Phineas Fisher contacted the media and offered $ 100,000 to hackers that would attack banks and oil companies

Vice Motherboard reported that the well-known hacker and hacktivist Phineas Fisher broke the long silence and contacted the media.

Recall that a person or group of persons who hide under this pseudonym is widely known thanks to several high-profile “acts”. In particular, in 2016, Phineas Fisher leaked the Wikileaks documents to the ruling party in Turkey and compromised professional spyware developers and suppliers, as FinFisher and the Hacking Team. Next, Phineas Fisher put on public display documents stolen from companies, source codes, and even exploits.

Following these incidents and several other attacks, Phineas Fisher published a series of manifestos that motivated other hackers to launch politically motivated attacks. Then, in 2017, he announced that he was temporarily retiring, and since then nothing had been heard about the hacktivist for more than two years, but now he broke his silence.

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Phineas Fisher has published a new manifesto in which emphasized interest in hacktivism by encouraging it financially. In fact, the hacker proposed the establishment of a new type of bug bounty – to reward hackers for political attacks committed in the name of public interest. He called his program the Hacktivist Bug Hunting Program and announced that he was ready to pay other activists up to $ 100,000 in cryptocurrency (Bitcoin or Monero). Journalists note that in fact this program directly stimulates criminal activity.

“I believe that hacking is a powerful tool, and hacktivism uses only part of its true potential. Small investments can help him develop, better times [hacktivism] are yet to come”, – writes Phineas Fisher.

As an example, he also lists possible goals for hacktivists: mining and livestock companies in South America, the Israeli developer of spayware NSO Group and the oil company Halliburton.

“Hacking in order to receive and drain documents of public interest is one of the best ways to use hacking abilities for the benefit of society. I’m not trying to make anyone rich, I’m just trying to allocate enough money so that hackers can earn a decent living by doing a good job”, – media cite the manifest.

In addition, in a recent statement, Phineas Fisher said that back in 2016, he hacked offshore Cayman Bank and Trust Company, has stolen money (and it is not specified whom he has given them), documents and emails of employees. The hacker refused to disclose the exact sum, but said that it was a “several hundred thousand dollars.” Citing this example, Phineas Fisher encouraged other hacktivists to follow the same path and join the fight against inequality and capitalism.

“In the digital age, bank robbery is a non-violent act, the least risky, and the reward is higher than anywhere else. None of the financial hacks that I made, and of which I knew, were never reported. This [hack] will be the first, and not because the bank so wanted, but because I myself decided to make this public. The global financial elite are oppressors, not victims […]. Hacking elite and returning a tiny fraction of the wealth they stole does not make them heroes. This is cybercrime. It is also activism motivated by the desire for social change. I do not get any profit or profit from this”, -says Phineas Fisher.

In his manifesto, a hacker traditionally describes how he entered the system. In this way, he seeks to teach others how to conduct such attacks, and to show how to use certain techniques to rob banks. Therefore, he writes that he used the same exploit against the bank, which once helped him to compromise the Hacking Team: he attacked a vulnerable VPN and a firewall.

The hacker shared documents and letters stolen from the bank with the Distributed Denial of Secrets website, which is managed by journalist and activist Emma Best. She reports a download of 640,000 letters, which is “the most detailed look at international banking that has ever been available to the public.”