You might not have
heard of the White Hat Alliance before. But that’s just the way they tend to
like it. They’re an anonymous (though not Anonymous) network of hackers from
around the world working together for some big name clients to find the flaws
in their digital security. They claim to have worked with companies from Exxon
Mobil through to JP Morgan Chase, and via Macy’s, practicing ethical hacking
techniques to help these organizations protect themselves from the less ethical
hackers that are out there.
They’ve been around since 2011, though have
kept themselves pretty secret - except to their clients. Until now their
Twitter feed (@thewhitehatteam) was pretty much their only public facing
system. They’ve now launched a website http://www.thewhitehatalliance.com/ and seem to be
happy to announce their existence to the world – and for the first time one of
their members has publicly announced his identity.
Robin Haynes, also referred to by his code
alias ‘Black Mamba’, this week publicly declared his involvement with WHA. The
young hacker is part of the UK team that works with WHA’s UK clients, and is
known as a bit of a whizz kid. He built a bit of a reputation for himself
through some early, but benign, hacks, proving his abilities by finding flaws
in the security of a few major banks as part of a WHA team. He's a strictly
ethical hacker, which is likely a big part of his willingness to disclose his
identity, since he's never hacked with any malicious intent.
WHA started pretty big, landing Wells Fargo
as their first client, along with a few other banks, and helping to prevent
password attacks as well as a major bot attack. Suddenly they had the attention
of some pretty big corporations. They’ve gone from stride to stride since then,
attracting bigger clients, all while keeping their profile low.
It’s now reported that the network has grown
to more than 60 hackers from across the globe, with 800,000 computer bots
between them. They tend to recruit exclusively based on referrals and
recommendations by existing members, but even that hasn’t stopped them from
opening up to each other, as many members preserve their anonymity even with
each other. For the first time they now have publicly available contact details
on their website, seemingly reversing their previous system, which was to only
ever approach clients directly themselves, rather than giving clients the
opportunity to find them.
