Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The Freakiest Story You're Likely To Read All Day OR Revenge of the Nerds

Police have swooped down on one of Toronto's toniest neighbourhoods, verdant (in both the money and the tree'd sense) Forest Hill, and have arrested a kooky computer dude with a grudge (apparently, they like to be called "hacktivistis"--clever, eh?) who was allegedly plotting to wreak havoc at the G20 summit. According to the Globe and Mail, Brian Sonne, 37, the owner of the tony home, is
facing weapons, explosives and intimidation-related charges in connection with the G20 summit had hoped to turn the surveillance tables on summit security forces, monitor police chatter and broadcast it on Twitter, says a man involved with the University of Toronto’s Surveillance Club.
Byron Sonne showed up at a Surveillance Club meeting on May 5, said Jesse Hirsh, a Toronto broadcaster and Internet activist. The academic group had gathered in a basement at Queen Street West and Ossington Avenue to discuss G20 surveillance. Mr. Sonne, who is not a member but heard about the meeting through HackLab TO, came to give a presentation, Mr. Hirsh said.
But wait, it gets nuttier. It seems Sonne belonged to

HackLabTO [which] calls itself “Toronto’s hacker collective” and says it is “inspired by the philosophies of the global hackerspaces movement.”
Hey, aren't we all? And now for my favorite part of the story:
Mr. Sonne’s LinkedIn profile says he specializes in computer and network security. In addition, he is a licenced private investigator and a Certified Information Systems Security Professional.
He used to work as a senior systems specialist at Webkinz...
You mean the "hacktivist" facing weapons charges used to work for a company that makes cuddly stuffed critters?

Who says anarchists don't have their warm 'n' fuzzy side?

3 comments:

Paul said...

... he USED TO work at Webkinz.

Until they found out that he was the one responsible for hacking their web site. (true story)

These "cracker" guys are like pedophiles. Their genetically wired that way and should never be let back into society.

scaramouche said...

There's some mighty weird psychology going on. Here you have a guy who, by every measure, is a succes, who lives in a swanky house in a posh neighbourhood, and he's behaving like a 12-year-old punking the the grown ups.

Some sort of freaky arrested development, I'd say.

Paul said...

I try not to over-think these things. He's what used to be called an evil criminal-genius mind.

The "crack" on his employer's web site was very serious letting he and his pals to collect all sorts of client information.

Wouldn't surprise me if his house in tony Forest Hill was paid for with the proceeds of cyber-crime.