A serial hacker known as “TinKode” claims to have successfully breached an FTP site belonging to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
TinKode – who apparently resides in Romania – posted images on the ‘Net to support evidence of the purported digital infiltration.
The enigmatic hacker has also claimed credit for compromising a number of high-profile website in the past, including the Royal Navy homepage and MySQL.com which was downed by a yes, you guessed it, SQL injection attack.
In a blog post, Sophos Security analyst Graham Cluley dubbed TinKode a “new breed of hacker,” who routinely courts the media and announces his accomplishments via Twitter.
“The good news is the mysterious TinKode appears to be spurred on more by the desire to embarrass organizations into tightening their web security than financial motivation,” he opined.
Indeed, during a recent interview with Network World, TinKode essentially compared himself to a free security auditor.
“I am doing this because finding security holes represents a hobby for me. If someone wants to hire me, we can discuss [the idea], [and it] isn’t a problem.
“Until now, no. I don’t do bad things. I only find and make public the info… Afterwards I send an email to them to fix the holes. It’s like an security audit, but for free.”
