About Snowden
"Edward Snowden is an amazing person. Few people would dare to repeat what he has done. I must admit that revealing details of secret surveillance of your country for the sake of personal ideals, and complicating your own life for many years is a very brave move. For the whole world Snowden is a hero, but not everyone agrees with him in the US. I can't say that for me he is an absolute hero, rather a rare phenomenon," Ares said.
"From time to time they send questions and suggestions to me. In mid-2012, one such user quite actively sent me reports on errors and nuances occurring in during the analysis of a large amount of traffic. As a result, I have made a lot of improvements to Intercepter over a few months of correspondence, and all thanks to him. After that, our communication ceased," he explained.
"I tried to contact him in the first half of 2013, but he no longer responded. Some time later, when the whole world had already heard about Snowden, I was looking through old mail, and drew attention to the address of the user. Imagine my surprise when I saw that those helpful letters came from ed_snowden@lavabit.com address," Ares continued.
"I don't know anything about his current business, but I think he is too ideological and independent person to work for the Russia's Federal Security Service. However, I would not rule out an opportunity that he could inform the Russian special services some important information in exchange for a quiet and safe life in the country."
About His Own Program, Intercepter
According to the hacker, he was looking for a tool with specific functionality back in 2006, but could not find it, and so he decided to write it himself. Two years later, he uploaded the Intercepter app for free and since then has kept it regularly updated.
"Also, I do not recommend trying to use Intercepter without understanding certain computer intricacies. My program is not a magic cracker of the Internet — it does not allow arbitrary hacking of anyone you want. Intercepter works only in wired or wireless local area networks, and only allows scanning traffic," he said.
About the WikiLeaks Revelations and Julian Assange
Not everyone knows that in the past Assange was a quite well-known hacker under the nickname Mendax, according to Ares. "He also co-authored a wonderful book about hackers ‘Underground: Tales of Hacking, Madness and Obsession,' which I recommend reading to everyone who's interested."
"Today, many adhere to the theory that Assange is cooperating with Russia and on purpose, publishing compromising facts about the campaign of Hillary Clinton. But I think he has absolutely no point in doing something for money; his actions simply coincide with the current interests of Moscow," the hacker expressed his point of view.
Assange was rooting against Clinton "not to make loyal-to-Russia Trump win, but to keep unambiguously negative Hillary Clinton from becoming president and continuing to spread her blood-stained democracy across the world," he said.
About Modern Hackers and Their Purposes
The activity of hackers is not always linked to security breaches, Ares emphasized. Previously, the term "hacker" was used in relations with an experienced programmer, not a cybercriminal. Those experts could think outside the box and use all sorts of tricks to work with information systems and computers. "So, I could be referred a hacker only at this point. In fact I'm not a hacker, but rather a developer," he added.
"It is noteworthy that the information security industry is partly guilty for appearing in countless malicious applications. The public reports on the various antivirus companies that often give a complete algorithm of a malicious code. As a result, young people who are familiar with programming basics can immediately write another similar program after studying such reports. Blackmail and fraud have become popular on social networks and internet trading platforms, but that's an ordinary crime committed with a computer and the Internet," the hacker said.
"It must be clearly understood that hackers are mostly the same people, like plumbers, teachers and salespeople in the store. Their interests and leisure is almost no different from ordinary people. Yes, they often work in the IT-sphere, and it is logical that the Internet acts as their main professional tool. Only the so-called Black Hats, hackers using cyber vulnerabilities for their own interests, usually don't work like usual people. They can simply sleep all day long and spend nights at the computer," Ares concluded.
