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Usually, when a hacker is sent to prison, he can expect his hacking days to be over for the foreseeable future. However, when cyber criminal Nicholas Webber was given a five-year sentence, he promptly threw the rule book out of the window, joining his London prison’s IT class and hacking into its computer system.
The 21-year-old is serving time in the UK for running internet crime forum Ghost Market, which offered a platform where its 8,000 users could exchange stolen credit card information and give tips on creating computer viruses. When Webber was sentenced in 2011, it was estimated that he’d masterminded fraud in the region of £15 million – all from the comfort of a luxury penthouse suite, paid for, of course, by a stolen credit card.
What possessed the prison – HMP Isis – to let him anywhere near a computer remains a mystery, but they maintain that, when the attack occurred in the first year of Webber’s sentence, the network was secure and no data was ever at risk of being compromised. Nonetheless, his actions are said to have caused ‘major panic’ and it’s still unclear what – if anything – he managed to access.
The prison held Michael Fox, the IT course's teacher, responsible for the incident. On the other hand, Mr. Fox claims that he had no idea why Webber was in jail and blames the prison for allowing him to sign up for the class in the first place. Mr. Fox was banned from accessing the prison again and, although Kensington and Chelsea College cleared him of any wrongdoing, he has since been unable to find work and is now claiming unfair dismissal from the prison – hence why details of Webber’s audacious hack have now come to light.
While you can rest assured that Webber probably won’t be going anywhere near a computer anytime soon, there are unfortunately plenty of hackers out there, just waiting for an opportunity to strike. An easy way to give your computer an extra level of protection is by using a VPN (read more: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/free-vpn-for-chrome-vpn-p/majdfhpaihoncoakbjgbdhglocklcgno) service whenever you’re browsing the web. A VPN makes it much harder for any hackers to gain access to your personal information and will help you feel more secure when you’re online.
HMA Weekly Tip: What settings on the HMA VPN client would increase my security?
Question: What settings on the HMA VPN client would
growth my security?
Answer: If you spend a lot time browsing the network then you should consider regularly changing your IP address. We don’t recommend this for streaming content from sites such as BBC iPlayer or Hulu, as they require you to have a reformed ip address. Though for all other uses, changing your IP regularly can grant an additional hurdle for any prying company or person who may concretely try to track your IP address.
HideMyAss is one of the few VPN providers which grant this as in-built feature.
Instructions
- Within the HMA! Pro VPN client, navigate to the ‘IP Address Settings’
- In the ‘Schedule IP address change’, choose the time spacing you wish to have your IP address mechanically changed.
- Click Apply
- At the time interval you choose, your communications will be disconnected for a momentum during the IP address change.
- To check whether your IP address has changed happily you can use our free ‘Hide My Ass! IP Checker’ extension which identifies your - IP address with simply one click from within your browser.
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