Mathew Bevan (born 10 June 1974) is a British

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 ...

from

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. In 1996 he was arrested for hacking into secure U.S. Government networks under the handle Kuji. At the age of 21, he hacked into the files of the

Griffiss Air Force Base Griffiss International Airport is a public airport in the northeastern United States, located east of the central business district of Rome, a city in Oneida County, New York. Publicly-owned by the county, the airport is located on the form ...

Research Laboratory in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. Bevan was intent on proving a UFO conspiracy theory. His sole tool was an

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

home computer Home computers were a class of microcomputers that entered the market in 1977 and became common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a s ...

with the

blue box A blue box is an Electronics, electronic device that produces tones used to generate the in-band signaling tones formerly used within the North American long-distance telephone network to send line status and called number information over voi ...

program ''Roxbox''. According to

Air Force Office of Special Investigations The Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI or AFOSI) is a U.S. federal law enforcement agency that reports directly to the Secretary of the Air Force. OSI is also a U.S. Air Force field operating agency under the administrative guida ...

Supervisory Special Agent Jim Christy, Bevan was one of two hackers who had nearly started a third world war.

Background

Bullied by his peers, Bevan had a difficult time with school and at night he would turn to the online world as an escape. Having learned how to manipulate the public telephone system, he could place calls to anywhere in the world and the normal charges would not appear on his telephone bill. Bevan began to lead a double-life, going to school during the day, then later engaging in the nocturnal hacking activities which were eventually discovered. A statement by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations declared that Bevan, identified by his pseudonym 'Kuji', was a "Foreign Agent, possibly of Eastern European origin". Authorities began to investigate Bevan during their pursuit of Bevan's partner Richard Pryce (whose handle was "Datastream Cowboy"). Pryce, then 16 years old, had allegedly hacked his way into a research facility in

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

, and dumped the contents of the Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute's database into the United States Air Force (USAF) computer system. (A primary concern was that if

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

had found this out, they would have seen the theft of their data as an intrusion committed by the USAF, and would have retaliated for the espionage; the data was found to actually be

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

n data.) On 21 June 1996, Bevan was arrested for hacking into sensitive

USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

, and

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facilities. Eighteen months later, in

Woolwich Crown Court Woolwich Crown Court, or more accurately the Crown Court at Woolwich, is a Crown Court venue which deals with criminal cases on Belmarsh Way, Thamesmead, London, England. History In the early 1990s, the Lord Chancellor's Department decided to ...

, the

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decided that it was no longer in the public interest to pursue the case. They offered 'no evidence' which resulted in a full

acquittal In common law jurisdictions, an acquittal means that the criminal prosecution has failed to prove that the accused is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the charge presented. It certifies that the accused is free from the charge of an of ...

being recorded. Bevan has commented on the

Gary McKinnon Gary McKinnon (born February 1966) is a Scottish systems administrator and hacker who was accused by a US prosecutor in 2002 of perpetrating the "biggest military computer hack of all time". McKinnon said that he was looking for evidence of fr ...

case as being very similar to his own.

References

External links

Kuji Media Corporation (archive of news stories relating to case)

* ttp://www.kujimedia.com/?page_id=14 Lengthy interview citing history of the case along with tv spots {{DEFAULTSORT:Bevan, Matthew British cybercriminals 1974 births Living people People from Cardiff Hackers