MI6 Phone Hack: 'No Government Can Stop Us' Says TeamPoison Leader TriCk

'No Government Can Stop Us'

The leader of the hacking group TeamPoison ('TeaMp0isoN') is a pretty old hand when it comes to carving up government security systems.

He is, he says, 17 years old.

Known as Trick (or, more correctly, 'TriCk'), his group has hacked the United Nations, Nato, Facebook, the English Defence League, a personal email account linked to a former staff member of Tony Blair and other major organisations and governments.

They say they are behind the alleged 'phonebomb' attack in which MI6's anti-terrorism hotline was reportedly blocked for more than 24 hours, and several of their internal phone discussions were recorded and leaked to YouTube.

But Trick, who refused to reveal his real name, laughs off the idea it was difficult.

"It wasn't a hard hack at all," he said in an exclusive interview with the Huffington Post UK.

"It was actually easy, you just have to learn how phone systems work and learn the art of phreaking, which most so-called hackers these days don't even read about. Nor do they even know what phreaking is, except for the underground that is," he said via Skype.

"It's not hard to learn either but most novices in the hacking scene would rather follow groups like Anonymous and pick up pre-made tools to perform attacks, which is not hacking at all."

"There's an older hacking quote 'don't learn to hack, hack to learn'."

Trick says the MI6 attack was inspired by the recent court decision to extradite several terror suspects to the United States. The most recent court decision was made by the European Court of Human Rights - and Trick says they should probably check their security too.

"[We are] already working on hacking the EU court. I can't say more about that."

Trick started learning to hack at age 11, while playing online games and repeatedly being hacked by other players using cookies to break into his account. He went online, learned to hack, and fought back. By the age of 13 he stopped playing, joined hacking forums, and less than three years later had set up his own site - p0ison.org.

Trick says he is a Muslim, and is often reported as being based in the UK - though he claims that suggestion may have been misdirection on his part. ("I'm a bunch of binaries, people have no idea about my identity and if they think they need to study reverse psychology.")

When he was 15 he started watching videos of atrocities in Kashmir and Palestine, and became interested in the politics of world government - and conspiracy theories involving the Illuminati. "If any country is suffering from oppression and occupation and what not, and we see a way that we can help them by raising awareness, we will," he told Softpedia recently.

What emerged from his politicalised youth was a loose philosophy based around an intolerance of authority, a defence of oppressed communities and anger at those who he saw as the oppressors.

But where many young hackers watch the antics of Anonymous and LulzSec, download easily available denial-of-service (DDoS) software and set about bringing down sites for 'lulz', Trick had something else in mind.

"Most young kids watch the news and see headlines like 'LulzSec attacks US senate website,' [and] 'anon attacks PayPal' and what not, the media's hacker is their hacker, and they become interested in hacking," he told the Huffington Post UK.

"But the youth in the scene (most of them) have no true understanding of real hacking."

"The youth need role models, else they will die out."

When asked if he was a role model Trick responded: "You could say that, yes. We always tell people not to use pre-made tools and read and learn manually, we don't teach anyone as that would be spoon-feeding which never works in the hacking scene."

"Hence why we went after LulzSec last year," he said. TeamPoison is a rival of LulzSec, who recently announced they are disbanding.

"They were brining negativity to the hacking scene. The media was recognising them as the "best out there" when in fact all they were doing was DDoSing randoms websites. Half [of which] had no DDoS protection."

Trick says he does not fear prison.

"I would never sell out, I see hacking as an art and not a profession, I do it for the love of the scene and for the hacking culture. But I also do it for a cause - that's where hacktivism comes into it."

"I don't fear prison, prison would actually allow me to focus on my religion more as I'd be isolated from the mad stuff going on in the world, I'm a muslim. I do it for the bigger cause - if I was to fear prison, I would be giving up on the cause."

For those without the hacking 'skeelz' of TeamPoison the idea that anonymous, young and idealistic hackers can gain access to the highest levels of security is a terrifying though.

Trick says there is nothing to fear.

"Don't fear us," he said. "We are not the oppressors - we don't attack innocent people or hack random people, we are against that. 'With great power comes great responsibility' - and we understand that.

"TeaMp0isoN is based on trust, we have all known each other for years, we all have the same goals and motives - to be a "successful" hacktivist team you must have a circle of trust.

"We can go back to being underground and you'd never hear of us ever again, but we do this for the cause and to make a change. We don't care about the fame, or being 'power hungry', the only power we seek is to change stuff or to embarrass the victim."

So what's next for the group - you know, other than becoming the target of a major Metropolitan Police investigation?

"We've been working on a lot of projects recently, but to be honest expect anything and everything. I can't really disclose some of our targets as that would be stupid, just know that we will always been around doing what we do.

"No government corruption can stop us."

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