Quote · The Journal.
The College Student Who Defeated the World’s Biggest Cyberweapon
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Ben's Origin Story: Minecraft, Cheating, and the Gateway to Hacking
At 7:47 · chapter starts 4:43
Long before he was fighting the world's biggest botnet, Ben Brundage was just a kid who liked hiking and skiing. That changed in 2020 when COVID lockdowns drove him to Minecraft, and the game's modding system sparked a genuine love of code [1] — Benjamin Brundage "Bored during COVID lockdowns, teenager Benjamin Brundage started modding Minecraft and quickly fell into Discord servers where cybercrime w…" 04:44 . Ben learned Java by watching late-night tutorials, built custom plants and creatures, and then discovered the darker side: cheats that let him see through walls and auto-aim at enemies, eventually getting his account banned. On Discord, Minecraft modding communities blurred almost imperceptibly into hacker forums — servers on cybercrime were just a few hops away. Ben recounts how easy it was to get drawn in, describing the normalization that happens when you spend enough time around people who treat cybercrime as routine. His moral alarm bells finally rang when he stumbled on a list of 100 stolen Spotify Premium accounts posted openly in a server — rather than join in, he emailed all 60-some account holders to warn them, a decision that set the direction of his life.
Bored during COVID lockdowns, teenager Benjamin Brundage started modding Minecraft and quickly fell into Discord servers where cybercrime was openly discussed. He saw a stolen list of 100 Spotify accounts and chose to warn the victims instead of joining the hackers.
As a high school senior, Ben Brundage found two major security vulnerabilities in Dutch government websites during an open bug-bounty program, earning only a t-shirt.
As a high school senior, Ben found two major security bugs in Dutch government websites during an open bug-bounty program. His reward: a black t-shirt reading 'Hacked the Dutch government, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.' It was a dopamine rush anyway.
