February 15, 2011
So many of you know that I've been following the LIGATT nonsense for quite some time. Let's face it, it's completely obvious that Gregory Evans and LIGATT as a whole are both a joke and a disgusting blemish in the Information Security industry. Evans is a self-promoting charlatan and bullshit artist but, credit where credit is due, he's excellent at fooling people who don't know any better.
The problem is, plenty of people in this industry do know better. Anyone who puts up ridiculous shit like this, crediting themselves as the "World's No.1 Hacker" is a Grade A Certifiable Douchebag. (Incidentally, that's probably one of the only legitimate certifications Evans holds.)
It was only a matter of time before others started to catch on, though. Evans has appeared a few times on local and major media outlets touting himself as a computer security expert, one of which happened to be CBS Atlanta here in town. Fortunately, to their credit the good folks at CBS Atlanta caught on to the fact that Evans has been bullshitting people from the start and they decided to research and run a story on it.
Never content to not have the last word, LIGATT fired off a response whining at CBS Atlanta for running the story. The whole thing in its original CBS-published form is here, but rather than read that by itself, I'd like to inject some context into what you'd be reading.
As one Mr. Evans would say, "Let me break it down for you."
To Whom It May Concern:
We at LIGATT Security International are disappointed with the false accusation
that CBS 46 Atlanta News Investigator Jeff Chirico is reporting about Gregory D.
Evans. The story, "Hacker or Hoax", being released tonight on Monday, February
14, 2011 at 11p.m seems to be bias and has no credible source for the
information that is being portrayed.
I'll go ahead and stop you right there. First, I'm going to have to apologize in advance for the horrible grammar you're going to find in this letter. Everything text-based that has ever been churned out of LIGATT is riddled with awful spelling and grammar. Considering Evans himself isn't familiar with the word "know" (choosing instead to always use the word "no"), this is most definitely a top-down problem. But enough with the petty grammar critique - we need to get to the meat, here. Right off the bat LIGATT is accusing CBS of being biased, and they emphasize that they have no credible sources to back up the information in the story. Let's have a look, shall we? What are the facts in the story?
- In 2002, Evans was convicted on federal wire fraud charges in California and sentenced to two years in prison. He was ordered to pay about $9 million in restitution. Federal court officials told CBS Atlanta, Evans is not current with his payments. - It would seem to me that "Federal court officials" are indeed credible sources. Plus, this type of information should be relatively easy to verify.
- Since his release, Evans started two companies that are publicly traded. - Also not a secret, and easily verified.
- Evans is now dealing with accusations that he plagiarized his 2010 self-published book, 'How To Become The World's No.1 Hacker.'" - Whether the accusations are true or not (they are), the fact that he is dealing with them are indeed public knowledge.
- "The vast majority of the book was direct plagiarism from a number of sources," said security consultant Ben Rothke. Rothke, of New Jersey, wrote a review of Evans' book. "We're talking 70 to 80 to 90 percent in some cases complete chapters cut and paste the works of other authors and all of these works unattributed," said Rothke. - Also easily verifiable. The thing about publishing a book, you see, is that people get to find out what's in it. One need only look at the painstaking research done by Ben Rothke (who was quoted in the article), Brian Baskin, and the diligent folks over at Attrition, with all of the evidence neatly assembled here for quick reference.
The article continues with plain reporting of fact after fact and I can go on of course, but I'd like to get back to LIGATT's response to the news story.
On November 29, 2010, Mr. Evans appeared as a reliable source to speak about online security for CBS Atlanta 46 on "Cyber Monday." We are unclear on your reasoning to consult with a "credible source" on your news station, yet months later release a one sided story discrediting Mr. Evans on his expertise on cyber security.
Simple answer: CBS Atlanta, like CNN and Fox News and every other media outlet that allowed Evans to flash that smile on their cameras, got duped. Thing is, CBS Atlanta owned up to that mistake when they aired this story, coming right out and saying "He's even appeared on this very station."
Unbeknownst to CBS Atlanta 46, Mr. Evans has faced many challenges over the past year, mostly because he is an African American male dominating as a minority in this industry.
This right here is absolutely shameful, and does nothing but belittle and negate the countless actual and legitimate victims of prejudice. I need to make this perfectly clear: Gregory Evans is not being called a charlatan and a scam artist because he is black, he is being called a charlatan and a scam artist because he IS SHOWING HIMSELF TO BE a charlatan and a scam artist.
I don't, of course, speak for any hateful groups that would attack him because of his race, but those types of people don't attack on merit. The mountains of legitimate facts piled up against Evans have absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he's black.
