Hacker Who Turned in Chelsea Manning Dead at 37, Julian Assange Delighted

Adrian Lamo, best known as the computer hacker who exposed Army whistleblower Chelsea (then Bradley) Manning, died Friday at the age of 37.

Lamo’s father announced the news in a Facebook post, and the cause of death remains unclear.

“With great sadness and a broken heart I have to let know all of Adrian’s friends and acquaintances that he is dead,” Mario Lamo wrote. “A bright mind and compassionate soul is gone, he was my beloved son.”

A spokeswoman for Sedgwick county regional forensic center said that an autopsy is being conducted to determine the cause of death. 

Police official confirmed to me Adrian Lamo, @6, was found dead by officers on March 14th at around 4pm. His body was found in his apartment along the 4900 block of East Shadybrook in Wichita, Kansas. The coroner is investigating, but “there is nothing suspicious about his death”

— Matthew Keys (@MatthewKeysLive) March 16, 2018

Lamo, known as the “homeless hacker” for his often transient lifestyle, first made waves in 2002 when he broke into the New York Times‘ intranet, where he added his name to a database of expert sources and then used their LexisNexis account to research high profile subjects. He pleaded guilty, paid a fine and was sentenced to six months of home detention. 

Adrian Lamo (left), Kevin Mitnick, Kevin Poulsen (2001)

In a subsequent inteview with NBC to discuss the Times hack, Lamo was booted off the show by network lawyers after he cracked into NBC’s servers. 

Lamo says NBC was taping him at Kinko’s while he demonstrated security holes in a telecommunications company’s systems, when the interviewer asked him if he’d be successful hacking NBC.

Five minutes and one guessed password later and Lamo was surfing the television network’s private messaging system and an affiliate scheduling application that included internal memos and information on advertising rates. Screen shots of the hack provided by Lamo and reviewed by SecurityFocus Online include a page from an NBC vendor database with the network’s trademark “living color” peacock and the warning, “All information contained on this Web site is to be held in the strictest confidence,” in all capital letters. “It was a very full service system,” recalls Lamo. –SecurityFocus.com (2002)

Lamo’s most infamous act, however, was dropping the dime on Chelsea Manning after the two had engaged in a private chat in which Lamo gained Manning’s trust. 

(10:22:24 AM) bradass87: uhm, trying to keep a low profile for now though, just a warning

(10:23:34 AM) [email protected]: I’m a journalist and a minister. You can pick either, and treat this as a confession or an interview (never to be published) & enjoy a modicum of legal protection.

(10:24:07 AM) bradass87: assange level?

(10:25:12 AM) bradass87: or are you socially engineering ;P

(10:25:51 AM) [email protected]: You must not have done your research

(10:25:57 AM) [email protected]: I could have flipped for the FBI.

(10:26:05 AM) [email protected]: Gotten a sweeter deal.

During the chat, Manning revealed how he had transferred sensitive information onto a commercial server and uploaded it to WikiLeaks after communicating with Julian Assange. Lomo took advantage of the fact that Manning was emotionally unhinged, and continued to pump him for information – which he then gave to the FBI, which he says he did because he believed “lives were in danger.”

There was no option to interdict just the documents and put him merely in touch with counseling. There was no way to be both kind to Bradley and mindful of the potential for harm to people I had never known and would never know which the situation posed. The reader might think there was some more moderate choice that I overlooked but I looked closely, and no such choice existed. –Adrian Lamo

Lamo was shunned by the hacking community after turning Manning in, and was labeled a snitch. 

Unsurprisingly, Julian Assange wasn’t too broken up about Lamo’s death, tweeting “Coroner says serial FBI snitch Adrian Lamo is dead. Lamo, a fake journalist, petty conman & betrayer of basic human decency, promised alleged source @xychelsea journalistic protection, friendship and support, then sold him to the FBI.”

Coroner says serial FBI snitch Adrian Lamo is dead. Lamo, a fake journalist, petty conman & betrayer of basic human decency, promised alleged source @xychelsea journalistic protection, friendship and support, then sold him to the FBI. https://t.co/SkvbrG7Kyn pic.twitter.com/vZMyJhRWCW

— Julian Assange (@JulianAssange) March 16, 2018

pic.twitter.com/A5gk6BgAww

— Julian Assange (@JulianAssange) March 16, 2018

Lamo’s death has received a variety of responses:

Fuck you Adrian Lamo, snitch https://t.co/RPPhJ0NXBD

— J0RD∆N (@_comlag91) March 16, 2018

Adrian Lamo has died – he was a central figure in @Suzi3D‘s piece, #BeingJulianAssange.

The circumstances of his death have not been reported as yet. The timing is more than a little bit suspect IMHO.

Read about the history of Lamo’s betrayal ->https://t.co/eu2JATClun pic.twitter.com/KupUO61y3r

— Elizabeth Lea Vos (@ElizabethleaVos) March 16, 2018

My buddy Adrian @6 Lamo has passed. We havent had much recent contact but in the early 00’s he would crash on my couch for weeks or months at a time. He was a troubled guy, but I prefer to remember him the way I said in this ’02 Wired article. Godspeed @6 https://t.co/b4n6xDFSjh pic.twitter.com/Lo1EtvQ2pK

— Stephen A. Ridley (@s7ephen) March 16, 2018

I didn’t expect to read this news about Adrian Lamo passing away today.https://t.co/aDmmZYj1O2

— Kevin Mitnick (@kevinmitnick) March 16, 2018

Ding, dong the snitch is dead. Which old snitch? The bitchy snitch!https://t.co/0smK5Dot01

— Barrett Brown (@BarrettBrown_) March 16, 2018

good riddance Adrian Lamo, you sack of shit

— Nyx 朔望 Land (@realNickLand) March 16, 2018