George Hotz is no stranger ’round these parts. Better known as Geohot, he first achieved internet fame at the age of 17 with his announcement of a hardware unlock method for the original iPhone. From there, he moved on to even greater notoriety with a PlayStation 3 exploit that quickly attracted the ire — and legal wrath — of Sony. Now profiled in The New Yorker, we’re given a candid and unique insight into the world of George Hotz, whereby his own admission, he wasn’t motivated by an ideology so much as boredom and the desire to control a system. The freedom issues, it seems, were merely an afterthought.

George Hotz is unique. We’re talking about someone who was programming by age five, building video game consoles by the 5th grade and making appearances on NBC’s Today at age fourteen. Like many brilliant adolescents, he experimented with drugs and rebelled against authority. Eventually, the powers that be caught up with him, and George Hotz was sued by Sony on January 11th, 2011. The lawsuit drew the attention of malicious hacker groups such as Anonymous and LulzSec, which retaliated against the company in very public ways. However unintentional, Geohot became the poster child for hacktivists and inspired a movement that quickly grew out of control — if only more of us could be so productive with our boredom. For an insightful read into one of the most influential hackers of our time, be sure to hit the source link below.

My whole life is a hack: how Geohot owned the iPhone, PS3 and inadvertently rallied hacktivists originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 May 2012 04:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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