How The FBI And Mandiant Caught A 'Serial Hacker' Who Tried To Fake His Own Death
TechCrunch, Tuesday, October 1st, 2024
Jesse Kipf was a prolific hacker who sold access to systems he hacked, had contacts with a notorious cybercrime gang, and tried to use his hacking skills to get off the grid for good.
In the early hours of January 20, 2023, a doctor's user account logged onto the Hawaii Electronic Death Registration System from out of state to certify the death of a man named Jesse Kipf. The death certificate listed the cause as 'acute respiratory distress syndrome' due to COVID-19 a week earlier. And with that, Kipf was unceremoniously registered as deceased in several government databases.
On the same day, a hacker nicknamed 'FreeRadical' posted the same death certificate on a hacking forum in an attempt to monetize the access they had to the system. 'Access level is medical certifier which means you can create and certify a death in this panel,' the hacker wrote.