open Source Vulnerability Database (OSVDB) Everything is Vulnerable - http://www.osvdb.org/
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