Mustafa Al-Bassam | |
|---|---|
 Mustafa Al-Bassam giving a talk at the 34thChaos Communication Congress (2017) | |
| Born | January 1995 (age 31) |
| Other names | tflow |
| Citizenship | |
| Alma mater | |
| Awards | Forbes 30 Under 30 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Computer science |
| Thesis | Securely scaling blockchain base layers (2020) |
| Doctoral advisor | George Danezis |
Mustafa Al-Bassam (born January 1995) is anIraqi-Britishcomputer security researcher,hacker, and co-founder of Celestia Labs.[1] Al-Bassam co-founded the hacker groupLulzSec in 2011, which was responsible for several high profile breaches.[2][3] He later went on to co-found Chainspace, a company implementing asmart contract platform, which was acquired byFacebook in 2019.[4][5] In 2021, Al-Bassam graduated fromUniversity College London, completing a PhD in computer science with a thesis on Securely Scaling Blockchain Base Layers.[6][7] In 2016,Forbes listed Al-Bassam as one of the30 Under 30 entrepreneurs in technology.[8]
Al-Bassam was born inBaghdad,Iraq in January 1995, and migrated toLondon,United Kingdom when he was five years old.[9] He received aBSc in computer science fromKing's College London,[10][11] and subsequently completed aPhD atUniversity College London.[12]
In 2011 as a 16 year old teenager, Al-Bassam was one of the six core members ofLulzSec during its 50-day hacking spree, going by the alias "tflow". The group useddenial-of-service attacks and compromised a number of high profile organizations and corporations, includingSony,Fox,News International,Nintendo and theCIA.[3]
He was also affiliated with the online association ofhacktivists known asAnonymous, where he was involved with the hacking of emails fromHBGary Federal, anintelligence contractor for theU.S. government.[13] The emails revealed that HBGary Federal was working to developastroturfing software to create an "army" of fakesocial media profiles,[14] and was hired by theU.S. Chamber of Commerce to spy on and smear political opponents with fake documents and communications.[15] As a result, members of theU.S. Congress called for an investigation intoHBGary Federal.[15]
On 20 July 2011, it was announced on Fox News and other press outlets[16][17][18] thatLondon's Metropolitan Police had arrested a 16-year-old student in London who was alleged to have used the nickname "Tflow" in a series of high-profile attacks on fox.com,[19] the FBI affiliate "Infragard",[20] PBS[21][22] and Sony.[23] For legal reasons, his name could not be disclosed for nearly two more years. On 9 April 2013, Tflow's full name was revealed along with his picture on multiple news outlets throughout the Internet.[24] He pleaded guilty to computer misuse and received a 20-month suspended sentence with 320 hours of unpaid community service work.[25] A nearly two-year internet ban imposed by police has since expired.[26][27]
Al-Bassam has published research on scaling blockchains and cryptocurrencies.[28] He contributed to the design and implementation of Chainspace, a blockchain protocol that makes use of sharding to increase transaction throughput.[29] Chainspace was later spun-out into a commercial company he co-founded, and was then acquired byFacebook in 2019 to become a part of theLibra project.[4][5] Al-Bassam has since been critical of Libra, stating that "the road to dystopia is paved with good intentions, and I'm concerned about Libra's model for decentralization".[4]
In 2014 Al-Bassam volunteered forPrivacy International,[2] where he released research on the computer destruction techniques thatGCHQ used when forcing journalists atThe Guardian'sLondon headquarters to destroy the computers on which they stored copies of classified documents provided byNSAwhistleblowerEdward Snowden.[30]
In an article forMotherboard, he revealed thatGCHQ'sJoint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG), had been involved with onlinesockpuppetry by creating a series of fakeTwitter accounts and anURL shortener which was used as a honeypot for dissidents during theArab spring, having been targeted byJTRIG himself.[31]
In 2016, Al-Bassam was listed in theForbes 30 Under 30 in the technology section for his work on uncovering government surveillance.[8]
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