He played the repentant hacker, now he will be tried in a digital extortion case. For Florent Curtet, a thirty-year-old Frenchman accused of having tried to enrich himself at the expense of victims of cyber attacks, what is at stake at the end of November in Paris will be a lot: avoiding a sentence that could end in prison. He is accused of his possible collusion with hackers from the Everest group, in a ransomware case dating back to 2021 and which resulted in the theft of documents resulting from judicial information dedicated to the murder of Samuel Paty and the attack of charlie hebdo.
Enough to damage the image that Florent Curtet has patiently built, who has become a regular on talk shows thanks to his book, Hack me if you can (Cherche Midi editions, 2023). In this autobiographical document sold in 7,500 copies, according to its publisher, the man with medium hair and thick glasses recounts his youthful adventures through the cardinga technique to misuse stolen bank card identifiers to illicitly enrich oneself. Then his redemption.
Of Parisian In France Culture, the press was enthusiastic about his story: one of his videos, on the YouTube channel Legend, has 3.2 million views. Since then, he has occasionally appeared on the microphone of various media outlets as an expert on cybersecurity issues, in particular playing with his new calling card: co-founder of Hackeurs sans frontières, a structure intended to help the computer security of non-governmental organizations. governmental. (NGO). According to the interested party, a television series about his life is even being prepared.
A past with blurred edges
Except in this story about the origin of his media rise, a lot of things are wrong. A careful examination of his career reveals a series of approximations, between exaggerated feats and an overinflated CV. Let’s go back to May 2023. France Télévision journalists have just obtained a great exclusivity: for France 2’s “8 p.m.”, they were able to interview the former pirate, who is starting to promote his book. “At 17 years old, the CIA considers Florent Curtet the head of cybercrime in France”says the voice-over of the report, referring to the carding having earned the young pirate his first legal setbacks.
The finish is beautiful. However, it is doubly false. Firstly, as the investigating judge recalls in the order referring the Everest case, consulted by the worldbecause the procedure that led to the arrest of Florent Curtet in 2007 for his activities carding “did not involve” the CIA, which does not have judicial jurisdiction, but the United States Secret Service, a federal agency responsible in particular for financial fraud. Much less glamorous than the famous American intelligence agency. Interviewed on September 20 by the worldFlorent Curtet confesses today a ” mistake “. Since then, he has assured “strive to rectify the situation”. In an interview given to a YouTube channel at the end of July, this is not obvious: he always mentions the involvement of the CIA.
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