How the right thing in cyber security could’ve ended with me disappearing…
Written by Planet Zuda Staff
We are starting a new series here, documenting our experiences while helping others and how things can go a bit crazy. Especially when you figure out something concerning one of the biggest societies in the world.
So how did I almost get arrested by the UN? It all started on a sunny day when I searched for a certain hack and the United Nations website came up. As you might know the United Nations has their own legal jurisdiction and operates outside of the normal legal system, which wasn’t really something I wanted to experience from the inside…
I spent the next few months looking for a friend who works for RAND. When he popped back up at weekly bowling, I knew it was the perfect occasion: I told him what I was up to now and asked him how he thought I should report to the UN. He clearly stated the risks and I asked him if he would be willing to bail me out if something went wrong. He chuckled at first, but finally decided to get on board with my plan as he still had contacts in the UN if things went south.
Even though it was really risky I knew reporting this was the right thing to do… So, I called up the United Nations and spoke to, I believe an ambassador of sometype, who was a very smooth talker. The following is the closest we could bring to your eyes about what happened during that phone call…
Me: “Hi, I am calling to tell the UN has been hacked.”
UN:” Well then action will be taken against the person who hacked us and you will be detained”
“Me: I didn’t hack you”
UN:” Well, who did?”
Me: “I don’t know!”
UN:” Then what do you want from me!!!”
Me:” I want to talk to your cyber security department”
UN: “We have an IT guy”
transfers to the IT guy
“Hi, the UN has been hacked”
At this point I was able to use my tech skills and explain how new pages were added to the united nations site and how their old version of Joomla was exploited. The dude was still freaking out, but in an appreciative way by the end of the call.
There is plenty of documentation about their compromises from 2008-2018 and also our other reports in 2018
www.un.org hacked. Notified by Agd_Scorp (zone-h.org)
www.un.org hacked. Notified by Turkz.org (zone-h.org)
www.un.org hacked. Notified by eno7 (zone-h.org)
We hope you enjoy these honest and transparent articles, on what we do and how things actually go, so you can get a glimpse behind the scenes.
Since we strongly believe in good journalism, we are noting that GuardianCosmos refutes what happened claiming he was employed at the United Nations and that is public information. After reviewing his employment status for over the last decade, and not finding any mention of him with the United nations, we have no reason to believe his claims are factual. If they were factual, it would not change what we noted above or what any of our witnesses can attest too.
We find it important due to the refuting of our experience with the U.N that the United Nations has a public record of trying to keep hacks underwraps .
