Hacking "World of Warcraft" Was His Gateway Drug to a Life of Crime🎙Ep. 117: Daniel the Paladin

Daniel Kelley was just 12 years old when his rivals in "World of Warcraft" found his IP address and knocked him offline during battle. These exploits, left in plain sight, made him wonder how many other companies and servers were completely vulnerable. There were thousands. At first, he looked but wouldn't touch. But eventually, the curiosity around these "open windows" got the best of him.
That's where things get dark.
Visit darknetdiaries.com/episode/117/ for a list of sources, full transcripts, and to listen to all episodes.

[@AstralArchivists]

Hearing that they credited the kid in the bug report and then right afterwards hearing Jack "these are true stories from the dark side of the internet" made me crack up 😂😂

[@GeekieBenji]

The amount of hackers who spawned out of DDoS attacks back in the days is astonishing

[@KidCorporate]

No kidding, I had an instance of LOIC but the more I understood about it the less I wanted to use it so I never did.

[@GeekieBenji]

​@@KidCorporate yeah, DDoS is where my interest started at a young age, resolving IPs from Steam and Skype calls I still remember from my early days. But with age I learned to stay away from that stuff :P A "friend" back then ran "Titanium Stresser" If you haven't heard about it, Google it and see the punishment he faced. I contacted him a few years ago on skype and well, some of the things mentioned in this Podcast I can relate with what he said his experience was.

[@sirdag]

​@@KidCorporate IMMA CHARGIN MAH LAZER

[@Netbase2000]

I knooow, right

[@A_Black_hoodie]

​@@sirdag SHOOP DA WHOOP

[@xportal9169]

I recently (approximately 2-3 weeks ago) found out about this podcast. And all I can see this is the best podcast I have ever found. I love every detail (music, thumbnail, guests, host, and letting you know when will he play ads)

[@Gixsir]

Go listen to the episode called Jeni it’s awesome

[@xportal9169]

@@Gixsir i will

[@NSXtacy-]

There are honestly so many good episodes the only thing I would recommend is listening to every single one

[@CyberInvestor93]

Bro you need to bindge the old ones, this is my Thursday morning podcast and sometimes Saturdays

[@PalCan]

100% and the march (t-shirts, etc) are also as impressive.

[@user-xf8bu3jt3f]

the boy showed an essential part of hacking: creativity

[@sudokode]

The 3 C's of hacking: curiosity, creativity, confidence

[@KristovMars]

@@sudokode clacking ceyboard* consistently? I'm not knocking, I still can't do a Hacking. But pressing space repeatedly doesn't seem all that creative. Then again, the technique is pretty effective at pedestrian crossings so maybe the lad's onto something... *yes, I know. alliteration sometimes requires sacrifice.

[@4thfrom7]

Elevators too@@KristovMars

[@sudokode]

@@KristovMars hey for a 5yo, that ain't bad. Definitely showing the 3 C's. Curious if he could do it, creative enough to find a solution, and confident enough to keep the scheme going

[@YKZBlender]

I get so hyped every time I get a notification that you posted

[@DetectiveNoir_]

Me at 5 years: Watching & Vibing at Ben 10 Opening Track 🤓

[@yam2050]

We didn't even had satellite dish at that time , we used to rent pirated dvds. It depends on where you grew up and what access you had.

[@DetectiveNoir_]

@@yam2050 I only had box television we had back in the days lol. I was 5 at 2007

[@yam2050]

@@DetectiveNoir_ that's the point.

[@Jason.04]

I was 5 in the 80s, yall know nothing about Napster and Limewire

[@DetectiveNoir_]

@@Jason.04 wait I heard of Napster. From Social Network I think💀

[@ningayeti]

If he was using his home computer to put his WOW opponent offline then it was NOT a DDOS attack it was a DOS (denial of service) attack. DDOS is by definition an attack from multiple IPs.

[@SodiumEx]

Pretty sure he was using a botnet with hoic or loic. It's pretty hard to get someone offline with one single ip packet flooding

[@ardeladimwit]

there should be some way to offer hackers like Daniel a middle way with minimal punitive prison time but with offer of alternative military or civil service because somebody like Daniel would be invaluable to military, but military training is also tightly supervised without much personal freedom. But 6months or so of prison and then opt-out for military/ civil training would give him a future career in cyber security that would be a whole lot more valuable to country than expense of jail. seems such a waste of brains and resources to imprison someone when the person could be a valuable asset to society simply by offering an alternative.

