DataBreaches.Net

Menu
  • About
  • Breach Notification Laws
  • Privacy Policy
  • Transparency Report
Menu

Dark Side: The rise and fall of a suburban hacker

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Dissent

Matt Hrodey had an interesting piece on Daniel Placek of Darkode infamy. It begins:

Daniel Placek was just old enough to buy a beer when the FBI knocked on the door to his parents’ house in Bayside, where he was living, and seized his computer. Placek, a 21-year-old self-taught computer programmer, confessed most everything to the agents: He was, essentially, a “black-hat” hacker, a bad guy. He’d grown up in an upstanding family, active in their local Catholic church, his father a licensed HAM radio operator who worked for Verizon. But somehow, as an isolated coder, he’d gone far astray.

His penance was five years of cooperation with the FBI, who, in examining his PC after the 2010 raid, found evidence of a kid dabbling in everything from “botnets” and spamming software to “false phishing” sites and “root access” penetrations, like a self-directed survey course in nefarious computing.

Read more on Milwaukee Magazine. You can also hear an interview with more of an update on Lake Effect.

Category: HackUncategorized

Post navigation

← Privacy breach by Westpac?
UK: Thousands of Morrisons employees to sue bosses over huge data breach →

Now more than ever

"Stand with Ukraine:" above raised hands. The illustration is in blue and yellow, the colors of Ukraine's flag.

Search

Browse by Categories

Recent Posts

  • Dutch Government: More forms of espionage to be a criminal offence from 15 May onwards
  • B.C. health authority faces class-action lawsuit over 2009 data breach (1)
  • Private Industry Notification: Silent Ransom Group Targeting Law Firms
  • Data Breach Lawsuits Against Chord Specialty Dental Partners Consolidated
  • PA: York County alerts residents of potential data breach
  • FTC Finalizes Order with GoDaddy over Data Security Failures
  • Hacker steals $223 million in Cetus Protocol cryptocurrency heist
  • Operation ENDGAME strikes again: the ransomware kill chain broken at its source
  • Mysterious Database of 184 Million Records Exposes Vast Array of Login Credentials
  • Mysterious hacking group Careto was run by the Spanish government, sources say

No, You Can’t Buy a Post or an Interview

This site does not accept sponsored posts or link-back arrangements. Inquiries about either are ignored.

And despite what some trolls may try to claim: DataBreaches has never accepted even one dime to interview or report on anyone. Nor will DataBreaches ever pay anyone for data or to interview them.

Want to Get Our RSS Feed?

Grab it here:

https://databreaches.net/feed/

RSS Recent Posts on PogoWasRight.org

  • Period Tracking App Users Win Class Status in Google, Meta Suit
  • AI: the Italian Supervisory Authority fines Luka, the U.S. company behind chatbot “Replika,” 5 Million €
  • D.C. Federal Court Rules Termination of Democrat PCLOB Members Is Unlawful
  • Meta may continue to train AI with user data, German court says
  • Widow of slain Saudi journalist can’t pursue surveillance claims against Israeli spyware firm
  • Researchers Scrape 2 Billion Discord Messages and Publish Them Online
  • GDPR is cracking: Brussels rewrites its prized privacy law

Have a News Tip?

Email: Tips[at]DataBreaches.net

Signal: +1 516-776-7756

Contact Me

Email: info[at]databreaches.net

Mastodon: Infosec.Exchange/@PogoWasRight

Signal: +1 516-776-7756

DMCA Concern: dmca[at]databreaches.net
© 2009 – 2025 DataBreaches.net and DataBreaches LLC. All rights reserved.