I Hacked the Pentagon Because I Was Looking for Aliens
Andreja Bratić / April 24, 2010 14:05:35 CEST
Vice Mišković, the 28-year-old from Zadar who, in 1997, as a high school student penetrated into the information system of the American Department of Defence, never made a career as a computer genius.
Although a story has spread throughout Croatia that Vice Mišković, a 28-year-old, left Croatia, that he lives in America, and is enjoying the fruits of his spectacular penetration into the system of the Pentagon in 1997 when he was 15 years old, he today lives modestly with his family in Zadar. He works as a therapist-radioaesthesist and, with his wife, Dejana, leads the "Terra" union for the improvement of the quality of life.
"I will tell you my story, my thoughts on what happened 13 years ago. Much was written, less or more true, so the time has come to clear it all up. For starters, it was not a group act, there were not several of us who hacked, but only my humble self. The computers of others were confiscated merely because they were in contact with me", who, for the first time openly, exclusively for Globus, speaks of what happened.
Military base. It was actually the American military base Andersen. "Every man is driven by his intention in some way. I was 15 at the time, I was interested in aliens i.e. the secrets that the American government is hiding from the public. Forbidden fruit. I believe in the right to truth and freedom of information. Many cases of hacking are motivated by such intentions, such as this latest one with the publication of the registry of defenders. A small man likes to know and not have the truth hidden from him. The system of the military base was very poorly protected. When I found out what the error was, I was surprised that security got so little attention", explains Mišković.
At that time, he claims, the Internet was very slow and he used a 14,400 bps modem, which means it was difficult and impossible to examine larger quantities of data. For two months he kept examining their data and the only thing he found was employee data, important to them, but completely unimportant to him. Thus, he claims, his search was not successful.
"I continued searching in other government computers, but the police stopped me by knocking on my door", honest is Mišković. "They confiscated my computer and attempted to charge me with material damage, although no data was destroyed or damaged. A law which would sanction me did not exist then, so I wasn't punished. My computer was returned to me after a few months", he remembers.
Crazy and young. "It was such a situation. I was young, crazy, I did not care", he explains and admits that the sudden attention suited him.
"A big fuss was raised over it and I was still a child. Those were my 5 minutes of glory", says the hacker, whose nickname was INTRUDER X.
After that, he got no offers, meaning scholarships or something that would incite him to develop and educate. He enrolled into Fakultet organizacije i informatike [- the Faculty of Organization and Informatics -] in Varaždin by his own, independent decision.
"I did not expect or ask for anything, but I thought that something could be. No one from the Pentagon contacted me, either. However, as I do not have a very good opinion of them, even if they had contacted me, I would not have accepted anything", says Vice Mišković.
