Interview with a Top Hacker: "There is No Security on the Internet"
Kostantinas Giannakopoulou
Almost half of the world's population is now connected to the internet, with the number of users exceeding 3.5 billion. Undoubtedly, it has become an integral part of our daily lives, as both work and personal activities are conducted through computers. Our everyday tasks, productive processes, transactions, education, and entertainment—all are just a click away. However, this useful tool that has simplified our lives also makes us an easy target for malicious actors. A new form of crime, cybercrime, has taken on global and alarming dimensions, with experts warning that the more time we spend online, the more vulnerable we become.
From lawlessness to legality
Theofanis Kasimis, a former hacker, was for many years the mastermind of the "Greek Hacking Scene" under the pseudonym "Kondor". Today, the No. 1 hacker, who until a few years ago was spreading chaos on the internet, deals with the security of information systems and is the founder of Audax Cybersecurity. How he ended up from lawlessness to today, and how we can protect ourselves from the dangers of the internet, he analyzes in "Alpha freepress". Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
"We have been hacking websites for 13 years"
From a very young age, Mr Kasimis was fascinated by the online world and began exploring it, testing the safety of certain websites and being tempted to hack them. As he confesses, 'We were a group of friends who had met online at a time when Greece was under cyber-attack from hackers of foreign nationalities. They were mainly hitting Greek government websites and the messages they were sending were of a nationalist nature. We thought it was a good idea at the time to respond to these attacks by hacking theirs. Many people then went to join us in "Golden Dawn". We had nothing to do with them, nor was there any identification in our views." This period lasted about 13 years, he adds: "We did not harm anyone and we never took money from anyone."
"With my arrest I lost the earth beneath my feet"
But the moment came that would mark him and was destined to change his life, as the men of the Cybercrime Squad tracked him down and arrested him: "When I saw the police knocking on my door, I lost the ground beneath my feet. It was a time when me and my team felt very strong and we never expected anything like this to happen." His meeting with the then head of the Cybercrime Unit played a catalytic role in the later course of his life, he pointed out: "Mr. Sfakianakis then urged me to use my knowledge and turn to information systems security. So, I opened my own business and now I protect companies and organizations from hacker attacks."
The level of security in Greece is moderate
The security level in Greece is moderate "The level of security in Greece is mediocre and this is due to our wrong mindset, although in recent years we have made significant progress with the seminars held and some national exercises. Nevertheless, there are many people who do not understand the danger and do not take care to arm themselves. Most government organisations are vulnerable. The same applies to very large e-shops in Greece, which handle personal data of thousands of citizens."
Our privacy is exposed
Social media has invaded our lives for good and, as the security expert points out, there is only one way to protect ourselves: 'We shouldn't let strangers into our lives through social media'. However, because there are very few people who have a few thousand online friends, he points out the following: "We should not upload our photos online, we should not open files sent to us by people we don't know and we should not check in at the places we go." Finally, he stresses, parents themselves should protect their children:
"Parents should not upload photos of their children online"
"Parents need to understand that it is dangerous to upload photos of their children online, kidnappers and paedophiles are lurking out there and such disclosures facilitate their sickening activities." At the same time, he adds: "It is essential that when children are young, parents monitor their online activity, what pages they visit and who they chat to, so that they can intervene if necessary."
Online transactions and phishing: How we can protect ourselves
More than a few citizens have seen their credit card numbers in the hands of cybercriminals. The reasons why this happened are most likely due to our own ignorance and carelessness, as he explains: "We never use public networks for our online transactions, we do them from our home computer. We never open links sent to us by strangers in our e-mail.
This is so-called phishing, which sends the victim to a fake website that looks like a bank and asks the user to confirm details and passwords. Also, we never give out our personal details, VAT numbers, ID numbers, account numbers on social networks or on websites that we are not absolutely sure are safe. Finally, we never take a flash drive, found on the street, to put it in our computer, as it can "suck" all the data from the victim's computer and send it to the hacker."
The dark world of the darknet
The parallel network, or darknet, is the wild side of the internet, full of myths and many true stories. It is a largely 'volatile' part of the internet, where traces of its users are difficult to trace. What exactly happens there is analysed by Mr. Kasimis: "Everything can be found there, pornographic material, weapons, drugs, human organs, hacking services and even death contracts. The virtual currency for all these illegal transactions is Bitcoin." Asked whether it's easy to get in, he replies: "It's easy enough even for the average user! There is enough information on the internet so that someone who wants to commit an illegal act can do it via darknet."
"Anonymous" was never anonymous
Mr. Kasimis also referred to the hacker group "Anonymous", which has often drawn the spotlight with their revelations: "Anonymous were never anonymous, they were people in key positions, who had the information from the companies or services they worked for and channeled it out in this way, hiding behind this group and ensuring their anonymity."
Read the interview from page 20 of the newspaper:
Alpha Free Press - Συνέντευξη Κασίμη Θεοφάνη