14 DAY TRIAL // Cameron Lacroix, a hacker listed on Wikipedia partly because of stealing information from Paris Hilton’s phone, issued an apology for sharing online personal photos of the celebrity, nine years ago.
He expressed his regret just before starting a four-year sentence in a federal prison for stealing credit card numbers, changing his community college grades (Bristol Community College) and causing $200,000 / €160,000 in damage to Twitter and another online company.
Starts hacking at 11, at 16 earns 11-month stay at federal juvenile facility
According to NBC News, Lacroix, from New Bedford, Massachusetts, now understands the implications of having personal information exposed to the public. “Paris, I’m sorry I put your information online,” he was quoted as saying.
“I should never have done it. I wouldn’t want it done to me,” the 26-years-old hacker added.
Up to this age, Lacroix has been involved in numerous hacking incidents, including thieving credit and debit card information, forging gift cards or hijacking Twitter accounts.
Leaking the photos of Paris Hilton happened in 2005, when the hacker was just a teenager. He managed to break into the phone of the celebrity and leaked online personal contacts, emails, and nude photos.
The deed was carried out by hacking the website of T-Mobile, the carrier offering a subscription to Paris Hilton, and according to an article from The Washington Post, also involved confidential information from a T-Mobile employee.
This incident earned Lacroix an 11-month stay in a federal juvenile facility. He was just 16 at the time.
However, the list of cyber-incidents he generated did not start or end with this. He began accessing personal information when he was around eleven years old and continued to hack ever since.
Criminal past recommends him for a job at the FBI
Lacroix is also known for taking over the Twitter account of Burger King and changing the restaurant logo to that of McDonalds’.
Among the databases he accessed without authorization there are those from federal law enforcement.
According to authorities, the damage done by the New Bedford hackers is estimated at about $1 million / €800,000. In an interview to NBC News, he says that he probably made more than $500,000 / €400,000 from illegal computer enterprises.
However, he promised that when he got out of jail, he would change his hat to white and would like to help the very companies he defrauded, and he could land a job with the FBI in order to share knowledge that could aid in catching other cybercriminals.
