A Short, Exclusive Interview with CWA's DerpLaughing
Derp's Twitter
You may have read my report on the infamous hacking/social engineering crew Crackas With Attitude. you've more likely read the Vice articles on the CWA crew. Recently, news has broken of the sentencing of one of the crew's core members to 2+ years in prison.
Today, I have a short interview.
A couple of notes on the conversation. I have a link posted to the raw paste of our interview. Nothing has been changed or redacted, as Derp will verify. The reason I am not posting it here is that this blog is meant to be an analysis of what I find in my investigations. Much of what Derp said was quite inflamatory, for understandable reasons, and while I want to share the whole conversation with the rest of the world, I don't want this to become the TMZ of the hacker scene, as my good friend AofAnon once said.
Below is my analysis of the conversation.
It is obviously entirely opinion, and should be regarded as such. None of the views held or mentioned by Derp should be taken as my own or other's opinions, and none of it should be regarded as fact before checking and double checking.
An Analysis of the Infamous DerpLaughing
Derp is a polarizing character. He holds very strong views, and he doesn't seem at all timid to share them. This can be seen in our conversation, in his tirades against his wannabe teammate and the ever-controversial Jester, and in his actions with the CWA, which claimed victims in the highest realms of US intelligence.
I was honestly surprised by the end of my conversation with Derp.
He showed a level of maturity, despite the dramatic tirades, that I hadn't expected. He almost wanted to distance himself from the leaks he didn't want to claim, and showed that the crew had a purpose and dreaded the attention and famewhoring that came from their crew rising to infamy.
There was still an edge of the same old dramawhoring that made CWA and its affiliates interesting. Derp's rivalry with Jester, who has not pulled any punches on the hacker crew himself, and his utter distaste towards wannabe member Default, showed that while he may have been pulled from the scene, the scene was not pulled from him.
One of my biggest objectives in our conversation was to talk about the MLT/TeaMp0isoN link.
Jester himself has long pointed to a supposed link between the CWA and TeaMp0isoN, citing that along with CWA's support of the #FreePalestine cause as signs that CWA is a terrorist organization, or at least is supporting them. MLT was a member of Team Poison, and was relatively close with Poison member Trick, who left the group to join ISIS.
I asked Derp about this, and he had a pretty straightforward answer: the CWA/Team Poison link was a reach. They were friends on Twitter, but Derp confirmed that there was no operational connection between MLT and CWA or CWA and Poison. This may or may not be true. Nothing in our conversation implied Derp was lying, but the matter of MLT-CWA connection seems to be contentious and controversial.
Derp offered a bright outlook on the future.
I'm not going to lie, when I asked about the future of the CWA, I was worried Derp was going to say he was going to keep breaking the law, or that they would keep operating after the other members got out of prison. Instead, Derp said that he was hoping that he would be able to keep his freedom so that he could go legit, either in the IT field or in the Royal Marines. He said he hoped for his friend Cracka, but said his outlook was not too bright.
In all honesty, I hope the best for Derp et al. They did extreme damage to some very important people, and I hope that some lesson was learned in the law enforcement reaction to their crimes. I think they have a place in the history of our culture, but I hope that there is nothing newsworthy to tell of their future.