[@keystonepirate2534]

Military, come work for pennies …😂

[@Arbeitunfallversicherung]

Enjoying your podcasts!

[@chrisoakleyfx]

My favourite podcast! Everything about it is leagues above everything else out there, the narration, the interviews, the storytelling, the music, the artwork... even the in-episode ads I don't hate as viscerally as I normally would 😂 I dont work in cybersecurity or IT but the subject fascinates me as a layman and you strike a really good balance for listeners like me, you give me loads of things to go look up and learn about but its accessible enough to follow without having to be an expert. I hope this podcast keeps going for a long time to come 🙏

[@alexstone5710]

L8

[@ThisHandleIsNotAvailable.]

Im new to your content and I have been engrossed in it. Truly amazing work and story telling.

[@Ostinat0]

This is one of the saddest starts to a life of cybercrime that I've ever heard: finding out someone is cheating in a game and just wanting to know how, then eventually realizing that you're actually one of the only people who ISN'T cheating.

[@JWL123]

39:00 while some may feel this way, others like myself enjoy these stories of younger people as they’re usually more recent and relatable

[@bossboy2890]

Well I guess I'm not going to sleep. Keep up the great work loving all your videos

[@dontclickthechannel7949]

Great job presenting this story. I'm curious what he was doing to protect himself.

[@gazfirst]

Think I was eating mud at 5 years old 😂

[@Gixsir]

Definitely boogers 😂

[@goldnutter412]

LMFAO some kid in Russia 20+ yrs ago coded the 3 animals boat puzzle in ASM at 5.. We are so inferior lmfao

[@PaulMnMSmith]

Daniel, I know that feeling when the judge reads your sentence and you go into a state of shock and you go completely numb. Its not until they walk you out the back and you sit in your cell for a while when you realize what has actually happened. When I was 15 I committed a similar crime and was sentenced to 10 years then had years taken off for my age, showing remorse and a couple of other things which I ended up with 5 years. Fortunately enough for me I appealed at the high court and ended up with no prison time. Thanks for sharing your story.

[@SUPERNINTENDOHALMERZ]

I walked into the courtroom facing up to 60 years.. thank god i left signing only for 2.

[@A_Black_hoodie]

​@PDOUGHLIVESAT339LLOYD STAKRONOH DAMN 60 YEARS tf did you do man

[@SUPERNINTENDOHALMERZ]

@@A_Black_hoodie trafficking

[@A_Black_hoodie]

@@SUPERNINTENDOHALMERZ wtf man

[@A_Black_hoodie]

@@SUPERNINTENDOHALMERZ i have to ask why man

[@jchastain789]

It's good to hear your lawyer actually cares about you and even recommending mental health. That's so awesome. I remember the tok tok thing. It's crazy this is the dude

[@sephjvr5979]

@Jack, have you ever noticed how many of your visitors start their hacking/IT journey directly after being attacked by others?

[@Ctin23_3]

It must've been very traumatic to go through all that in prison. You can tell that the guy was trying to turn over a new leaf while the prison staff were being completely unfair to him. Overall I'm glad this man hasn't given up on wanting to work on the industry, I think if he starts his own company it will go very far. Thank you for the story Jack! Fantastic as always

[@Lindsey_Lockwood]

And that's when I decided to reoffend

[@pneuma33]

Daniel the Paladin

[@chrispfpv]

Great storey and I remember the talk talk storey very well. Jack, you made me laugh though with the 'super max' prison. HMP Berwyn is a cat C prison, which is far from super max. They do however allocate laptops to prisoners so they can order canteen, meal menu's, book appointments and other minor stuff but there is no external assess to the Internet unless the laptops are hacked, which Daniel would have been more than capable of doing.

[@Boobeinstein]

I think he said HMP Bristol or something like that.

[@M21assult]

2am post? I’m here for it.

[@0therun1t21]

Yes, it makes sense! Thank you for coming and telling your story, I enjoyed it. When Talk Talk (stupid name) stocks fell it was a perfect time to buy, so maybe your guest accidentally helped some people make money.

