Jester uses the Twitter leetspeak handle @th3j35t3, a specialized form of symbolic writing. His hacker ethics are as a grey hat hacker (i.e. computer hacker or computer security expert). After January 1, 2010, he claimed responsibility for computer attacks on 4chan, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Islamist websites and WikiLeaks. Whenever he successful takes down a website, Jester twitters “Tango Down.”
Tango Down refers to a terrorist who has been eliminated, words typically used by Special Forces to describe an eliminated enemy during a firefight. It is also used by Anonymous as a sign of an Anonymous-affiliated attack.
The first time Jester appeared on Twitter was when he announced his successful attack on the Taliban website, “alemarah.info,” on January 1, 2010; but he did not reappear until June 26 when he first established his blog. January 1 was the time when he would first target Jihadist websites.
He cautions there are only three authentic methods of communication he will use to contact the public: (1) Twitter, th3j35t3r; (2) his blog “Jester’s Court“; and (3) via his 12P IRC channel #jester.
On April 10, 2012, Jester gave a live chat interview to a Computer Science student class at the University of Southern Maine, where he confirmed his military service and four Afghanistan tours.
Hacker hats of many colors
As a grey hat hacktivist, Jester uses ethical standards that range widely between humane and malevolent intensities, as compared to the white hat and black hat hackers. Also, the grey hat hacker does not illegally exploit nor do they tell others how to do it.
*** The white hat hacker is like a good guy cowboy who wears a white hat; once the white hat hacker discovers weakness, it exploits but only with permission.
*** The black hat hacker runs under several black cowboy hats, illegally exploiting and telling others how to do it.
Another difference between hacker types is how they discover a person or company’s weaknesses. The grey hat that Jester runs under has the skills and intent of the white hat, but will break into a system or network without permission — such as that of the jihadists or Wikileaks.
*** The white hat hacker breaks into systems and networks if requested by their employer, with or without “explicit permission,” for the single purpose of checking how good the system is against hackers meaning to attack it.
*** The black hat hacker breaks into any system or network to expose profound information and for personal gain.
Over the past five years, Jester was named in the TIME Magazine as one of the 30 most influential people on the Internet, at a time when there were 3,079,544,187 people on the same Internet.
“.. entrants are recognized for changing the world, regardless of the consequences of their actions. The final list of influential individuals are exclusively chosen by TIME editors with nominations coming from the TIME alumni and the magazine’s international writing staff.”
On his website, still dumbfounded and in awe, Jester unselfishly made a list of who had helped him become the man he is today, influencing him the most. And yes, of course, his mom is on that list!
