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Convicted Hacker Left in Charge of Prison Computer System

by Amar Toor on September 29, 2009 at 02:29 PM


In a twist of Alanis Morrissettian irony, a man serving a six-year prison sentence for stealing millions of dollars through online credit card fraud recently succeeded in (surprise!) hacking into his prison's computer network, effectively paralyzing the entire system. The really incomprehensible part, though, is that officials at Ranby Prison, close to Retford, Nottinghamshire, England, gave him access to the computer.

Apparently in dire need of an internal TV station at the facility, officers decided against hiring a third party (e.g., not a convicted hacker) to set up the system. They instead opted to keep the operation in (the Big) house, delegating the duty to one Douglas Havard. So, as convicted hackers are wont to do, Havard, left unguarded, worked his way into the prison's hard drive, and set up a labyrinth of passwords to lock everyone else out of the system. And, just a week ago at this very same prison, an inmate actually got his hands on a master key.... Yeah.

It's not clear whether or not he harbored any grandiose, Shawshankian escape plans, or if he just wanted to make a cyber statement. Whatever the motivation, Havard was put in isolated confinement (presumably, to let him think about what he did), and officials were left dumbfounded. One unnamed prison source (Captain Obvious?) expressed disbelief that "a criminal convicted of cyber-crime was allowed uncontrolled access to the hard drive." Another unnamed Prison Service spokesman (Sergeant Optimism?) pointed out that at least Havard "was not able to access records of any other prisoners." Phew.

So maybe it's not on quite the same earth-shatteringly cataclysmic level as Hannibal Lecter grabbing Jodie Foster's pen. But c'mon. Dude's a hacker. Probably something that should've been taken into account. [From: The Mirror]

Tags: crime, cyber crime, CyberCrime, funny, hack, prison, security, top, weird

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