Hacker whose cause of death remains a mystery: Who is Adrian Lamo?

Adrian Lamo was born in 1981 in Massachusetts, a city near Boston. His father was originally from Colombia. Lamo's family noticed their son's interest in computers and his tendency to solve complex problems from an early age, and they supported this. Adrian Lamo, who attended several high schools, never graduated. However, by the court's decision, he was entitled to study at American River College. His first hacking attempts started with him committing phone scams and hacking some games.

Adrian Lamo's mother said in an interview in 2003: "Adrian is someone who can immediately solve any problem we put in front of him with a computer, with his analytical mind and natural curiosity that he has had since his youth.''

Lamo creates most of his work; He was known as the "Homeless Hacker" because he did this while traveling, in abandoned buildings, cafes, or libraries. In Lamo's youth, the World Wide Web was on the rise, and this did not escape Lamo's attention. He felt that the company was neglecting the internet safety of others. So he decided to break into computer systems. His goal wasn't to do any damage, just to go in and identify vulnerabilities and fix them for free if they wanted.

Adrián Alfonso Lamo Atwood (February 20, 1981 – March 14, 2018) was an American threat analyst and hacker. Lamo first gained media attention for breaking into several high-profile computer networks, including those of The New York Times, Yahoo!, and Microsoft, culminating in his 2003 arrest. Lamo was best known for reporting U.S. soldier Chelsea Manning to Army criminal investigators in 2010 for leaking hundreds of thousands of sensitive U.S. government documents to WikiLeaks. Lamo died on March 14, 2018, at the age of 37.

When Lamo was only 20 years old, he attracted the attention of some companies thanks to these initiatives. In 2002, he again secretly infiltrated The New York Times' internal computer network and added his name to the database. He also used the newspaper's legal research company's database without permission to conduct research. The New York Times then filed a complaint. In 2003, a warrant was issued for Lamo's arrest. After running away for a while, Adrian Lamo surrendered and admitted to the computer crime he committed against Microsoft and The New York Times in his confession in 2004. Thus, Lamo was detained for two years, including 6 months under house arrest, and was sentenced to a large fine.

Adrian Lamo and Chelsea Manning

In 2010, Chelsea Manning, who was working in the military, contacted Lamo via instant message. He admitted to leaking to Wikileaks a secret video of a helicopter attack in Baghdad in which 12 people were killed. He also told Lamo that he gave 260,000 secret diplomatic cables to Wikileaks.

Lamo was really worried about the leak of confidential data to news broadcasts endangering people's lives. So he reported Manning's theft to the FBI. Thus, the answer to the question of who Adrian Lamo is is the hacker who revealed the largest confidential data leak in US history. In the investigation, Manning was found guilty of leaking more than 700,000 government records and sentenced to 35 years in prison.

After Lamo did this, although he was described as a patriot by some circles, he was called an informer by his hacker friends. In 2011, Lamo told a news outlet that he had received death threats for exposing Manning and turning him into authorities, so he went into hiding.

Chelsea Elizabeth Manning (born Bradley Edward Manning, December 17, 1987) is an American activist and whistleblower. She is a former United States Army soldier who was convicted by court-martial in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses, after disclosing to WikiLeaks nearly 750,000 classified, or unclassified but sensitive, military and diplomatic documents.

Adrian Lamo was found dead in an apartment on March 14, 2018. In the published autopsy report, the cause of death was recorded as unknown. The 10-page report stated that Lamo was last alive on March 7. Many drugs mixed with each other were also found in Lamo's body. Although some evidence points to death due to drug use, an autopsy has never 100% confirmed this, and Lamo's cause of death remains a mystery.