Infamous ‘Homeless Hacker’ Adrian Lamo Dies at 37

hacker

Adrian Lamo, an infamous hacker who previously hacked into systems at the New York Times, Microsoft and Yahoo, has died at the age of 37.

In a Facebook group

On Friday, the father of well-known hacker Adrian Lamo wrote:

With great sadness and a broken heart I have to let know all of Adrian’s friends and acquittances that he is dead. A bright mind and compassionate soul is gone, he was my beloved son.

While the circumstances of the death are currently unknown, Lamo – previously known as the ‘homeless hacker’, is believed to have been dead for some time according to a neighbor who found his body, as reported by ZDNet.

Lamo recently gain notoriety for being involved in passing information to the FBI on whistleblower Chelsea Manning, a former US Army solider who was acquainted with Lamo. Manning told Lamo that she had downloaded and burned classified US documents on a disk. Lamo later informed authorities of the breach with help from friends in military intelligence, a move that led to Manning being arrested and sentenced to 35 years in prison. Her sentence was ultimately commuted by President Barack Obama prior to being released last year.

Lamo has previously expressed regret for his betrayal of Manning and was known at one point as the “world’s most hated hacker”.  Adrian was also dubbed as the ‘homeless hacker’ by mainstream media after he was unemployed at one point in his life, wandering the United States using Greyhound buses.

Separately, in 2004, the hacker plead guilty to federal computer crime charges from his 2002 breach of systems belonging to the New York Times.

Lamo’s unfortunate passing coincides with a long list of infamous hackers whose lives have ultimately simmered down to reclusive individuals with no lucrative contracts for a gig as a threat researcher at mainstream tech companies or cybersecurity firms.

Image credit: Pixabay.