European security analyst Chris John Riley is a well known and legitimate security professional who co-hosts the Eurotrash Security Podcast and writes on the Catch22 Insecurity blog. Gregory Evans is a convicted felon (federal conspiracy and wire fraud against AT&T and MCI for stealing 125 toll free telephone lines) who paid $9 million in restitution, was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison, and runs a dubious company that makes great commercials but also claims a client list they don’t actually have, plagiarizes to write books, and performs press release ping pong with a penny stock. So how did one of these men come to threaten the lives of the other and his family?

The Buildup, The Book

Book/plagiarism.

As mentioned, Riley is part of the Eurotrash Security Podcast, and as with many podcasts, interviews of information security professionals and personalities come with the territory. In that role, Riley sought to have Evans do an interview on the most recent charges that his book How To Become The Worlds No. 1 Hacker is largely a work of plagiarism.

So Riley called the LIGATT office in Atlanta, was eventually put through to Evans, and after discussing some preliminaries on the book agreed to an interview the following evening. Riley provided his blog URL and LIGATT’s secretary provided Evan’s Skype ID (ligattsecurity) for the interview.

15 Minutes Later…

Within fifteen minutes of the phone call, the following comment was submitted to the book review section of Riley’s blog:

Comment received 15 minutes after phone call.

So what would cause the CEO of a publicly traded company to fly off the handle in such an unreasonable way? The answer may be a case of mistaken identity. The 20Plus reference in the beginning of Evan’s written rant makes no sense when applied to Chris John Riley. But there is a user on the forums of advfn.com, an investment web site, with that handle. And this is a user who continually expresses dissatisfaction with the LIGATT stock (LGTT) and the management of the company.

Maybe Its Not Evans

We can allow for that possibility, but a preponderance of evidence shows otherwise. The whois for the IP address shows BellSouth, Atlanta GA, right where the LIGATT offices are. That combined with the specific references to the phone call and references to an Evan’s nemesis on investment boards of ADVFN suggest this was in fact Evans.

IP points to Atlanta, GA

Put up the money and challenge me!

One of the lines in the comment references Mr. Evans’ repeated call to “challenge him” to some manner of hacker competition.

LIGATT, ostensibly Evans, challenges the hackers of the world.

A credible response to this challenge was made by Chris Nickerson, formerly of Tiger Team fame (a TruTV show demonstrating actual social engineering and hacking).

Nickerson's unambiguous response.

Thus far Evans continues to repeat the original challenge, while refusing to acknowledge that Mr. Nickerson has already accepted it.

Finally

This nonsense with Evans and this company has been far too much for far too long. It is a free country, and people can form firms and make a living, even reformed criminals. But the evidence suggests, as it has for a while, to steer clear of Ligatt and its volatile CEO. Far too many, especially in the media (Fox News, CNN, The History Channel), have been taken in by the wild claims of this outfit.

Update

The Student Hacker IT cast has posted their LIGATT Interview, which is fairly instructive of the issues discussed.

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• Asian Men Prefer LIGATT
• NationalCyberSecurity.com has all “Original Content”
• LIGATT’s Evans Strikes Back
• A Loss of SecurityFocus