There has been some breathless reporting around a “hire a hacker” site this month called Список хакеров. It has been billed by the likes of the Нью-Йорк Таймс, Шифер и теперь 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”.

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