Cybercriminals, the shadowy online figures often depicted in Hollywood movies as hooded villains capable of wiping millions of pounds off the value of businesses at a keystroke, are not usually known for their candour.<\/p>\n
But in a sixth-form college in Manchester<\/a> this week, two former hackers gave the young people gathered an honest appraisal of what living a life of internet crime really looks like.<\/p>\n The teenagers in the room are listening intently, but the day-to-day internecine disputes they hear about is not the stuff of screenplays.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just people getting into these online dramas and they\u2019re swatting and doxing each other and getting people to throw bricks through their windows,\u201d one of the hackers says.<\/p>\n If the language sounds unfamiliar, it should \u2013 \u201cswatting\u201d and \u201cdoxing\u201d involve people outing each other online by posting their genuine identities \u2013 but their message is clear: though cybercrime may seem alluring, the reality is anything but.<\/p>\n Conor Freeman was jailed for nearly three years in 2020 for his role in a $2m cryptocurrency theft. Photograph: Gary Calton\/The Guardian<\/p>\n The hackers are former members of a sprawling cybercrime ecosystem<\/a> dubbed \u201cThe Com\u201d, and they\u2019re here for a very particular reason \u2013 to urge talented teenagers to use their gaming and coding skills for the good.<\/p>\n The talk is part of an initiative backed by the Co-op, which suffered a debilitating hack in April last year<\/a>. The retailer has teamed up with The Hacking Games, a startup that identifies talented gamers to test companies\u2019 IT systems, which wants youngsters to use their skills to help companies fight back against criminal hackers.<\/p>\n Conor Freeman, 26, from Dublin, was jailed for just under three years in 2020 for his role in a $2m cryptocurrency theft and spoke to students at Connell Co-op College near Manchester City\u2019s Etihad Stadium last week.<\/p>\n Freeman became a part of the Com \u2013 short for \u201ccommunity\u201d \u2013 after being groomed online by an older teenager while playing Minecraft. The association spiralled into attending hacking forums on the dark web and eventually hacking people\u2019s crypto wallets along with other Com members.<\/p>\n \u201cI stumbled on these various different dark-net hacking forums and that\u2019s when things really started to escalate,\u201d he says. \u201cI just fell into these different communities, different groups, befriended a couple of different people, and then found myself involved with large-scale cryptocurrency theft.\u201d<\/p>\n Freeman served 11 months of his sentence and is now employed by The Hacking<\/a> Games as an ethical hacker.<\/p>\n The Hacking Games designer John Madelin with students at the event at Connel Co-op college. Photograph: Gary Calton\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Fergus Hay, co-founder and chief executive of The Hacking Games, said there was a \u201c100% overlap\u201d between gaming and hacking. Describing gaming as a \u201clive laboratory for skills development\u201d, Hay said skills learned in gaming \u2013 particularly \u201cmodding\u201d or creating software that helps you alter a video game \u2013 can be used in either hacking or cybersecurity.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd the people who\u2019ve worked that out are the bad guys,\u201d says Hay. He adds: \u201cSo what you\u2019ve got is a whole generation of natural-born hackers who\u2019ve got incredible aptitude, but they\u2019re invisible. No one\u2019s seen their skill sets because they aren\u2019t advertised on LinkedIn.\u201d<\/p>\n Hay\u2019s company has designed an AI-powered test to identify skills among proficient gamers who could make the jump to cybersecurity and help companies detect flaws in their IT systems via \u201cred teaming\u201d \u2013 or ethical hacking \u2013 where their networks are subjected to attacks by expert computer users.<\/p>\n Freeman was joined via video link by Ricky Handschumacher, a 30-year-old US citizen who was part of the same crypto heist and served four years in prison for the crime. The talk at Connell College was the first time Freeman and Handschumacher had ever seen each other physically. Handschumacher, who also fell into the Com via gaming, told the audience that he would have taken a different path had he known that you could be \u201cpaid a lot of money to do the right thing\u201d.<\/p>\n Computing students who attended the talk said they had been inspired.<\/p>\n \u201cThe lesson is there\u2019s great opportunities for you to go into computing, but you have to be watchful of what you\u2019re doing because if you do something wrong, it will quickly harm your future,\u201d said Suheil, 17.<\/p>\n Rob Elsey, the Co-op group\u2019s chief digital officer, who led the organisation\u2019s fight back against a ransomware hack that cost \u00a3120m in lost profits<\/a>, said the talks were about \u201chelping young people recognise that the digital skills they already have can be a force for good, protecting people, organisations and communities rather than being misused or exploited\u201d.<\/p>\n The Co-op is planning more Hacking Games talks across its 38 school academies this year.<\/p>\n