Interesting, the authors of TrueCrypt was always a mystery
A Coder Who Became a Crime Boss
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Re: A Coder Who Became a Crime Boss
#12I hate that they put that list like that: "Private jets full of gold. Missile-guidance systems. Unbreakable encryption. African militias. Explosives. Kidnapping." One of the things in this list is not like the other.
You mean private jets full of gold that are actually legal (though probably evading taxes) as opposed to the illegality of all the rest?
Unbreakable encryption it's quite legal where i live
Re: A Coder Who Became a Crime Boss
#13Longer version of this story here (2016): https://magazine.atavist.com/the-mastermind -- fascinating story and these articles captivated me. Have had them bookmarked for ages :-)
That would make a great movie!!!
Re: A Coder Who Became a Crime Boss
#14Evan Ratliff (the article’s author) has a book on this subject coming out in February: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JVBNCS7/
Re: A Coder Who Became a Crime Boss
#15Most coders are very anxious and scared type of character. I never met a coder who is macho and mafia type.
Re: A Coder Who Became a Crime Boss
#16Haha I was sure this was going to be about PLR. Alright, story time.
Around 2007, when I was in undergrad, I started getting really interested in cryptography. At the time TrueCrypt was a very popular project in crypto circles, and I spent a lot of time hanging out on the TC forums, soaking up as much information as I could.
As a journalism major, the extreme secrecy of crypto-geeks naturally piqued my curiosity. I started digging into who ran TrueCrypt and its forums. After a bit of googling and whois, I hit a brick wall in the form of LLCs in the Cayman Islands. I therefore did what anybody in my position would do: I just asked people on the TC forums what was going on.
Within minutes, a very popular poster whose handle was `plr` reached out to me, essentially saying "yeah... that is weird! What do you know?". I told him everything, which wasn't much, but he still seemed super interested. We exchanged messages for a few weeks and followed up on a few leads. After a while, plr stopped replying to me. I figured he got bored.
Years later (= 2016, I think), this came out: https://magazine.atavist.com/he-always-had-a-dark-side
tl;dr: I was internet friends with Paul Le Roux.
Re: A Coder Who Became a Crime Boss
#17I read a book called [Acid Alex][1] with a very similar story. Also born in Zimbabwe, also moved to SA. Became a drug dealer.... - great book btw.
[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Acid-Alex-Al-Lovejoy/dp/1439249407
Re: A Coder Who Became a Crime Boss
#18Please make a NARCOS out of this!!!!!!!!!!!
Re: A Coder Who Became a Crime Boss
#19Definitely a true believer on free market!
Re: A Coder Who Became a Crime Boss
#20Longer version of this story here (2016): https://magazine.atavist.com/the-mastermind -- fascinating story and these articles captivated me. Have had them bookmarked for ages :-)
Yep, this is a fantastic read. Came here to post it too!