[@garronfish8227]

I find it interesting how things snowball from a kid learning how to hack to them extorting people or doing other bad things. Some interesting psychology going on. I guess part of it must be having so much power as a young adult.

[@ImARealHumanPerson]

They don't understand severe consequences when they're young.

[@IshtheStomach]

Holy f◇▪︎%! Another 5 star episode!

[@codelinx]

I feel like I listened to this already😳

[@OffensiveComment]

Just in time for bed. Thanks jack, I’ll be buying merch soon.

[@Kakerate2]

lol yep

[@emera1750]

You are a powerhouse Jack !!

[@toooes]

world of warcrack - not even once

[@mycelia_ow]

truly, it consumes you

[@cristianstoica4544]

Does it still count as Python if you rebuild it from sources and rename it as escapFrNY?

[@Dwigt_Rortugal]

Call it Boa. It's a h4x0r language and you can only code in it while wearing a balaclava and fingerless gloves. That's how you spot a real hacker! The prison part was wild. Corrections officers must absolutely hate hackers or intelligent people. It's so irrational, but then the prison system is bonkers anyway. "If you're not a bad criminal on the way in, we'll beat the crime into you!"

[@NPCnate_]

Whats the song called at 31:19?

[@pl46u3]

Should do an episode on the AT&T 2600Hz

[@goldnutter412]

CISO Deutsche Bank ? NICE !!! Congrats bro.. on the right path. All in this together :) life is learning

[@derrickoleke523]

Here we go again

[@wibi1990]

This guy is hilarious without even trying 😄

[@SmokeyHouse]

5 year old hacking xbox n i cant get a vpn to work 🤣🤣🤣

[@naths3010]

Alt f4

[@chasegimbel1904]

I’m sorry but how can you not get a vpn to work there literally plug and play

[@SmokeyHouse]

@@chasegimbel1904 it was a joke 🤣🤣🤣

[@kingpin76110]

As it turned out his real name Is John McCafée.

[@goldnutter412]

1:01:01 That is how the mind works We take external data, we add it to our data, we try to make MORE information not less (the universe is a digital entropy reduction trainer, a virtual "machine") Amazing story guys, thankyou

[@CenitV]

I remember getting in to another xbox account in a similar fashion. I download a couple of games for gold users and play it in my account

[@melantheoszimurri9981]

If your shit is vulnerable, and someone tells you about it and you do nothing to secure it it should not be illegal to exploit it

[@nithin604]

What happened to your sound. Sounds different

[@deadmo1]

they made him wait 4 years. its a classic thing they do to break people beyond repair, it has alot of chances to keep them in the criminal loop, its all on purpose. they made me wait in the same fashion for a year and a half, and the same depression happened to me. they know they are doing this, yet they keep doing it, because the goal is to ruin people's lives, its not anything else.

[@banbpablo]

Google docking after this 📈

[@crackedtvgaming]

Music came off pretty loud 😅

[@kingpin76110]

I’m just going to get in there and look around. Five mins later. Well I’m just gonna put the tip in. I promise…..

[@zTribalstylerz]

So it was about then I decided to REOFFEND!

[@MikeHarris1984]

Everytime he said "PoliCE station" I kept hearing him say "PLAYSTATION" Driving me nuts... "They just kept me in the playstation" Every single time...

[@dustins7259]

Back in the PS3 days DDoS was very prevalent in games like Madden or really any online game that had achievements that required online Player vs Player. You also could get the IP as long as they were in your lobby, didn't need much else. You could even do this in COD games and kick the entire other team if you wanted.

[@hatenasjunjou4651]

Sick style, seriously. 🎉🎉

[@Bullminator]

Oh the wow lag macro, i remember that one.

[@Theabstractblu]

Damn Daniel

[@natorsi]

I love these teen hacker stories as someone who was super active on the internet of that era as a tween and teen. I even got hacked when I was ten and running my own little insecure website. This lets me see the other side.

[@cryptoclyph22]

Did he not do anything anonymously

[@shamelescampr5594]

Anyone else? Just open KZbin. Waiting to see the next video

[@HolyPire]

Where is spacebar on a xbox?

