Counter Pedophilia Investigate Unit

Núñez: “Curiosity and talent should be used for the benefit of the others and not for damaging the others”

 Rafael Núñez, is a young man like many others, involved in the spark of curiosity, he entered the magical world of Internet as someone who enters the mysterious hole of Alice in Wonderland and when he dropped, he discovered there was an enchanting and parallel universe, that most of the time we don’t know it exists nor we can decipher it.

 

  With actually just 30 years, Núñez found himself at the crossroads: since he was fifteen he surfed the Web and since very early, because of the actions he did and due to a great curiosity that enveloped him, he got in touch with important characters that had access to privileged pages that later made him to form part of one of the most important groups of hackers in the world.  All of this took him to do things that at first weren’t on the right track, but which later would trigger very interesting projects and very well approached, that would watch for the search of the social welfare.

 After straightening his ways and having more than 10 years of experience in Information Security matters, he has been Director of the Counter Pedophilia Investigative Unit (www.CPIU.us and www.CPIU.org.mx), he’s the founder of the Security portal (www.EnfoqueSeguro.com), he has participated as Editorial Counselor in the first on line newspaper of Venezuela “El-Nacional.com”, he’s director of the Intelicorp company: (www.InteliCorps.com), he appears in  13 Chapters as [RaFa] in the book “The Hacker Diaries” of Dan Verton, McGraw Hill, 2002. USA and LATAM. And he has been in the Coordination of Forensics Computations for the telecommunications company CANTV – Venezuela. He has been Manager of Banking Information Security: Bolívar Banco and BanPro.Venezuela, and he has training from DMP France Institute- Hack Academy.

 

From Hacker to Security Defender.

 

 CH.S: What do you do actually?

R.N: I work with information security and technology consulting, (Online Reputation Management)  ORM and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) consulting, I’m director of InteliCorps.com, I’ve created the blog of information security EnfoqueSeguro.com, SEO an optimizer for searches for clients, people, companies, etc. CleanPerception.com, www.Cpiu.us and www.Cpiu.org.mx, and international lecturer.

 

CH.S: How did you become a consultant?

R.N: I became a consultant thanks to the curiosity that was born in me due to internet, my past experience, the studies and my profesional career.

 

CH.S: At what age did you started to get deeply into the world of Internet?

R.N: If I tell you, it sounds like a lot of years (smiles), but it seems like it was recently.  I was about 15 years when a company named ISP CompuServe arrived to the country and to my home.  That’s when  I started getting into the computer and little by little I started getting used to all the programs that were getting into the market.

CH.S: Tell us a bit about the “World of Hell” what’s it?, it still exists?, what is based upon?, how did you get there and at what age?

R.N: WoH was an elite defacers group, let me explain: the oficial term is Web Defacement and consists in replacing the starting page of the web page of who we could call the victim by the hacker.  Then we changed the indexes of the famous sites.

That group, made up by kids approximately 16 years old, was formed in march 2001 and was headed by a United States kid that was called “CowHead2000”. Really that group lasted a few months.  I arrived there under the nickname [RaFa], because in that moment I was in charge of a page that did logos for hackers called logos4u.box.sk. One day I was contacted by one of the members Noid (no|d), from Brazil, and he asked me to do the logo of WoH. After that he invited me to be a part of the group.  I was 21 years old then, “a little big for that joke, no?”, says Núñez.

 The Yin and the Yan

CH.S: What actions did you carry out to be considered a hacker?

 R.N: The fact of being a member, even if it was for a little time, of one of the most recognized groups in the world hackers circle, that have gotten into important pages of world governments and at the same time sabotaje them, makes you a blck hat hacker.  (We were in a full chapter dedicated to WoH in the book, The Hacker Diares by Dan Verton, McGraw Hill) among other media as the Washington Post and Intimes.

 

CH.S: Black Hat?

R.N: (Laughter) Yes. First you have to know that the hacker is an enthusiast in informatic security matters with knowledge in different areas.  But there are two kinds of hackers: the White Hat and the Black Hat:

·   The White Hat, they work ethically supporting the community.

·   The Black Hat enter forbidden sites in an unlawful way, not authorized, they destroy information and violate security spaces.

