Jean-Bernard Condat (born 1963) is a French computer security expert and former
hacker
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 bug (computing), bugs or exp ...
who became a consultant to the
Directorate of Territorial Surveillance (DST).
Using the name ''concombre'' (English: cucumber), he achieved status as one of the best-known French hackers in the 1990s.
Biography
Condat was born in 1963 in
Béziers
Béziers (; ) is a city in southern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Hérault Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region. Every August Béziers ho ...
,
Hérault
Hérault (; , ) is a departments of France, department of the Regions of France, region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Southern France. Named after the Hérault (river), Hérault River, its Prefectures in France, prefecture is M ...
. He completed the
baccalauréat
The ''baccalauréat'' (; ), often known in France colloquially as the ''bac'', is a French national academic qualification that students can obtain at the completion of their secondary education (at the end of the ''lycée'') by meeting certain ...
at age 16 before attending the
University of Lyon
The University of Lyon ( , or UdL) is a university system ( ''ComUE'') based in Lyon, France. It comprises 12 members and 9 associated institutions. The 3 main constituent universities in this center are: Claude Bernard University Lyon 1, which f ...
to study
musicology
Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, ...
, earning his
deug.
Chaos Computer Club, France
It was around 1982 that Condat joined the
Directorate of Territorial Surveillance,
an
intelligence agency
An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, Intelligence analysis, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy obj ...
within the
French National Police
The National Police (, ), formerly known as the , is one of two national police forces of France, the other being the National Gendarmerie. The National Police is the country's main civil law enforcement agency, with primary jurisdiction in cit ...
, who planted him in strategic positions, such as a
sysop
A sysop (, an abbreviation of system operator) is an administrator of a multi-user computer system, such as a bulletin board system (BBS) or an online service virtual community.Jansen, E. & James, V. (2002). NetLingo: the Internet dictionary. Ne ...
for
CompuServe
CompuServe, Inc. (CompuServe Information Service, Inc., also known by its initialism CIS or later CSi) was an American Internet company that provided the first major commercial online service provider, online service. It opened in 1969 as a times ...
. In 1989, he, under instruction from the DST and agent Jean-Luc Delacour, created the Chaos Computer Club France, a fake hacker group posing as a national offshoot of the
Chaos Computer Club
The Chaos Computer Club (CCC) is Europe's largest association of Hacker (computer security), hackers with 7,700 registered members. Founded in 1981, the association is incorporated as an ''eingetragener Verein'' in Germany, with local chapters ...
, with the purpose of investigating and surveilling the French hacker community. The group would also work with the
National Gendarmarie.
''LE FBI RECRUTE LES PIRATES DU NET POUR TRAQUER BEN LADEN''
Marianne, Anne-Sophie Yoo, 2001-10-29 The CCCF had an electronic magazine called '' Chaos Digest'' (''ChaosD''). Between 4 January 1993 and 5 August 1993, seventy-three issues were published ().
Bibliography
*
See also
* Chaos Computer Club
The Chaos Computer Club (CCC) is Europe's largest association of Hacker (computer security), hackers with 7,700 registered members. Founded in 1981, the association is incorporated as an ''eingetragener Verein'' in Germany, with local chapters ...
* List of hacker groups
This is a partial list of notable hacker groups, in alphabetical order:
* Anonymous, originating in 2003, Anonymous was created as a group for people who fought for the right to privacy.
* Anonymous Sudan, founded in 2023, a hacktivist group tha ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Condat, Jean-Bernard
1963 births
People from Béziers
Living people
French computer programmers
Hacking in the 1990s
Hackers