‘World’s No. 1 Hacker’ Marred by Plagiarism Allegations
A recently published e-book has had a significant impact on the IT security community, amid allegations of plagiarism and racism.
The book, titled How to Become the World’s No. 1 Hacker, is said to be written by Gregory D. Evans, a former felon who later became the CEO of Ligatt Security International.
The book provides a step-by-step guide to securing networks from a variety of attack venues. The book covers Wi-Fi hacking, Unix security and configuration of web services.
However, vast portions of the book, published by Cyber Crime Media publishing house, appear to have been plagiarized. The majority of chapter 12 is, in fact, identical to a previously published tutorial by Armando Romeo published on hackerscenter.com in 2008. Portions of chapter 9 were also taken from another manual published on ethicalhacker.net.
According to an analysis by Ben Rothke, a senior security consultant, at least 13 of the chapters in the book are plagiarized and contain no attribution. Rothke used iThenticate, which is often used by teachers to catch plagiarism.
“Mr. Evans has never asked any permission from me and I’m the only owner of the copyrights of my website,” said Romeo, CEO of eLearnSecurity. “[Five chapters] have been literally copied and pasted from my guides.”
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Has anybody contacted this man with these accusations or is it just an internet campaign? Where can I see the parts that are said to be plaigerized? I was trying to find out more information about this company and see if the charges against them are legit, but frankly, none of their accusers seem to have much information.
Evans has been contacted repeatedly by the plagiarized authors, as well as the FBI, and an SEC investigation is also in progress.
Much controversy and heated conversations engulf the World Wide Web concerning Gregory Evans, the self proclaimed No 1 Hacker. Why does he call himself the number one hacker? First, in your address bar, key in the words “who is the number one hacker” and see what returns you will receive. Mr. Evans is at the top of the list because he understands how to get there and if there are any hackers better than him, they are afraid to surface. As a matter of fact, he not only hold the number one spot on that web page, but he also holds number two, three, and so on. You see, he has to be the only hacker that is brave enough to say that to the entire world. He proclaims however, a multitude of onlookers defames his name. Why is this so? It is because he is not ashamed or afraid of men and their faces. He understands that he is facing a world of haters and bashers yet he diligently goes forward to put back into our society. His arrest and conviction did not stop him from brushing himself off and moving forward. Not given to excuses, however, he is misunderstood. He does not make the excuse such as I am a convicted criminal and I cannot do this or that. Mr. Evans is a real fighter and an extremely relentless hard working person. A bit excitable, yet after meeting him for myself, I have learned that he has a heart of goal and an unstoppable passion to better himself and show himself credible in the eyes of society. He knows that God forgives him, yet many still hold his crimes over his head.
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