Teen hacker became a millionaire by finding security holes that could make the world fall

Corben Leo might be a name you’re not familiar with. However, in the white hat hacker community, this name is quite famous and admired by many people.

Leo taught himself hacking skills and became “cheeky” from a very young age. At the age of 19, he took control of the transatlantic TAT-14 telecommunications cable. This cable route is the “lifeline” of data between the US, UK, France, Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. This cable line operates from 2001 to 2020.

In an interview with the press, Leo said that at that time he accidentally came across the TAT-14 cable management website. He found the title of the website interesting, so he decided to try and see if it was possible to hack it.

With a few steps, simple for him but difficult for everyone, Leo successfully infiltrated that website. He had almost all control over the website in his hands. He can assign admin rights to every account of the site, can manage all accounts and access internal documents of the cable. Everything related to the operation of the cable, its physical structure, maintenance schedule… is in Leo’s hands.

What can Leo do with the “ultimate” power he has? According to industry experts, Leo could crash stock markets, cause friction between economies, spark accusations of international espionage and even disrupt governments.

Instead of doing those terrible things, Leo made the right decision. You reported the vulnerability to the cable company. “I don’t want to sabotage anything because it’s an important underground cable. I’m afraid of being blacklisted by the CIA,” Leo shared.

White hat hacker Corben Leo

Currently, Leo is 22 years old and he is running his own cybersecurity company. His company is working with both the US Department of Defense and their main job is to hack into the computer systems of companies, businesses and organizations to find security holes. This job brings Leo an income of up to millions of dollars.

At times Leo thought his bug-hunting earnings were too great, even ridiculously large.

Leo represents a generation of young and talented white hat hackers. They are daily “digging” every line of code of businesses and organizations around the globe to find security holes before black hat hackers find them. Well deserved rewards will be given to encourage hackers to report vulnerabilities instead of abusing them for malicious purposes.

(Refer to QTM)