[@chasegimbel1904]

The buttons on the controller correspond to keys, either that or there’s a virtual keyboard on screen

[@andrewclodfelter6760]

Let's gooooo!

[@creative.money_eu]

Best ending ever!!! :))

[@woritsez]

tsk, them Kelly's and their shenanigans

[@balys07]

Drinking game: drink if you hear "if this make sence"?

[@nickadams2361]

that is 10000% mishandled async code

[@Astrogator1]

His treatment in the prison system was interesting. That he caused embarrassment to Dido Harding may well have have influenced his treatment. She has repeatedly shown stunning levels of incompetence while being up to her neck in the most corrupt British government in more than 100 years. Sounds a lot like embarrassing the wrong person at the wrong time. I also find it hilarious that it was the Metropolitan Police Service (the met) that was investigating this as they are the most corrupt police force in the UK if not Europe.

[@markbird5461]

Why does he Finnish every sentence with "does that make sense¿"

[@AntiWanted]

Nice

[@cetriyasArtnComicsChannel]

sounds like these companies over paid the heads and stock holders and not enough staff and sponserships for young hackers..

[@JohnSmith-ii8pp]

The biggest vulnerability and threat is google. They are technically doing the same. They find it, and share it. Google needs to add logic to their crawler to not add that type of data to their database.

[@jchastain789]

My boy

[@Netbase2000]

Always the same. He should've gottten hunddret thousands for that exploit he found with 12. Should've just make it public or sold it. These companys..

[@Netbase2000]

They seem to offer up to 20k and "up to" 60k in some cases now. Still not enough if you ask me. To find one at microsoft. You could make hundred millions on the black market

[@BC.702]

Reminds me of the good yahoo booter days 😂

[@joshuapacheco2898]

People would dc people in halo 2 back in the day lol iykyk

[@spinner8930]

the Welsh talk like they've got rrrocks in their mouths(love your beautiful accent Daniel

[@Ludeo]

Title should be "Hacking" World of Warcraft

[@charlieporter5423]

Let’s go

[@bTabard]

"Is it a crime to walk around a building looking for open windows?" If they can prove that, pretty sure that's prowling 😂. But you gotta have "tools" on ya so again it depends

[@reallytho99]

Why do people not want you to post about teenagers hacking? This stuff happens and not sharing or talking about it won't help.

[@Dyanosis]

Participating in a crime is called being an accomplice. Your question is like asking "is the get-away driver a criminal?". The answer - Yes. They are assisting in a crime by providing some service to criminals. That makes you a criminal. If your child steals gum from the store and you knowingly don't return it or do anything about it, then that makes you, and your child, criminals. You knew what you were doing was wrong and you did it anyway. At that point, I question your moral compass. Also, the guy being interviewed really gets on my nerves with his nonchalant "I guess I did, yeah". Don't act dumb, you know what you did was wrong.

[@kingpin76110]

He didn’t like jail. Really?

[@j_t_eklund]

Finding a bug is not 'hacking'..

[@Dyanosis]

33:29 - There's no honor among thieves. 45:24 - "That's really serious offending". Oh is it now? You're literally blackmailing people and stealing, even if it's "only virtually, no one physically gets hurt". You're no better than the armed robber. Also, this guy is giving me "this is so fake" vibes. Lots of "you know"s and "I guess kinda"s.

[@ride1123]

Hack me once........

[@user-nu8yk6jp1o]

First one here!!

[@droidguy9970]

view 69!!!!!

[@FeloniousSavage]

I'm Jack Rhysider and this is the dirty buttsegg diary's.... 😮

[@bumlookercheekymonkey3985]

why in world does a black hat forum need a moderator 🤔🤔🤔🤔

[@ImARealHumanPerson]

Someone wants to feel powerful 😅

[@raymond_luxury_yacht]

He vulned gchq. Bwahaha. What a joke they are

[@ClickClack_Bam]

What happened in jail that week lol?

[@mistress707]

Sending hugs to Daniel! 🫂💖 Come to my country to recover and open business, there's around 0 security companies, and lots of opportunities 💪🎉😂

[@user-gw4fj9ij6j]

Where is it if u don’t mind asking ?

[@mistress707]

@@user-gw4fj9ij6j Heyo! Best I can do here is to say -> somewhere in EU. ☺️🌞