🫢 #72 - The Story Behind 4 Hackers, FIFA's Global Operating System, & The FBI; The Future of the Metaverse; Zero Days & The Looming Great Software Security Threat: Nick Castellucci

Nick Castellucci is a software engineer and hacker. In 2013 and 2014, Nick and 3 partners successfully hacked into EA Sports’ FIFA Operating System to generate FIFA Coins at an exponential rate –– making millions of dollars along the way. Following an FBI Investigation, he pleaded guilty to Wire Fraud and served no prison time. However, upon further review, the case appears to be a prime example of massive government overreach –– and the “crime” doesn’t seem to have been a crime at all. In this podcast, Nicks tells the story behind how it all went down.

***TIMESTAMPS***

0:00 - Intro; Defense Attorneys and how they impact cases; NICK TELLS THE STORY OF THE FIFA HACK; How the FIFA Coin System worked; Nick’s earliest days as a hacker; How Nick and his fellow hacker team built bot accounts; The Law that the FBI used to charge them: CFAA; Julian wonders what about any of Nick’s actions was even illegal; The first way the FBI found out what they were doing; The difference between FIFA Coins and FIFA Points

46:39 - Why Nick left the hacking project behind a year early; Nick talks about how he and his co-conspirators opened up an LLC and hired an attorney right after starting the scheme; Nick reveals the second way the FBI found out about what they were doing (this will blow your mind); The difference between American Law and International Law as it pertains to this case; Nick explains why the case was very profitable for the government to take on; Why Seizures are such a windfall for the US Government; Nick describes the day the FBI came for him

1:03:56 - Privacy and Government capabilities to circumvent it; The Conundrum that is Jack Dorsey; Warrant Canary; Revisiting Facebook and Cambridge Analytica

1:21:58 - Facebook and the move to the Metaverse (under the new name, “Meta”); Nick explains how he believes the Metaverse will work; How will traditional real-world value like land and real estate work in the Metaverse?; Describes what a VR World will look like

1:39:04 - Nick and Julian debate Simulation Theory; The Ultimate Evidence to build The Simulation Theory Case: The Fourth Turning; Nick explains why there might *not* be meaning to life; Genghis Khan and X* J*nping; The subjectivity of good and evil; Laws packed with stupid add-ins; What Nick’s case and other circumstances say about the over-complexity of the law

1:57:16 - A society run by people who don;’t want to be sued; Nick explains the definition of “spin”; Nick and Julian watch a video from Australia and discuss what’s happening to their society during the Pandemic; The Left Right Position shift is in the midst of happening again?

2:26:14 - Nick explains what a Zero Day is and why Zero Days are the holy grail of hacking; Zerodium and white hat hacking payouts; Nick explains what Pegasus is and how some mobile malware is practically unbeatable once its distributor has your phone number; Julian brings up Sandworm by Andy Greenberg; Could Tesla be hacked?; Bitcoin talk; What if Satoshi was actually a government and Bitcoin its ploy?; Nick and Julian discuss whether Bitcoin is a currency or a store of value

2:56:20 - The end of Nick’s FIFA- FBI Case and where everything stands today

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