Myspace founder was teen superhacker

MYSPACE CO-FOUNDER Tom Anderson has been outed as 14-year-old superhacker, by Tech Crunch.

Anderson, who is actually 37 and not the 32 he admits to on his Myspace page, was 14 and in high school in Escondido, California when he was subjected to one of the largest FBI raids in California history.

Apparently he hacked into a Chase Manhattan Bank computer system and showed his mates how to do it.

The FBI never arrested the tiny toe-rag because he was too young, but Inspector Knacker of the Californian yard did nick all his computer gear in the hope he never did it again.

Anderson went by the hacker name 'Lord Flathead' and used a similar hacking technique to David Lightman in the flick War Games.

He used a simple computer program that dialled sequential phone numbers until it received a modem response which was usually a UNIX mainframe with slack security.

During the Chase Manhattan Bank DEC VAX computer system hack he guessed the passwords necessary to get through the first level of security. Then he changed two passwords to prevent bank officials from getting into the system.

He created fictitious accounts and then Lord Flathead told bank staff that, unless he was given free use of the system, he would destroy records.

The bank told the cops and Anderson was caught using a phone trace. More than 50 coppers swooped on the homes of Anderson and his mates and seized 25 personal computers. µ

L'Inq
Techcrunch