Matthew Bevan

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Mathew Bevan is a British hacker from Cardiff, Wales. In 1996 he was arrested for hacking into secure US government networks under the handle Kuji. He was 21 when he hacked into the files of the Griffiss Air Force Base Research Laboratory in New York ^[1]. Intent on proving a UFO Conspiracy Theory ^[2]; his sole tool was a Commodore Amiga loaded with a blueboxing program called Roxbox.

He was one of two hackers said to have "nearly started a third world war" according to Supervisory Special Agent Jim Christy ^[3], at the time working for the Air Force Office of Special Investigations

Contents 1 Background 2 Current 3 Video Interview 4 External links 5 References

[edit] Background

Bullied by his peers, Mathew had a difficult time with school and turned to the online world at night for an escape. Having been told ways to negate the phone system, he could call anywhere in the world without charges appearing on his bill. Mathew began to lead a double-life, a normal school life during the day followed by his now well publicized nocturnal activities.

On June 21, 1996 he was arrested in connection with hacking incidents relating to several sensitive USAF, NASA and NATO establishments. The United States Senate had already misinterpreted the situation and branded Mathew's pseudonym Kuji as a "Foreign Agent, possibly of Eastern European origin". ^[4]

After 36 hours ^[5] of interviews with police, he was charged with intent to secure access to computer systems belonging to the US Air Force and defense manufacturer Lockheed.

A US Air Force investigator summed up the risks and concerns brought about by their hacking, how Bevan's alleged partner Richard Pryce (Datastream Cowboy), then 16 years old, hacked his way into a research facility in Korea, and dumped the contents of the Korean Atomic Research Institute's database on the USAF system.^[6]. The concern was that if North Korea noticed, they would think the transfer of data was an intrusion by the US Air Force, and threaten physical retaliation for the espionage; fortunately it turned out to be South Korean data, significantly less volatile.

At Woolwich Crown Court, Friday 21 November 1997 some 18 months later, the CPS decided that it was no longer in the public interest to pursue the case. They offered 'no evidence' which resulted in a full acquittal being recorded.

[edit] Current

Mathew runs a computer consultancy and has worked with many media firms ^[7] in relation to computer technology and has commented on the Gary McKinnon case as being very similar to his own. ^{[8] [9]}

He is a holistic therapist trained in NLP, Reiki and clinical hypnotherapy.

[edit] Video Interview

[edit] External links

[edit] References