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Enemies

Jonathan Giannone was learning that loss of privacy was the cost of doing business with Iceman.

He'd been working with the mystery hacker for over a year—mostly acquiring servers that Iceman used in his vulnerability scanning—and he was still constantly under Iceman's electronic scrutiny. One day, the hacker sent Giannone a link purporting to be a CNN article about computer problems at JetBlue, the airline that had rebuffed Giannone's long-ago extortion attempt. Giannone clicked on the link without thinking, and, just like that, Iceman was on his computer again. Client-side attacks for the win.

Giannone began routinely checking his computer for malware but couldn't keep up with Iceman's intrusions. Max got ahold of Giannone's United Airlines Mileage Plus password and began tracking his movements around the world—Giannone was a serious air travel aficionado who'd sometimes fly just to accumulate miles. When he'd land at San Francisco International, he'd find a text message from Iceman waiting for him on his cell. "Why are you in San Francisco?"

It might have been amusing if it weren't for Iceman's frightening mood swings. He could turn on you in a minute—one day you'd be his best friend, his "number one guy"; the next he'd be convinced you were a snitch, a ripper, or worse. He wrote Giannone long, unprompted e-mail