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Hacker's List: This 'Hire A Hacker' Site Must Be

A Joke, A Scam Or Just Sucks

There has been some breathless reporting around a "hire a hacker" site this month called Hacker’s List. It has been billed by the likes of the New York TimesSlate and now Ars Technica as a genuine service for those who want to crack online accounts they don’t have the skills to hack into. But even a cursory review of the site would tell anyone Hacker’s List is an amateur effort. It’s so bad it leaves one wondering whether it’s some kind of practical joke or a bizarre social experiment.

First, just look at the promises Hacker’s List makes. It says it offers complete privacy and is “confidential in every way, from billing to positng [sic]”. It also guarantees “secure and discreet payments”. Then there’s AES256 bit encryption so you can feel safe your data is secure, though it doesn't specify what exactly is encrypted. There’s also a dispute process, “designed to make hiring a professional hacker worrie [sic] free".

If You Need to Hire a Hacker, This Service

Will Hook You Up

You know those commercials on Hulu for Angie’s List? It’s a paid membership site for (supposedly) trustworthy local business reviews. But if you don’t need a gardner or plumber recommendation, maybe the services over at Hacker’s List will be more appealing.

For the man in Sweden who wants to pay as much as $2,000 for access to his landlord’s website, Hacker’s List is the perfect resource. As the New York Times notes, the site has been around since early November, and people have listed more than 500 hacking jobs that need doing. The idea is that hackers with relevant expertise bid on jobs they want to undertake, then they complete milestones set by the lister as a way of monitoring work progress. The site collects a fee when the job is completed, and it says that AES-256 bit encryption keeps both posters and hackers totally anonymous.