📸 Photo

KINGPIN

“We need to make some changes in the way we do business.”

Max could feel the frustration radiating from his screen as he read the latest note from Chris Beeson. Max had returned from Def Con empty-handed and then blown off a meeting at the federal building at which he was supposed to get a new assignment, pissing off Beeson’s supervisor, Pete Trahon. Continuing his e-mail, Beeson warned Max of dark consequences for continued flakiness. “In the future, missed appointments without exceptional reasons will be considered uncooperative on your part. If you are not willing to cooperate then we HAVE to take the appropriate actions. Pete is meeting with the prosecutor on YOUR case Monday. He wants to meet with you promptly in our office at 10:00am sharp, MONDAY 8/17/98. I am not available next week (that is why I wanted to meet with you this week) so you’re going to have to deal directly with Pete.”

This time, Max showed up. Trahon explained that he’d become interested in Max’s boss at MCR, Matt Harrigan. The agent was alarmed at the idea of a hacker running a cybersecurity shop staffed with other hackers, like Max, and vying for a contract with the NSA. If Max wanted to make the FBI happy, he had to get Harrigan to admit he was still hacking and had played a role in Max’s BIND attack.

The agent gave Max a new form to sign. It was Max’s written consent to wire him for sound. Trahon handed him a bureau-issued recording device disguised as a pager.

On the way home, Max pondered the situation. Harrigan was a friend and fellow hacker. Now the FBI was asking Max to perform the ultimate betrayal—to become Digital Jesus’s real-life Judas.

The next day, Max met Harrigan at a Denny’s diner in San Jose, without the FBI wire. His eyes scanned over the other diners and looked out the window into the parking lot. There could be feds anywhere.

He pulled out a piece of paper and slipped it across the booth. “Here’s what’s going on. . . .”