Bryan Clough (born 1932,

Oldham Oldham is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers River Irk, Irk and River Medlock, Medlock, southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative cent ...

, LancashireIndex of Births, Marriages and Deaths in England and Wales, 1837–1983) is an English writer. Clough has written several books and articles dealing with phreakers,

hackers A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who achieves goals and solves problems by non-standard means. The term has become associated in popular culture with a security hackersomeone with knowledge of bugs or exploits to break ...

and computer virus writers;

credit card fraud Credit card fraud is an inclusive term for fraud committed using a payment card, such as a credit card or debit card. The purpose may be to obtain goods or services or to make payment to another account, which is controlled by a criminal. The P ...

; banking; and the activities of

MI5 MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), officially the Security Service, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Gov ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, specifically the

Tyler Kent Tyler Gatewood Kent (March 24, 1911 – November 20, 1988) was an American diplomat who stole thousands of secret documents while working as a cipher clerk at the US Embassy in London during World War II. Early life and career Kent was born in ...

– Anna Wolkoff Affair (2005).

Works

In 1990, Clough and Paul Mungo, a journalist, wrote ''Approaching Zero'' (1992) a book that covered the activities of phreakers,

and computer virus writers. It was later published in North America and translations appeared in French, Spanish, Turkish and Japanese. Three incidents of

described in the book resulted in much interest in the press. Further investigations resulted in articles on computer viruses, and investigations into 'phantom withdrawals' from ATMs and credit card fraud. These investigations culminated in the publication of ''Cheating at Cards'' (1994) which revealed 40 ways of fraudulently obtaining money from ATMs; and ''Beware of Your Bank'' (1995) in which he examined mistakes made by banks and explained how to detect errors, and how to obtain compensation. Sparked by a close interest in

cryptology Cryptography, or cryptology (from "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adversarial behavior. More gener ...

, he then turned to the strange case of

, an American national employed as a code and

cipher In cryptography, a cipher (or cypher) is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption—a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is ''encipherment''. To encipher or encode i ...

clerk at the American Embassy in London, at a time when Great Britain was at war with

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and America claimed to be strictly

neutral Neutral or neutrality may refer to: Mathematics and natural science Biology * Neutral organisms, in ecology, those that obey the unified neutral theory of biodiversity Chemistry and physics * Neutralization (chemistry), a chemical reaction in ...

. In May 1940, Kent was arrested, tried ''

in camera ''In camera'' (; Latin: "in a chamber"). is a legal term that means ''in private''. The same meaning is sometimes expressed in the English equivalent: ''in chambers''. Generally, ''in-camera'' describes court cases, parts of it, or process wh ...

'' and sentenced to seven years'

penal servitude Penal labour is a term for various kinds of forced labour that prisoners are required to perform, typically manual labour. The work may be light or hard, depending on the context. Forms of sentence involving penal labour have included inv ...

. Clough's book ''State Secrets: The Kent–Wolkoff Affair'' (2005) took advantage of privileged access to Government files and also the release of others under the

Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request: * Freedom of Information Act (United States) of 1966 * F ...

. Sixty-five years after the event, Clough finally revealed the 'real reason' for Kent's arrest and imprisonment – which was very different from the earlier versions in officially inspired publications. Clough appeared in the documentary ''Churchill and the Fascist Plot'' broadcast on Channel Four on 16 March 2013.

Personal life

Clough was educated at the

Hulme Grammar School Hulme Grammar School is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private grammar school in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. History Oldham Hulme Grammar School was founded in 1611 by several charitable individuals including Laurence Chad ...

and served his

national service National service is a system of compulsory or voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act ...

with the

10th Royal Hussars The 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own) was a Cavalry regiments of the British Army, cavalry regiment of the British Army raised in 1715. It saw service for three centuries including the World War I, First World War and World War II, Sec ...

. He then worked in a variety of industries, mainly in engineering, before becoming chief executive for a major international company which allowed him to travel widely. He set up his own computer supply and maintenance company in 1983 which he sold out in 1990 in order to concentrate on research and writing. Clough married his wife in 1971 and they had two daughters. He now lives in

Hove Hove ( ) is a seaside resort in East Sussex, England. Alongside Brighton, it is one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove. Originally a fishing village surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th century in respon ...

, Sussex.Hove Electoral Roll

Bibliography

* Clough, Bryan. Mungo, Paul. ''Approaching Zero: Data Crime & the Computer Underworld''

Faber & Faber Faber and Faber Limited, commonly known as Faber & Faber or simply Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, C. S. Lewis, Margaret S ...

, London 1992. * Clough, Bryan. Mungo, Paul. ''Approaching Zero: The Extraordinary World of Hackers, Phreakers, Virus Writers and Keyboard Criminals''

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

, New York 1992. * Clough, Bryan. Mungo, Paul. ''Los Piratas del Chip: La Mafia Informatica al Desnudo'' Ediciones B, Barcelona 1992. * Clough, Bryan. Mungo, Paul. ''Delinquance Assistée par Ordinateur: La Saga des "Hackers" Nouveaux Flibustiers "High Tech"!'' Dunod, Paris 1993. * Clough, Bryan. Mungo, Paul. ''Approaching Zero'' Hayakawa Publishing, Tokyo 1994 * Clough, Bryan. Mungo, Paul. ''Sıfıra Doğru'' İletişim Yayınları, Istanbul 1994. * Clough, Bryan. ''Cheating at Cards – Plastic Fraud: Sharp Practices and Naïve Systems'' Hideaway Publications, Hove 1994. * Clough, Bryan. ''Beware of Your Bank'' Hideaway Publications, Hove 1995. * Clough, Bryan. ''State Secrets: The Kent-Wolkoff Affair''. East Sussex: Hideaway Publications Ltd., 2005.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clough, Bryan 1932 births Historians of the British Isles British investigative journalists Living people People from Hove People educated at Oldham Hulme Grammar School