Mustafa Al-Bassam
Mustafa Al-Bassam | |
|---|---|
 Mustafa Al-Bassam giving a talk at the 34thChaos Communication Congress(2017) | |
| Born | January 1995 (age 29) |
| Other names | tflow |
| Citizenship | |
| Alma mater | |
| Awards | Forbes 30 Under 30 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Computer science |
| Thesis | Securely scaling blockchain base layers(2020) |
| Doctoral advisor | George Danezis |
Mustafa Al-Bassam(born January 1995) is anIraqi-Britishcomputer securityresearcher,hacker,and co-founder of Celestia Labs.[1]Al-Bassam co-founded the hacker groupLulzSecin 2011, which was responsible for several high profile breaches.[2][3]He later went on to co-found Chainspace, a company implementing asmart contractplatform, which was acquired byFacebookin 2019.[4][5]In 2021, Al-Bassam graduated fromUniversity College London,completing a PhD in computer science with a thesis on Securely Scaling Blockchain Base Layers.[6][7]In 2016,Forbeslisted Al-Bassam as one of the30 Under 30entrepreneurs in technology.[8]
Early life and education
[edit]Al-Bassam was born inBaghdad,Iraqin January 1995, and migrated toLondon,United Kingdomwhen he was five years old.[9]He received aBScin Computer Science fromKing's College London,[10][11]and is currently aPhDstudent[needs update?]atUniversity College London.[12]
Hacktivism
[edit]In 2011 as a 16 year old teenager, Al-Bassam was one of the six core members ofLulzSecduring its 50-day hacking spree, going by the alias "tflow". The group useddenial-of-service attacksand compromised a number of high profile organizations and corporations, includingSony,Fox,News International,Nintendoand theCIA.[3]
He was also affiliated with the online association ofhacktivistsknown asAnonymous,where he was involved with the hacking of emails fromHBGary Federal,anintelligence contractorfor theU.S. government.[13]The emails revealed that HBGary Federal was working to developastroturfingsoftware to create an "army" of fakesocial mediaprofiles,[14]and was hired by theU.S. Chamber of Commerceto spy on and smear political opponents with fake documents and communications.[15]As a result, members of theU.S. Congresscalled for an investigation intoHBGary Federal.[15]
Arrest and legal proceedings
[edit]On 20 July 2011, it was announced on Fox News and other press outlets[16][17][18]thatLondon's Metropolitan Policehad arrested a 16-year-old student in London who was alleged to have used the nickname "Tflow" in a series of high-profile attacks on fox.com,[19]the FBI affiliate "Infragard",[20]PBS[21][22]and Sony.[23]For legal reasons, his name could not be disclosed for nearly two more years. On 9 April 2013, Tflow's full name was revealed along with his picture on multiple news outlets throughout the Internet.[24]He pleaded guilty to computer misuse and received a 20-month suspended sentence with 320 hours of unpaid community service work.[25]A nearly two-year internet ban imposed by police has since expired.[26][27]
Career and research
[edit]Distributed ledgers
[edit]Al-Bassam has published research on scaling blockchains and cryptocurrencies.[28]He contributed to the design and implementation of Chainspace, a blockchain protocol that makes use of sharding to increase transaction throughput.[29]Chainspace was later spun-out into a commercial company he co-founded, and was then acquired byFacebookin 2019 to become a part of theLibraproject.[4][5]Al-Bassam has since been critical of Libra, stating that "the road to dystopia is paved with good intentions, and I'm concerned about Libra's model for decentralization".[4]
Privacy and surveillance
[edit]In 2014 Al-Bassam volunteered forPrivacy International,[2]where he released research on the computer destruction techniques thatGCHQused when forcing journalists atThe Guardian'sLondonheadquarters to destroy the computers on which they stored copies of classified documents provided byNSAwhistleblowerEdward Snowden.[30]
In an article forMotherboard,he revealed thatGCHQ'sJoint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG),had been involved with onlinesockpuppetryby creating a series of fakeTwitteraccounts and anURL shortenerwhich was used as a honeypot for dissidents during theArab spring,having been targeted byJTRIGhimself.[31]
Awards and honours
[edit]In 2016, Al-Bassam was listed in theForbes 30 Under 30in the technology section for his work on uncovering government surveillance.[8]
References
[edit]- ^"Celestia".celestia.org.Retrieved29 August2022.
- ^abColeman, E. Gabriella, 1973- (2014).Hacker, hoaxer, whistleblower, spy: the many faces of Anonymous.London.ISBN9781781685839.OCLC890807781.
