Kevin Poulsen Apprehends Sex Offenders

[DarkDante]

You all may remember the case of Kevin Poulsen (aka "Dark Dante") as profiled on Unsolved Mysteries in 1990. Poulsen was a young man who became very proficent at using computers and had a knack for using them to obtain information that he wasn't supposed to have access to (a process which is now known as hacking)

Pouslen's activities walked the line between juvenile and often amusing (pranking his friends by listening in on their phone conversations and rigging a radio contest to ensure that he would be the 102nd caller in order to win a Porsche) to activities of a more serious and criminal nature as his interest/obsession grew (breaking and entering into a telephone company in order to obtain equipment so he could enhance his hacking capabilities)

The UM segment itself is rather humorous as they interview a lot of FBI agents and other authorities who were scratching their heads as to what Poulsen's "end-game" might be. One over the top FBI agent thought that Kevin Poulsen was working as an agent for the Soviets and said he was a "dangerous threat to any citizen" - Yeah so dangerous that when they caught him he only got a jail sentence of little over two years - Least dangerous threat to society I ever heard of!

Kevin was released from prison in 1996 and got back involved in the cyber world as an journalist working in conjunction with a California based security firm. In October of last year, Poulsen released information about his successful infiltration of MYSPACE in order to identify and bring out into the open registered sex offenders who were using the service in order to solicit sex from children. Poulsen's research has helped authorities identify nearly 800 sex offenders with MYSPACE profiles, and currently one of them (Andrew Lubrano) has been arrested while I would assume several others remain under surveillance.

PS: Another interesting point regarding Poulsen is that he may have hacked into the "Unsolved Mysteries" telecenter at one point in time. On the night the Poulsen case was first profiled the telecenter (phone lines and computers) mysteriously crashed. Some believe that Poulsen himself was behind this infiltration although Poulsen himself has never taken credit for it.

[LooksLikeCRicci]

It's nice to see that Dark Dante is using his powers for good instead of evil. I never really viewed him as a threat to society, either, but I think it's great that he's helping to make society better.

And if he really WAS the person behind the UM computers and phones crashing... I have to give him props, because that's pretty funny. Are his internet activities still being monitored to your knowledge, Dark Dante? Who knows? He could be talking to us on the boards now...

[kadrmas15]

Well I am glad to see he is doing that. Kudos to Kevin, I found his hacking activities more funny and clever than anything else. The feds calling him a threat to society was a bunch of crap. Although one must remember that was in the early 80's that he started hacking and even well into the 80's the Soviets were a huge threat to us and I can see how the feds would be paranoid about the whole thing but I think it was just ridiculous to label some hacker a threat to society. The f eds though tend to label a lot of people threats to society that arent. Like recently when they sent two border patrol agents for doing their jobs and then let an illegal immigrant drug runner with nearly 1 million dollars worth of pot in his car go. The crazy and out of control U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton is also sending a deputy sheriff to prison next month for doing the same thing in doing his job.

[Dislimb]

Originally Posted by LooksLikeCRicci

Are his internet activities still being monitored...

Not anymore. There was a period of several years after he was released from prison where he wasn't even allowed to touch a computer though. Then once he was, they monitored his every move for a while. But now, he's served his time. I read all this in an article someplace online, but I just don't feel like googling it again right now, sorry!

[crystaldawn]

Have you ever noticed how much Dark Dante seems to know about Kevin Poulson. Maybe thats not just a username after all but his true identity.....

[LooksLikeCRicci]

That's what I'm saying!!! He's been among us this entire time.

[James T]

While I do not think his crimes were minor the main problem I had with this story was if a kid could hack into their systems at that time then what about organised groups with more sinister motives? has anything really changed? a few years ago a conspiracy theorist was arrested here and is due to be extradited to America which his lawyers are still trying to overturn, he was able to hack into Nasa, the Army and Navy, DOD, USAF & the Pentagon's systems at will looking for information on UFO'S and Free Energy

Originally Posted by kadrmas15

Well I am glad to see he is doing that. Kudos to Kevin, I found his hacking activities more funny and clever than anything else. The feds calling him a threat to society was a bunch of crap. Although one must remember that was in the early 80's that he started hacking and even well into the 80's the Soviets were a huge threat to us and I can see how the feds would be paranoid about the whole thing but I think it was just ridiculous to label some hacker a threat to society. The f eds though tend to label a lot of people threats to society that arent. Like recently when they sent two border patrol agents for doing their jobs and then let an illegal immigrant drug runner with nearly 1 million dollars worth of pot in his car go. The crazy and out of control U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton is also sending a deputy sheriff to prison next month for doing the same thing in doing his job.