Hacker's guide to safety online: 'Entire banking system is fundamentally flawed - you're giving access to your cash'

Mustafa Al-Bassam was a 16-year-old schoolboy when he was arrested for his role in cybercrimes committed by LulzSec, a gang of hackers. 

In 2011, it targeted the websites of the CIA in the US, the Serious Organised Crime Agency in the UK, Fox and Sony.

The group’s actions caused serious financial damage. But it also shone a light in some dark corners of world politics and exposed the virtual weaknesses of big organisations. 

Last autumn, a play at the Royal Court Theatre in London called Teh Internet Is Serious Business told their story.

Mustafa – from South London and previously known online as tFlow – was handed a 20-month suspended sentence at the age of 18, shortly before taking his A-levels, and ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid community work. 

He is now 20 and studying computer science at King’s College London.

After he gave a hacking demonstration at a recent conference on financial crime, The Mail on Sunday tracked him down so he could give his inside – and sometimes alarming – view of online security and provide advice on how we can protect our identity and finances.

Q. How did you gain your skills on the internet at such a young age?

A. I spent a lot of time on my computer as a child and taught myself how to program when I was about nine, using freely available online resources.

This might seem extraordinary, but it is a common story. Many people learn to program as a child, and it is going to become more common now that the UK is pushing for programming to be taught in secondary and primary schools.

Q. In your past life working on the other side of the law, did you consider yourself a ‘black hat’ hacker, someone whose prime intent was to breach internet security? And would you describe yourself now as a white hat wearer?

A. I think the white hat versus black hat label is an unhelpful oversimplification of an activity that covers the entire range of human motivation. The ethics of hacking are not black or white, but more 256 shades of grey, just like any other activity in life.

Michigan police say 6 dead in random shooting spree, suspect arrested

The accused gunman who police say killed six people and wounded two others during a rampage in Michigan on Saturday night is a married father of two who was working as an Uber driver, USA Today reported.

Jason Dalton, 45, passed a background check when he was hired by Uber, the company told the paper. Dalton had no criminal record and only five traffic violations, police said.

A Michigan prosecutor said authorities were investigating a Facebook post that indicated Dalton picked up Uber customers around the time of the shootings. Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting says he was aware of the post, but was not prepared to discuss it.

Dalton lived just outside Kalamazoo, where the shootings occurred, in a ranch-style house with his wife of at least 15 years and two children, ages 10 and 15, according to USA Today.

18 year old boy facing death penalty for killing his mum's abusive boyfriend

18 year old Treveon Jones has been charged with murder and is facing death penalty if found guilty. According to police report, Treveon attacked and killed his mum's abusive live-in-lover in Houston, Texas after he caught the man, 40 year old Frederick Wallace, brutally attacking his mom in front of her small children - Treveon's two brothers.



Treveon was said to have been alerted about the beating going on in a parking lot and he took a friend and a gun with him. When he saw the condition his mother was in, he first physically attacked the man then shot him multiple times with a semi-automatic rifle...

Eye-witnesses called police and Treveon was arrested. Authorities say the woman had suffered domestic abuse from Wallace for years but Treveon shouldn't have taken the law into his hands.

3 Belly Fat Myths You Should Completely Ignore

If diet and exercise haven’t done much to reduce your fat , then your hormones, your age, and other genetic factors may be the reason why.

Miracle cures are too good to be true and these other belly facts have been

Myth 1: Belly Fat Protects Your Bones
Recent studies have show that it’s also detrimental to your bones. Scientists used to think overweight people (especially men) had stronger skeletons and were protected against bone loss as they aged.

Latest research suggests that visceral fat—the type that surrounds the organs and accumulates around the midsection—is actually associated with lower bone-mineral density in adults of both genders and this is detrimental to the bones.

Man kills his girlfriend in Jos for not spending Valentine with him

OAP Bello Lukman of Unity FM 93.3 FM Jos shared this pathetic story on his Facebook wall. He said a man who lives in Jos, Plateau state killed his girlfriend because she didn't spend Valentine with him. Read his account of the story below ...and graphic pic of the girl's corpse after the cut...

HOW NIGERIAN STUDENTS & YOUTH CORPERS DISCOUNT CARD SAVED MY FUTURE @NSYCDC

My dear young folks in the tertiary institutions in Nigeria. I write you out of care and concern. Because I truly do. In 2002 I was involved in an effort that ensured that sitting for "almighty JAMB" won't give you and your parents nightmare as it used to be. I was involved in putting together a JAMB endorsed Publication that had worked out answers of questions over 21 years in 12 subjects and with a CD ROM attached . With that effort a lot of young people went on to pass JAMB without fear and recourse to "miracle centers " we had people who earned their scores . It's been 12 years after many have gone on to become engineers , lawyers , medical doctors etc and the mails chronicling their testimonies remain my eternal joy. A candle lighting another does not extinguish the light or reduce the glow of the other.

Last survivor of Treblinka dies aged 93 - 73 years after his daring escape from the Nazi death camp

  The last survivor of a Nazi death camp where 875,000 people were murdered has died in Israel at the age of 93. 

Samuel Willenberg was one of only 67 people believed to have survived the Treblinka camp, fleeing in a revolt shortly before it was destroyed.

He had moved to Israel to work as a surveyor for the housing ministry and making sure the world never forgets about the atrocities at the camp in Poland had been his life's work.  

Samuel Willenberg was one of only 67 people believed to have survived the Treblinka camp, fleeing in a revolt shortly before it was destroyed 

A group of Polish Jews from Warsaw's ghetto being interrogated by Nazi officers before departing to the death camp of Treblinka, in 1943. Treblinka was a key part of Operation Reinhard, which was the Nazi's codename for the Final Solution designed to rid Europe of the Jews