A 17-year-old hacker, who claims responsibility for the attacks on SFR and the agency that produces identity documents, recounts the double life he led before his confession

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A few days ago, a 17-year-old teenager admitted to his stunned father that he had participated in several large-scale cyberattacks. In the process, the pirate spontaneously reported himself to the gendarmerie. He told everything. And for the first time, he agreed to be filmed by our cameras.

We had been in contact with “NormalLeVrai” for months. This hacker claimed responsibility for the resounding attack by ANTS, the agency responsible for all our identity documents, but also that of SFR. After numerous discussions, “NormalLeVrai” ended up meeting us at his father’s house in the south of France. When his son admitted to him how he spent his free time, he said he was taken aback, as he confided: "I knew he was talented, but not to that point. The stupidity is done. Now, take responsibility."

For this offense, he risks 7 years in prison and a fine of 300,000 euros. "He had to go to high school for everything related to computer security. Except that he dropped out of school in 9th grade. The grades went down. So, he turned to something else," explains the hacker's father. His son became an apprentice in construction and taught himself computers on the Internet. When our journalist asked him what his typical day was, the young man replied: "I got up at 6:30 a.m., I did my day's work like everyone else and then in the evening afterward I came home and spent hours on the computer. It's like a drug actually. You don't realize it, but at first it's a little, and then it becomes addictive."

A teenager who amassed 150,000 euros in cryptocurrency

After the arrest of one of his accomplices, “NormalLeVrai” preferred to take the lead and went to the gendarmerie a few days ago. Placed in police custody, he was then escorted home for a search. The gendarmes seized everything, he says: “I had a box with computer equipment. They were able to find USB keys, external hard drives.” All he has left are unusable screens.

By reselling the stolen data, this teenager says he amassed up to 150,000 euros in cryptocurrency: "I thought once, I had earned 7,000 euros in one day and the next day, I had to go back to work, getting up so early in the morning, and we said to ourselves, 'I'm getting up to go to work on the construction site'."

Easy money that would almost make him forget the consequences of his actions: the hacking of the data of 12 million French people. Our journalist questions him: "Behind these millions of ANTS data, there are people. What does that represent for you, exactly?"

By pleading adolescent stupidity, this young hacker wants to prove his good faith, because he hopes to work in cybersecurity later. Will the Paris prosecutor's office be sensitive to his arguments? He did not wish to comment on the matter.