It is said that this names are used because in the time of the old west, when duels happened, the bad cowboys were the ones who used black hats and the good ones, white hats.

 

CH.S: What positive and negative consequences did these actions bring?

R.N: Nothing good can come from a bad action and that’s nothing new.  I know I showed that no page, even those of the highest security can be safe of hacking, causing damage to the servers we attacked, I collapsed the page of the USAF and I attacked pages of companies like Pfizer and Rolex.  Due to these risky demonstrations with my colleagues, I was in jail in the US for 7 months and got deported, forbidding me the entry to the country until 2015.

On the other hand, one learns of mistakes and thanks to the Access that I had of internet and the things it tought me, “I learned to learn”.  I assimilated that I should protect the society I live in, that’s why I help to find the bad guys that are in everything, in child pornography, I help the companies to strengthen their security systems and I constantly update myself in those matters to improve and not to lag behind with the new generations and trends that appear on the net.

The transformation of [Rafa]

CH.S: What initiatives have you promoted against cybercrime?

R.N: The cybercrime is one of the new dangers that we are exposed to in these days, and that’s whyI created a portal of awareness in Information Security in spanish called enfoqueseguro.com and another against pedophilia on line called www.cpiu.us, they are non profit portals. I also give talks about the subject.

 

Curiosity killed the cat / Surfing through safe seas…

 CH.S: Why do you think is so attractive for kids the world of the internet and the social networks?

R.N: Because kids are very curious and they are thirsty for information.  Internet offers them unending possibilities and information that can allow the Young people of today to interconnect with their friends and make new friends.  In spite that it increases their quality of life, it also increases the risks.  At my 16 years, I was living in Puerto Ordaz and thanks to my eternal curiosity with the computers, the constant reading of books about web pages and doing some trials with a friend, we could connect with people of other parts of the country and the world.

 

CH.S: Actually what are the most popular social networks?

R.N: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Hi5. The people talk about them and the kids are interested in knowing them and know what are they about.

 

CH.S: What are the most used in Venezuela?

R.N: I could tell you that the most used in the country is Facebook.

 

CH.S: The social networks: a double edge weapon?

R.N: The social networks are a phenomenon. More and more, the people of all ages and social strata enter to these different portals. First because you can meet people in an easier way, and then because you can know what the other person is doing thanks to his pictures, his comments and the information that they put in their profiles.

Yes, it can be a double edge weapon because as we know, today is very easy for someone to access internet.  I think that the social networks invite you to share all of your information, like: pictures, address, family tree, phone numbers, status of what you are doing, etc.  It also gives you a chance to connect and to meet people that may share your same interests.  That’s why, participating in those networks can be fun, if you limit the information that you are going to publish avoiding to give all of your personal data and confidential information.

 

CH.S: Of all or of the most important, which are the most exposed to hackers?

R.N: The most popular, Facebook for example.

 

CH.S: What recommendations can you give to the parents so they are alert with the portals on which their children surf ? 

R.N: In one of my URL you can find recommendations: you can enter the page and see some, also I’ll leave the link: http://www.cpiu.org.mx/

 

A message:

 CH.S: Fort he foung people: what message can you give to them?

R.N: “Always use your curiosity and talent for the benefit of others and not for damaging.  Be always on the look for the risks of internet and share your experiences with your parents and representatives”.

 

CH.S: Is there one way to detect that our pages have been hacked?

R.N: It’s relative, if it is a web defacement, that is the defacement of a page or a page hack it’s easy to detect the hacking because the hacker will leave his signature or message, however, if it is a trojan or spyware, that infects computers, it’s very hard to be detected if we don’t have a constant specialized check of the page or someone generating a complaint.

 

CH.S: Which organisms we can go to in case of a report or to alert the rest of the community?

R.N: In Venezuela to the CICPC, Informatic Crimes Division, delitosinformaticos@cicpc.gob.ve  

 

After this interesting exchange of ideas and information, we can understand that we all have easy access to internet, that it is a wonderful work tool that helps us to speed up many things but at the same time we have to be careful with the portals we surf in, not revealing private data and in the moment we think we are running a risk, it’s better to tell our parents or representatives so they take the necessary measures or contact the corresponding authorities.