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KINGPIN

Max immediately jumped into a new, more socially acceptable project: He would write a Web application that would let anyone on the Internet request an automatic real-time scan of their network to assess whether or not they were open to the BIND attack. He also conceived a benign variant of the siege he’d just concluded. Like before, he would scan government and military networks. But instead of cracking the vulnerable computers, he’d automatically send an e-mail warning to the administrators. There’d be no need to hide behind a hacked dial-up account this time. Both services would live on his brand-new public website: Whitehats.com.

After two days and nights of work, he was knee-deep in his new, legal hacking project when Beeson e-mailed again. “What happened? Thought you’d send me e-mail.”

Max could hardly explain to his FBI friend that he’d been busy staging one of the largest government computer breaches in history. So he emphasized his new project instead. “I am almost finished creating a public service vulnerability scanner and patch site—but there are some parts that aren’t ready for release,” he wrote back.

“Oh, and here is the ADM worm program,” he added. “I don’t think it will spread very far.”