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List:       isn
Subject:    [ISN] Caught in the System, Ex-Hacker Is Stalked by His Past
From:       InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews ! org>
Date:       2013-04-25 5:06:25
Message-ID: alpine.DEB.2.02.1304250006120.15165 () infosecnews ! org
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http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/04/stephen-watt-stalked-by-past/

By Kim Zetter
Threat Level
Wired.com
04.24.13

Early last week, before the suspects were identified in the Boston 
Marathon bombings, a U.S. probation officer and his supervisor visited 
the Manhattan apartment of programmer Stephen Watt with a question: Did 
Watt happen to know anything about the attack?

"He said, ‘We want to ask you about this Boston thing. I think you know 
what we're talking about. I'm talking about the attacks,'" Watt recalls. 
"Then he said, ‘If you know any rumors that you heard about beforehand 
or even afterwards, please [tell us] through your lawyer.'"

They told Watt they weren't accusing him of anything, just that he 
should come forward if he had any information. Watt and his wife were 
shocked by the random inquiry. But in some ways, it's part and parcel of 
Watt's new life as a hacker ex-con.

Watt, a striking 7-foot-tall software engineer, once had a bright future 
coding software for a maker of real-time stock trading systems. Then a 
small packet-sniffing program he wrote for a friend got him embroiled in 
a multi-million-dollar bank card heist that netted him a two-year prison 
sentence and a hefty restitution judgment. Watt went from having a 
promising career on Wall Street to living in a grim cell in a high-rise 
prison in Seattle, where blacked-out windows blocked the natural light, 
and the absence of outdoor exercise facilities meant he didn't breathe 
much fresh air for two years.

[...]



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