The photograph that was shown of Mr. Gregory Evans being banned from the DC3 conference, held last month, was created by yet, another discreditable source.
Call me crazy, but LIGATT doesn't elaborate on this at all. Care to cite a source to back up this claim?
LIGATT Security International, a cyber security company who services over 200,000 customers, recently experienced a computer security breach. The same individuals who are involved in this security breach, who have been spreading negative and untruthful information via the Internet, and who came together to put CBS Atlanta 46 up to this charade, are the same individuals the FBI are investigating.
Hear that, CBS Atlanta? You didn't do an independent investigation, we put you up to this charade! And apparently all of the facts presented on this and countless other websites that demonstrate LIGATT to be the sham that it is are somehow all false. So why is it that LIGATT has never been able, or even attempted to refute anything on Attrition's LIGATT/Evans Page beyond claiming it's not true or claiming the authors are simply racists?
We at LIGATT Security International, question the motivates of Jeff Chirico. It seems Mr. Chirico is working with our competition and is out to destroy the reputation of Mr. Evans
So that's the motivation here? CBS Atlanta's Jeff Chirico is reporting this story because he's working with LIGATT's competition to destroy their reputation, and not because he's, you know, a "reporter"? The worst part is, LIGATT is trying to spin this even further by painting themselves as a victim of an imagined conspiracy:
The most important element is an email we recovered and turned over to the FBI stated, "One reason why we hacked him was because the guy at CBS news needed more."
This smacks of absolute bullshit. I'm calling LIGATT out on this one: that quote
is 100% faked, and any email from wherever it supposedly originates is complete
fiction. This is simply a poor (and ridiculously transparent) attempt at
fabricating a story to give LIGATT an excuse for crocodile tears. It's even more
blatantly obvious when you consider two simple facts, the first being most
important:
1. Absolutely none of the information from the "security breach" was used in the
story. None. The only related piece of information was a simple side-mention
that the breach had occurred. Clearly the "guy at CBS news" didn't actually need
anything more.
2. The "hack" to which that quote refers, was in all likelihood not even a hack.
When the email spool went public, the accompanying announcement stated: "To the
brave soul who helped make this possible: thank you. You took great personal
risk to bring this information forward, and none of it would be possible without
you. It's unclear how you tolerate his lies day after day, but you've redeemed
yourself by supporting this cause." That says it was leaked by an insider,
kids.
Gregory F. Scott, LIGATT Security International newest member of the Board of Directors is a recently retired FBI agent known Mr. Evans for years. Mr. Scott, who is well respected, would not be associated with Mr. Evans if he were not a creditable source.
I'm not even sure how this is relevant or how substantiates anything being claimed. For someone who is "well respected", nobody seems to know much of anything about Mr. Scott other than some rumors that claim that he did not voluntarily retire from the FBI, but was instead "asked" to retire thanks to some shady side-doings. So if we don't know anything about this guy, why would we believe that this retired FBI agent would ONLY consort with "creditable" sources?
When Mr. Chirico ambushed Mr. Evans in a public parking lot to discuss a 6-month-old plagiarism allegation was not professional due to the fact that he didn't have any evidence to back up his case.
I'll just re-link Attrition's Documented Evidence and leave it at that.
Since the book release, there hasn't been any claims or lawsuits against Mr. Evans for plagiarism; therefore you cannot support the theory of plagiarism.
First, lawsuits are not required to support theories of wrongdoing. In fact, it's the other way around; you first have to have a theory of wrongdoing in order to bring a lawsuit. It's up to the court to decide if it has merit. Second, there have been plenty of allegations since the book's release and the lawsuits are coming: at the end of the video report, Chirico said that "an attorney tells me she is representing plaintiffs who plan to sue Evans for plagiarism".
As a respected news station in Atlanta, GA, it is astonishing to us how your reporter did not validate their sources before running a story on Mr. Evans.
...except that they did. Repeatedly. In fact, Chirico went on to state "We did not get a call back from the firm Evans says represents him." Every source in the story is validated and every presented piece of information is backed up. LIGATT can't seem to do this in any of their rebuttals. I wonder why?
Mr. Evans has secured radio and television interviews tomorrow with your competitors to clear up these ridiculous allegations. This letter is going to other news stations so they will be able to see how bias this news story is.
Great! I can't wait to see those so I can pick them apart as well!
Mr. Evans credentials are unlike any of his competition.
Folks, this is the most truthful thing to ever come out of LIGATT. The competition actually has legitimate credentials.
(14:19)
Search :: Previous Entry :: Next Entry