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Kevin Poulsen was born
Kevin Poulsen was born on November 30, 1965, in Pasadena, California. -
TRS-80
The three CoCo versions retained a strong degree of consistency with software and equipment, with some applications being developed such that the older one can not operate on the newer ones. -
Hacked the US Department of Defense
Kevin Poulsen used his TRS-80 to break into Arpanet of the US Department of Defense. He wasn't charged though since he was a minor. He also was a computer scientist at SRI and Sun Microsystems, and served as a Pentagon information security contractor. -
Life On the run
Poulsen has been presumed by officials to have opened a report on Ferdinand Marcos 'federal inquiry. They came for him, and he simply vanished. While a fugitive, Poulsen began needling the FBI by breaching government networks and exposing wiretap information on overseas consulates, alleged mobsters and the American Civil Liberties Union. He has also infiltrated FBI front companies into the information. They named him "The Hannibal Lecter of Cyber Theft" at the top levels of US law enforcement. -
Unsolved Mysteries
When Poulsen was featured on Unsolved Mysteries, a reality crime-solving show, the program's 800 number went dead as Poulsen's picture came on the screen. -
Hacking the Radio
Poulsen infiltrated a radio station in Los Angeles, KIIS FM, to become the 102nd caller to earn the award. Poulsen had earned two vacations in the Porche 944 S2, $20,000 and two in Hawaiian. -
Getting Caught
Poulsen pled guilty in June 1994 to seven counts of bribery, theft and wiretapping. He was sentenced to five years in a federal penitentiary, as well as barred 3 years following his release from accessing devices or the internet. During his jail term, he becomes the first American to be freed from custody with a court order that prohibited him from accessing technology and the internet. -
Released from Jail
Poulsen was freed from jail before Lamprecht and earlier started completing his ban term. (Poulsen's parole officer later allowed him to use the Internet, with certain surveillance limitations, in 2004). -
Journalism
Since his release from jail Poulsen has reinvented himself as a journalist and sought to separate himself from his criminal background. Poulsen worked in many journalistic capacities at SecurityFocus, a California-based technology consulting agency, where he started writing technology and hacking news in early 2000. During Poulsen's time with the organization, SecurityFocus News became a well-known brand in the computer news sector, and was purchased by Symantec. -
MySpace
Poulsen published documents in October 2006 outlining his successful hunt for suspected sex predators, using MySpace to elicit sex from adolescents. His investigations found 744 individuals with MySpace accounts recorded and contributed to the arrest of one, Andrew Lubrano. -
SecureDrop
Poulsen, Aaron Swartz and James Dolan built and created SecureDrop, an open-source development framework for secure journalistic and source communication. It was created under the name DeadDrop, initially. Upon Swartz's passing, on 15 May 2013, Poulsen introduced the platform's first instance at The New Yorker. Later Poulsen handed over SecureDrop's production to the Freedom of the Press Foundation and entered the Strategic Advisory committee of the foundation. -
Accused of "Doing"
Poulsen was suspected of doxing Shawn Brooks, a 34-year-old Trump supporter residing in The Bronx, when Poulsen disclosed his name in an article published on June 1, 2019 in The Daily Beast as the supposed maker and producer of a false video featuring Nancy Pelosi behaving in a mumbled manner.
