French Twitter burglar: Im a good hacker

PARIS - Hes impoverished and isnt most of a computer expert. The Frenchman indicted of infiltrating Twitter and peeping at the accounts of President Barack Obama and singers Britney Spears and Lily Allen says he longed for to exhibit only how exposed online interpretation systems are to break-ins — and he says he didnt meant any harm.

"I"m a good hacker," think Francois Cousteix told France 3 radio Thursday, a day after he was expelled from military questioning, adding that his idea was to advise Internet users about interpretation security.

"Hacker Croll," as he was well known online, is indicted of violation in to Twitter administrators" accounts and duplicating trusted interpretation — as well as peeping at Obamas and the singers" accounts, though he didnt have entrance to supportive report about them, a French prosecutor said.

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FBI agents sat inthe sessions whilst French military questioned the immature man for dual days, pronounced Jean-Yves Coquillat, prosecutor in Clermont-Ferrand, where the think will be attempted in Jun for hacking.

Could face dual years in prisonIf convictedthe assign of violation in to a interpretation system, he faces up to dual years in jail and a excellent of $40,068. The think lives nearby Clermont-Ferrand in executive France.

"He says the the challenge, the game, that done him do it," Coquillat said. Officials contend rough investigations indicate Hacker Croll did not twitter in alternative peoples" names or try to have income out of his information.

"He had entrance to elements that were so trusted that he could really well have profited from them" by blackmail, for example, pronounced Adeline Champagnat of the French military officeinformation record crimes.

She compared the hackers actions to "a criminal violation in to the domicile of a big company, means to see at the files of the all employees and clients, with their passwords and trusted information."

"In a way, he succeeded in receiving carry out of Twitter," Champagnat said.

Twitter, formed in San Francisco, declined to commentthe box Thursday.

Wanted to infer a pointAt one point, Champagnat said, the hacker attempted to find a cue for Obamas comment but didnt follow by with it. With director access, "he didnt even need" Obamas password, she pronounced — but hacking in to the presidents comment wasnt his goal.

Cousteix, who was identified as being twenty-three or 24, pronounced he only longed for to infer a point about Internet security.

"Its a summary I longed for to get out to Internet users, to show them that no complement is invulnerable," he told France 3 television.

Hacker Croll confessed to the hacking underneath questioning, and research of his computer backs up his statements, military and the prosecutor said.

The suspect, who lives with his relatives and has no college degree, didnt have any special computer training, the prosecutor said.

His technique was to get administrators" e-mail passwords" reset by rightly responding their security questions utilizing report about his chase that he collected from blogs and alternative open sites, officials said.

Breach voiced last JulyTwitter pronounced in Jul that it was the plant of a security breach. Co-founder Biz Stone wrote at the time that the personal e-mail of an unnamed Twitter executive worker was hacked, and by that the assailant got entrance to the employees Google Apps account.

The French prosecutor pronounced the think infiltrated the accounts of "several" Twitter executive employees. He was means to entrance report such as contracts with partners and resumes from pursuit applicants, Coquillat said.

Hacker Croll e-mailed a little of the papers to TechCrunch, a at large review record blog, and it subsequently published a little of them, together with monetary projections. The element was additionally publishedseveral French sites.

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Some of the element was some-more annoying than damaging, similar to building plans for new bureau space and a representation for a Twitter TV show.

Using the director logins, Hacker Croll looked at Twitter sum of Obama, Allen, Spears and alternative obvious personalities and was means to see report such as IP addresses, when they were last continuous and when they sealed up, French officials said.

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