A Hacker Shares His Biggest Fears | Informer

A white hat hacker, with over 30 years of experience as a cybersecurity analyst at a major Silicon Valley company, talks about why he turned his back on black hat hacking for the greater good.

He talks about the reality of just how vulnerable our systems really are - from the very real threat of hackers taking the American power grid or medical facilities offline, to how easily accessible our private information is to anyone with WiFi and some time on their hands.

Informer is a series where we hear the anonymised confessions and insights of people on the inside of different industries, institutions and events.

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[teddycipolla]

To all the folks laughing at this dude's lack of anonymity - have you considered that maybe he doesn't care and he had to wear the mask to keep the edgy tone of this series?

[edonslow]

Now we know what Santa does the rest of the year.

[sriglin]

"Hey, is that big hairy Mike?"
"No way to tell"

[jadiecakes]

I remember hearing about an interview YEARS ago, where they interviewed a hacker, and they asked him, if you wanted to crippe the US what would you go after (expecting the answer to be military etc) and the response was, Id go after the water. Dams, resevoirs, things like that. He was like you can cripple a country in days if they have no access to water.

[FeedMeNuggies]

My man covering his face but has his arm tattoo out 👌

[mintyfresh]

Even if he was my brother I'd never recognise him. Great job Vice.

[travispittman]

Being in San Diego during the ransomware attack of Scripps Health completely opened my eyes to how vulnerable healthcare organizations are. There were people who needed chemo treatments and surgical procedures who had to reschedule and further deteriorate their health because they weren’t even able to pull up their medical record history including allergies, diagnosis, etc. I totally understand why info sec is one of the top invested areas in healthcare now, but with the core tech itself being still so far behind in architecture modernization, these orgs will continue to struggle in the race to secure their systems

[robertoslama]

For somebody trying to keep their identity a secret, I wouldn't have my tattoo exposed

[nobodyatallvallejo]

Whoever wrote the title for this needs to be fired ASAP.

[NONPOINT]

The first 22 seconds of this video is EXACTLY the thing some people never understand. The hack does not necessarily have anything to do with you as an individual but instead you are the tool they use to gain access to a bigger system.

[renatokobashigawa]

The fact that people are commenting on his appearance more often than the content shows that they don't really understand the implications of what is being told.

[rayrayrun]

I could go on without the music, vice. this guy doesn't need the dramatic music.

[ExVrUS]

Gotta love all the Sherlock Holmes in the comments here: Identity this, tattoo that,

This isn't his story, he's just telling it..

[b_to_the_b]

It’s scary to think about how vulnerable computer infrastructures are… like what are we supposed todo when more and more of our lives are going Digital and he’s right in saying the system is too reactive when it needs to be more proactive with our data protection…

[eunoia]

This is the single most terrifying way I’ve ever seen anybody stay anonymous

[Jobe-]

“Then there’s those that just want to see the world burn”. Sometimes people don’t need a motivation or tragic backstory to do what they do. They just do it because they can.

[adr]

Video needs a re-title. These are not war stories, they are generalizations everyone is aware of both inside and outside the community. 💤😴

[reytorino]

This man made so much sense in a little more than 6 mins of his time speaking.

[lone-welf]

i love how these kinds of documentaries essentially teach you how to get in trouble.

[AdeJohnson]

If someone asked me to describe what I thought a hacker looked like, this would be it.