Meet the Computer Hackers

Jonathan James

Source Wikipedia: American hacker Jonathan James was the first juvenile incarcerated for cybercrime in the United States.The South Florida native was 15 years old at the time of the first offense and 16 years old on the date of his sentencing. He died on May 18th, 2008. Although details regarding his death were never released, it is notably speculated, including by fellow hacker Adrian Lamo, that James committed suicide by gunshot.

Between August 23, 1999, and October 27, 1999, James committed a series of intrusions into various systems, including those of BellSouth and the Miami-Dade school system. What brought him to the attention of federal authorities, however, was his intrusion into the computers of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, a division of the United States Department of Defense, the primary function of which is to analyze potential threats to the United States of America, both at home and abroad. James later admitted to authorities that he had installed an unauthorized backdoor in a computer server in Dulles, Virginia, which he used to install a sniffer that allowed him to intercept over three thousand messages passing to and from DTRA employees, along with numerous usernames and passwords of other DTRA employees, including at least 10 on official military computers. This intrusion, when detected, caused NASA to shut down its computers for three weeks that July, costing $41,000 to check and fix its systems.

It was later revealed that the precise software obtained was the International Space, Station's source code controlling critical life-sustaining elements. According to NASA, "the software supported the International Space, Station's physical environment, including control of the temperature and humidity within the living space.

Jonathan's Natal Chart

James was born under the sign of Sagittarius, he had Sun, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus all in the 9th sign of the zodiac. Freedom, space, and big dreams, are some of the things we can associate with this combination. The Sun makes three conjunctions in his chart. Sun conjunct Jupiter is placed in it's own EXPANSIVE sign of Sagittarius, James had excessive optimism and confidence, and he felt "lucky" in life and perhaps God like. James goals were to "better" himself and climb the social ladder. The Sun is conjunct Uranus, this describes a personality that is strong-willed he lives life the way he wants to. Personal freedom is extremely important to him. Sun-Uranus can find it difficult sticking to an ordinary routine. Uranus rules space travel, aviation, astrology and computers, James will be interested in these things. Obviously his main interest is computers, and rules are broken with Uranus, as well as Security systems invaded (Saturn in Scorpio).

Sun is Conjunct Neptune, and from his Sun profile alone - boundaries are not part of his psychological makeup. I think that he can also be to a great extent, an escapist and had difficulty defining his identity . Overall a very expansive conjunction in Sagittarius. Jonathan had three planets in Scorpio - Venus, Saturn and Pluto. Scorpio needs power and control: Saturn in Scorpio often feels his own privacy has to be defended. Here it worked both ways, he invaded security systems and they hunted him down and raided his home taking all his computers away.

Below is an excerpt of his interview with Frontline:

What is it about the computer that makes it become such an obsession for young guys?

Well, it's power at your fingertips. You can control all these computers from the government, from the military, from large corporations. And if you know what you're doing, you can travel through the Internet at your will, with no restrictions. That's power; it's a power trip.

How hard was it for you to get into some blue-chip locations?

The government didn't take too many measures for security on most of their computers. They lack some serious computer security, and the hard part is learning it. I know Unix and C like the back of my hand, because I studied all these books, and I was on the computer for so long. But the hard part isn't getting in. It's learning to know what it is that you're doing.

And how do you learn that?

Oh, by reading, by talking to people. And by spending so much time on the computer, learning how it works, learning the source code and the programs and the commands.

So is it just the rush of getting in there, of doing something smarter than they do? Or did you find anything there that was of interest to you?

Generally, the thrill is over once you've realized that you're on the computer and that you can do whatever you want--but it's not downloading their information, because usually it's pointless, bureaucratic stuff you don't need to know.

Mercury square Mars

Jonathon's Mercury was in Capricorn square Mars in Libra, a cardinal and ambitious configuration. His mind needs mental stimulation, and can be active. He needed to be challenged and thrived on "beating" the system. Mercury-Mars always to needs to compete in mental competition- whether in verbal debate i.e winning the argument, or in his case putting his mental skill to the test and challenging security networks. He wanted complicated mental tets, ones that go way beyond "word puzzles" and solving "crosswords", that Mercury-Mars traditionally enjoys. Capricorn is a security conscious sign, with an efficient and organized brain, it's a placement that can do well with admin tasks. Mars in Libra can battle perceived injustices, and he challenges security and threatens the whole structural balance (Capricorn/Libra). Mercury-Mars is an aspect associated with theft and plagiarism.