Prolific Hacker Unmasks Himself

According to reports by The Next Web, a leader of one of the world’s most notorious hacking teams has elected to unmask himself.

The hacking team in question is GhostShell, a collective that, in recent history, has gone after the FBI, NASA and the Pentagon. And that’s just in the U.S. It has also made server attacks on Russian intelligence.

That was 2012. Then, nothing for three years, just quiet, until 2015, when they came back, packing some punch.

“This time, a much darker, seedier version emerged, hell-bent on destroying anything in its path and leaking information through its ‘dark hacktivism’ campaign for seemingly no other reason than to prove it could,” according to TNW.

And then, using a generic email account, someone identifying himself as “White Fox” approached TNW — the name being important because it was also the moniker of a 2012 hacking operation pulled off by GhostShell.

As it turns out, the hacker, who identifies himself as G. Razvan Eugen, has started an email list for journalists so that he can tell his story. The text of that letter is copied below.

So, is Eugen for real?

As verification, he provided a login to the Twitter account that GhostShell uses to disseminate information. He also offered photos, email accounts and even the private Twitter account he had been using to communicate for several years. All in, most tech journalists believe that while there are not locks in this business, this is as close as one could hope for.

So, why come clean?

According to correspondence between Eugen and TNW:

“I just want to own up to my actions, face them head on and hope for the best. What I really want is to continue being part of this industry. Cybersecurity is something that I enjoy to the fullest, even with all the drama that it brings and legal troubles.”

“In return, I hope other hackers and hacktivists take inspiration from this example and try to better themselves. Just because you’ve explored parts of the Internet and protested about things that were important to you, doesn’t mean you should be afraid and constantly paranoid of the people around you.”