this is a classic Nissan Skyline it
might look like just another car but
only one of these makes you an instant
star among car enthusiasts and this
guy's so rich he owns two of them he
affords these luxuries not by toiling
away at a nine-to-five job like the rest
of us but by breaking into websites and
getting paid for it my name is Tommy
Davis and I'm a hacker
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[Applause]
[Music]
the businesses tommy hacks are
headquartered in cities like New York
and San Francisco but Tommy works at a
suburban Virginia and when I went to go
see him over the summer he was crashing
at his mom's place her kitchen doubled
as his office most of the time if I tell
somebody I'm a hacker the first thing
they say is either really or no you're
not because real hackers don't admit
that their hackers do people think that
you do it for bad reasons yeah people
often like ask me hey I think my
boyfriend's cheating on me can you help
me break into his phone so I can find
out but Tommy's not gonna break into
your boyfriend's phone because all the
hacking he does is legitimate in
Arrangements called bug bounty programs
companies like Verizon and General
Motors pay him to look for security
holes in their systems so they can fix
them before the bad guys get in when you
find one of the ones that you know is
gonna be like five or ten thousand
dollar payout it's justyou can feel your
heart racing faster and it's just like
doing drugs I don't want to go to in
detail one comparison with that it's
just you get that same sort of rush for
some time now tech companies have
employed legitimate hackers to test
their systems but over the last decade
or so bug bounty hunting has become much
more organized thanks to the merchants
of websites that match freelance hackers
with businesses the prize money has now
gotten big enough to make this an actual
career what's the most money you've made
on a bug a single report is $20,000 what
about in a single day a single day one
hundred and sixty thousand dollars in
October of last year and I think that
only took three or four hours worth of
actually working so if you were to
average it out how many hours a week
would you say you work
five to ten and and how much money have
you earned over the last year this year
six hundred and thirty six thousand
dollars what do you think is the thing
that makes you so good at it
just the fact that I've been doing it
for so long I thought Tommy was gonna be
something like a lawyer or a doctor
Tommy was very very smart and he was so
much ahead of everybody else in the
class in our classes you could play on
the computers when you finished all your
work I'd finished my work in ten minutes
and then just go put on the computer it
didn't take long for Tommy to fall in
love with the internet and one day he
stumbled into a chatroom or people
talked about their illegal hacks they
taught him their tricks and he started
hacking for fun the first time he got
caught was when he was in high school he
was expelled spent a few weeks in
juvenile detention and was ordered to
stay away from computers but he didn't
listen we got into NASA computers the US
courts Department of Energy anybody that
had huge budgets that should have had
secure systems but didn't
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and he was caught once again but this
time as an adult
most of these right here they got in
prison you got prison bars the razor
wire a guard tower I've got the word
hacker on my stomach and then VA in
federal prison everything's geographical
and I was from Virginia so Tommy served
the total of about four years behind
bars
the judge told me if I get arrested for
computers again and come to his court he
was gonna give me life in prison and in
2010 right before his 27th birthday he
got out for good for a long time the
only jobs Tommy could get was cooks
working in restaurants that was about it
nobody would hire him because he was
convicted felon but by 2016 a few bug
bounty programs were up and running and
Tommy gave it a try he explained it to
his mom like this I got to hack again
and that people were gonna pay me
instead of sending me to prison she
didn't believe me she was like are you
sure you're not gonna get in trouble
he's been in trouble three times for
this and how am I supposed to know that
he might not be tempted to do something
again for most people
bug bounty hunting is still more of a
side gig than their primary source of
income you get paid only when you're the
first to report a bug and even those
payouts don't amount to very much on one
platform called hacker one the vast
majority of her in less than $10,000
over time but if you're really good you
can make a lot more out of hacker ones
five hundred thousand contributors
Tommy's among just six people who burned
more than a milli
dollars where all your money goes yeah
my insurance appraised it at eighty nine
thousand dollars you know your mom told
me not to do this
oh good
[Music]
the way this car vibrates does not feel
safe to me is that vibrate
Tom still gets the occasional speeding
ticket
but when it comes to computers he says
he would never cross the line again
kappa hug the prospect of spending the
rest of my life away from my daughter
there's nothing that can make that risk
worth it you're gonna drive with that
okay she's now the most important thing
in the world instead of me you gotta
push the button to start it already turn
it this way I wanted to be a hacker but
her mom wants her to be a dancer there
you go
I just think it'd be fun for getting her
back together turn it this way a little
bit no the other way don't run in
today's car please don't hit Daddy's car
please don't hit Daddy's car there you
go
good job
she'll get anything in the road she
wants its pound it it's gonna really end
up costing me a lot more so I kinda have
to hack a lot more I think as she gets
older
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as more and more of the world moves
online cyberattacks are only going to
grow in frequency and sophistication in
the havoc that the wreak on our lives
[Music]
and that means we're gonna need a lot
more of the good kind of hackers testing
our systems to make sure we're safe but
Tommy won't pretend his motivations are
all that noble the fact that we're
securing the Internet it's a nice side
effect but I do it for the money
you