[ISN] Guilty Plea: Blind Hacker Admits Harassment, Eavesdropping, Fraud

From: InfoSec News <alerts_at_private>
Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2009 00:04:45 -0600 (CST)
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/01/guilty-plea-bli.html

By Kevin Poulsen 
Threat Level
Wired.com
January 30, 2009

A legally blind Massachusetts phone hacker admitted this week to federal 
computer intrusion and witness intimidation charges that could put him 
away for as long as 13 years.

Matthew Weigman, 18, pleaded guilty to two felonies before U.S. 
Magistrate Judge Paul D. Stickney in Dallas on Tuesday.  Known in the 
telephone party-line scene as "Li'l Hacker," Weigman is widely 
considered one of the best phone hackers alive.

Relying on an ironclad memory and detailed knowledge of the phone 
system, the teenager is known for using social engineering to manipulate 
phone company workers and others into divulging confidential 
information, and into entering commands into computers and telephone 
switching equipment on his behalf.  The FBI had been chasing Weigman 
since he was 15 years old, at times courting him as an informant.  He 
was finally arrested last May, less than two months after celebrating 
his 18th birthday.

"I've been interested in phones since I've been about 8," Weigman said 
in a 2007 interview with Wired.com. "I talked to technicians when they 
came down here to do things on my phone."

[...]


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Received on Sun Feb 01 2009 - 22:04:45 PST

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