Hacker Interviews – Scrub

Let’s continue the series of interviews with talented hackers some of them like Scrub are involved in anti-ISIS campaigns.

Scrub is a member of #GhostSquadHackers and currently involved in the #opTurkey campaign.

Enjoy the Interview.

You are a popular talented hacker that has already participated in several hacking campaigns, could you tell me more about.

I started off with fighting ISIS online with a couple of other Anonymous members, suspending ISIS-affiliated accounts and taking down ISIS websites from the internet.

Could you tell me which his your technical background and when you started hacking? Which are your motivations?

I started hacking around 2012, I gradually got much better at hacking at 2015, defacing websites and hacking accounts, then I started hacking for good – like the #OpISIS campaign, taking down ISIS-affiliated websites and suspended ISIS accounts. My motivations are for fun and sometimes for the good.

What was your greatest hacking challenge? Which was your latest hack? Can you describe me it?

The most recent hack is for the #OpTurkey campaign, defacing Turkish websites and taking down Turkish government websites. I don’t really know what my most challenging hack has been.

What are the 4 tools that cannot be missed in the hacker’s arsenal and why?

The 4 tools can be:

A simple DoS tool for disrupting servers, or a botnet to infect computers and use them for a DDoS attack.
A social engineering tool can be used for phishing – stealing accounts.
PHP shells are great for rooting websites, and gaining access to other domains connected to the rooted server.
Exploitation tools are optional – you can exploit SQL injectable servers via tools or doing it manually. I prefer to do it manually.

Which are the most interesting hacking communities on the web today, why?

Well, Hackforums has always been on the list for numerous reasons, giving tutorials on how to exploit web servers and the like. Great source for beginner hackers.

Did you participate in hacking attacks against the IS propaganda online? When? How?

Yes, I started around about November 14 th 2015, a day after the Paris attacks given from ISIS. I started from suspended their accounts online and leaking ISIS website databases.

Where do you find IS people to hack? How do you choose your targets?

I choose my targets from the @CtrlSec bots and the @tool_binary from BinarySec. The websites you can publically find on Pastebin.

We often hear about cyber weapons and cyber attacks against critical infrastructure. Do you believe it is real the risk of a major and lethal cyber attack against a critical infrastructure?

Yes, the risk is high as these infrastructures are critical targets for attackers, this can cause many problems to the owners.

Thanks a lot!

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Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – Hacker, Scrub)

Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.