Hacking as an act of faith

Once eager to hurdle firewalls, ace computer hacker now uses skills for charity

Sun Profile

But then the trip was over, and down he went again. Back to the everyday. At home, he started pining, then thinking. How could he get that feeling back, but from here?

Then he struck on it: He would hack charities.

Hacking for good

First step: Set up a Web site: www.ihackcharities.org.

Second step: Acknowledge how ridiculous that sounds in the intro: "You WHAT? Picking on charities is just plain rude. Thankfully, that's not what we're about."

Third step: Explain what you're about: "We're about proving that hackers have amazing skills that can transform charitable organizations. We're about proving that those skills can be translated into careers, one keystroke and one resume bullet at a time."

The idea is to get hackers from around the world to volunteer their time and used gear to various charities that seriously need technical help, whether it's through securing their sites or finding ways to pair children with sponsors online, like Johnny is working on for AOET.

Ultimately, the work could save organizations thousands of dollars and, consequently, maybe even a life or two.

To attract talent, he offers volunteers personal recommendations and some actual project experience to put on their CVs. It's the kind of carrot that hackers, often just self-taught kids, covet. It's a ticket to a foot in the door at a company and incentive to keep on the straight and narrow.

And with that, Johnny had found a purpose.

"It started out with me trying to fill a hole, to make me feel better, but it's not about me anymore," Johnny said.

Well, not completely. He's still hyper-aware of how he's perceived and more than a little self- and image- conscious. (He compares himself to U2's Bono - a lot.) But those qualities are the same ones that drove him to look for more, then follow through once he found it.

So far, he's recruited about 120 hackers from around the world, though he's still doing about half the work himself, and the group's only target thus far is AOET. Johnny's not quite sure yet how to branch out, and AOET needs a lot of work.

He's streamlined its Web site, set up Gmail accounts and started a blog so the site that hadn't been touched for years can now be updated daily. And he's begun a side project he's calling "Swag for charity" - through which conference-goers donate all the free stuff, like thumb drives, they pick up and don't need.