Hacker Sics SWAT Team On Security Consultant’s Home

The cat-and-mouse game between security experts and hackers, not surprisingly, can get personal. In this post, security consultant and former Washington Post reporter Brian Krebs recounts how one hacker was able to get a SWAT team to surround his house and then handcuff him at gunpoint. It’s a known type of hoax called “swatting.” The perpetrator in this case, Eric Taylor – aka CosmoTheGod – was famous for his skill not only at swatting, but another kind of attack called “doxing,” which involved putting victims’ personal information – social security number and the like, sometimes more – out on the internet. He had successfully doxed a number of celebrities, including Michelle Obama and the then-director of the FBI. Taylor has since apologized and – you guessed it – started his own consulting business. The SWAT episode isn’t the only run-in that Krebs has had with cyber-criminals whom he has attempted to thwart. In 2013, when he managed to gain access to the site of a Ukrainian hacker (recently sentenced to 41-months for cyber crimes), Krebs discovered the man was working on a plot to have heroin sent to his house and then call the police. Apparently that was in retaliation for Krebs having doxed him, i.e. printed his real name and image on his website. He too has repented and has been sending postcards to Krebs at Christmas time.