Letter from former NullCrew member 0rbit/rootcrysis

Salutations, inhabitants of the internet. It has been two long years, but I am finally free.

I was released a week ago and permitted to purchase a smart phone once I arrived at the halfway house in Manchester, Kentucky under the condition that (everyone here follows the same rules) I not have an active social media account. Shame, I was looking forward to trololing on Twitter. :P Oh well, life goes on.

I was sad to see that when released the other core member of NullCrew (@Zer0Pwn) had been placed in custody for reasons other then hacking. I hope this is resolved soon, I miss the man, he is a great guy who kept true to his morals, unlike some people (Not worth mentioning) that he and I know.

My stay in prison was, as imagined, not pleasant. However, over the past two years I have received much support from the community thanks to freeanons and CWN. I can not thank each of you enough for the letters, IT related books, books, post cards, legal assistance, donations, and drawings. You made my time in custody bearable, and I am sure the others you assist agree.

I am not ashamed of my actions. NullCrew opened various eyes over a course of two years, and I gained a lot of additional knowledge over those years and the years prior with Net-Bashers, Digital-Corruption, TeaMp0isoN, Anonymous, Fel0ny, ETA, RTB, exectera. What I am sad about is how companies down played the impact of those hacks.. such as how we held back information on Bell, owned Time-Warner thanks to admin:admin pass/user combination, broke into University of Virginia twice with various methods that left us with troves of confidential data, and how the university of Hawaii was secured by root mysql password of uhaw (admins reused same password on all other databases), the examples can go on and on. But what's the point?

I may not be a black hat anymore, but I am still in the field and can say that without a doubt zer0pwn/nulls and my own arrest didn't make a difference at all. The same goes for Lizard Squad, and Crackas with attitude.. others will take their place in revealing insecurity. Get with the program, people, "making an example" doesn't prevent a damn thing.. It never will.

To those wondering, I am now studying and prepareing to get certified as a penetration tester so I can contribute to this community in an ethical way and make money off of what I love. I am doing great now, and am excited for what the future holds.. this is just my way of informing society that I am free and doing better then ever.

To any parents putting up with their children being in prison, keep your heads up.. your support means more then you'll ever realize.

- Timothy Justen French a.k.a 0rbit/rootcrysis/C0RPS3 of NullCrew & various other groups.

P.S: Shouts to MLT, Zer0Pwn, Vlad, Phantom, ZeroFreakz, Kingcope, t-h3x, Mr. Boter, War-Lord, Psykon-X, Hex0010, aush0k, Luit and all others I've worked with. Know I forgot a few, but tried making those worth naming.