{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^abRobertson, Adi (16 May 2013)."LulzSec hackers sentenced to between one and three years in prison by UK court".The Verge.Retrieved21 July2019.
- ^abcField, Matthew (26 June 2019)."The tiny UK start-up founded by UCL scientists now at the heart of Facebook's Libra currency".The Telegraph.ISSN0307-1235.Retrieved21 July2019.
- ^ab"Facebook Makes First Blockchain Acquisition With Chainspace: Sources".Cheddar.Retrieved21 July2019.
- ^Al Bassam, Mustafa (28 December 2020)."Securely Scaling Blockchain Base Layers".UCL (University College London).
- ^"Mustafa Al-Bassam - Research Homepage".www0.cs.ucl.ac.uk.Retrieved29 August2022.
- ^ab"Mustafa Al-Bassam".Forbes.Retrieved21 July2019.
- ^Miller, Carl (Researcher on social media) (2018).The death of the gods: the new global power grab.London.ISBN9781785151330.OCLC1051237704.
{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^Bano, Shehar, Mustafa Al-Bassam, and George Danezis. "The road to scalable blockchain designs."USENIX; login: magazine(2017).
- ^"Cyber defence unit 'may use hackers'".22 October 2013.Retrieved21 July2019.
- ^"Despite high-profile hacks, companies still aren't behaving securely: ex-LulzSec hacker".www.cso.com.au.Retrieved21 July2019.
- ^Bright, Peter (10 March 2012)."With arrests, HBGary hack saga finally ends".Ars Technica.Retrieved21 July2019.
- ^Monbiot, George (23 February 2011)."The need to protect the internet from 'astroturfing' grows ever more urgent | George Monbiot".The Guardian.ISSN0261-3077.Retrieved21 July2019.
- ^abFogarty, Kevin (4 March 2011)."Congress eyes dirty tricks from HBGary, Chamber of Commerce".ITworld.Retrieved21 July2019.
- ^"Leading Member of LulzSec Hacker Squad Arrested in London".Fox News. 19 July 2011.Retrieved30 October2013.
- ^Bright, Peter (20 July 2011)."FBI arrests 16 Anons across US; UK police pick up LulzSec member".Ars Technica.Retrieved30 October2013.
- ^"Hacker Arrests May Have Included Core Member Of LulzSec".Forbes.19 July 2011.Retrieved30 October2013.
- ^"Fox.com Hacked By Group Lulz Security".Huffingtonpost.com. 10 May 2011.Retrieved30 October2013.
- ^Satter, Raphael G. (5 June 2011)."LulzSec Hackers Claim Breach Of FBI Affiliate Infragard Atlanta".Huffingtonpost.com.Retrieved30 October2013.
- ^"PBS website hacked, defaced after WikiLeaks documentary evokes online ire".Latimesblogs.latimes.com. 30 May 2011.Retrieved30 October2013.
- ^"Sites Hacked; Readers' Data Not Compromised".PBS NewsHour. 30 May 2011.Retrieved30 October2013.
- ^Albanesius, Chloe (3 June 2011)."Sony LulzSec Hack: What You Need to Know".PCMag.com.Retrieved30 October2013.
- ^"Mustafa Al-Bassam".NakedSecurity.sophos.com.Retrieved30 October2013.
- ^How I Hacked The US Government Aged 16 | Minutes With | @LADbible TV,retrieved11 September2021
- ^"Mustafa Al-Bassam (musalbas) on Twitter".Twitter.com.Retrieved30 October2013.
- ^"Were you banned from the internet for two years like Jake Davis? | ask.fm/musalbas".Ask.fm. Archived fromthe originalon 31 October 2013.Retrieved30 October2013.
- ^"Mustafa Al-Bassam - Google Scholar Citations".scholar.google.com.Retrieved21 July2019.
- ^Al-Bassam, Mustafa; Sonnino, Alberto; Bano, Shehar; Hrycyszyn, Dave; Danezis, George (2018)."Chainspace: A Sharded Smart Contracts Platform"(PDF).Proceedings 2018 Network and Distributed System Security Symposium.San Diego, CA: Internet Society.doi:10.14722/ndss.2018.23241.ISBN9781891562495.S2CID1360317.
- ^McLaughlin, Jenna (26 August 2015)."The Way GCHQ Obliterated The Guardian's Laptops May Have Revealed More Than It Intended".The Intercept.Retrieved21 July2019.
- ^Al-Bassam, Mustafa (29 July 2016)."British Spies Used a URL Shortener to Honeypot Arab Spring Dissidents".Vice.Retrieved21 July2019.
