Kenyan wannabe hacker caught up in Google row
Posted by Administrator on February 5, 2010
It reads like a movie script.
If it is to be believed, it is the sad tale of one of Kenya’s aspiring internet hackers who spent last week dodging the police.
He was on the run following harrowing digital surveillance.
It landed in my inbox last week, forwarded by a source in the security industry, with the addendum “this actually happened”.
Efforts to reach the police to verify what happened proved fruitless by the time we went to press, but the story is too good to let go.
Hoping to test his newly learned hacking skills picked up from the internet, a Kenyan gentleman (name withheld at his request) created a website that looked like the genuine Facebook site but which was actually put in place to capture unsuspecting visitors information, such as passwords.
Using his rudimentary knowledge of hacking internet sites, he then posted the stolen passwords on Facebook, for fun.
But then the tables turned.
After receiving several phone calls from mysterious international numbers, the hacker found that his own Facebook account had been infiltrated, apparently by one of his online contacts.
What he didn’t know was that the contact had been recently arrested for his involvement in a more serious crime – helping the Chinese government hack into Google’s China website.
The young man then became a fugitive in his own country.
Nearly always one step ahead of the local police, he ran to relatives houses in Nairobi suburbs, Mombasa and finally Nanyuki after learning the police were hot on his trail, had already raided his home and taken his laptop for evidence.
Unfortunately, he was nabbed in a bus on his way to the Nanyuki safe haven, apparently after the cops trailed his movements using signals from his mobile phone.
The fugitive then underwent extensive questioning at the police headquarters that traced his life history, relationships and even uncovered his less than desirable exploits on the internet – which he thought he had deleted.
The reason for the dramatic hunt was the alleged involvement of one of his contacts in the controversy that has surrounded internet giant Google’s involvement in China.
Early in January, Google said it had endured a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on its corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of its intellectual property.
International hunt
The attack was aimed at Chinese human-rights activists using Gmail, with an estimated 30 international corporations also victims of the cyber attack.
It sparked off an international hunt for the perpetrators.
True or not, the Kenyan incident reveals just how small the global village has become and highlights how easy it now is for the authorities to apprehend suspects using technology.
Although the victim revealed to Business Daily that the incident actually did take place, it does however, contradict the apparent picture on the ground, where the police still utilise near primitive means to capture suspects, namely the traditional physical interrogation and monitoring.
The good news is – and maybe this incident is proof – it may be an early indication that the police force is attempting to change its archaic ways. We can only hope.
Source-Business Daily Africa
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