GREGORY D. EVANS▊
- ALIAS
- "WORLD'S NO 1 HACKER" — self-conferred, in capitals, on his own book cover FACT
- OPERATION
- LIGATT Security International · NationalCyberSecurity.com · Hi-Tech Crime Solutions (per his own promotional pitch [3])
- HABITAT
- Press releases, television bookings, college speaking circuits
- RECORD
- Pleaded guilty to conspiracy and wire fraud charges; Bureau of Prisons #13432-112 FACT
- STATUS
- STILL OPERATING — per the research file, and every year since
- DISPOSITION
- His subpoenas against online critics: quashed as "extremely troubling," Jan 2011 ADJUDICATED
How to Become the World’s No. 1 Hacker
The title of the book Gregory D. Evans authored and the credential he branded LIGATT Security around — announced in his own press release, and listed in his own site’s bibliography as “How to become one of the World’s No. 1 Hackers.” Security researchers (attrition.org, later CSO Online) found the book heavily plagiarized from other writers. His own announcement, 2010.
The specimen, observed 2001–2011 across press releases and daytime television, declared itself the World's No 1 Hacker. The taxonomists at attrition.org disagreed — at length, with percentages.
What you are about to witness is a study in self-taxonomy: an organism that names itself apex predator and then dares the field to check. Most species earn a place in the hierarchy by contest. This one skipped the contest and printed the title on a book jacket, in capital letters, where the field could not miss it.
The field checked. That is why the archive exists. Every event below carries its receipt. Both sides get the microphone.
the drama timeline
ACT I — THE SELF-CORONATION (2001–2009)
The display comes first. It always does. Watch how the plumage is assembled: a memoir, a title, a company with an all-caps slogan where the fieldwork should be.
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2001
The origin text
Attrition.org's dossier index opens with a review of Evans's memoir Memoirs of a Hi-Tech Hustler (Nov 2001) and, two months earlier, "outlandish claims of his new patent-pending product." The persona precedes the company.
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FEB 2002
The guilty plea
Evans pleads guilty to conspiracy and wire fraud charges, per attrition.org's criminal-history file. Bureau of Prisons register #13432-112. His own later press pitch supplies the coda: a judge ordered him to pay back nearly $10 million after he served his prison time.
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2000s
The rebrand
Out of prison, Evans re-emerges as CEO of LIGATT Security International and the self-styled "WORLD'S NO 1 HACKER." His promotional pitch, in his publicist's words: he "managed to successfully hack major companies like ATT, MCI and Sprint" and "made more than one million dollars a week in the late 90's." His claims, presented as his claims.
Note the plumage. Not "a hacker." Not even "a very good hacker." The World's No 1. In the wild, a display this loud is either backed by teeth or it is the entire animal.
ACT II — THE PEER REVIEW (2010)
In June 2010 the field arrives, carrying checklists. What follows is not a fight. It is an audit, and audits are conducted in percentages.
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JUN 2010
Attrition.org opens the file
Attrition.org publishes its analysis of How To Become The Worlds No. 1 Hacker: complete chapters cut-and-pasted from other authors without attribution. The Register's headline, as indexed in the dossier: "'World's No. 1 hacker' tome rocks security world: Plagiarism, racism, and fake Mitnickism alleged." The same month, attrition runs the certification checks — CISSP, CEH, CISA/CISM, CFE, PI license, teaching credentials — and files each under "Lies About."
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JUL 2010
The financial file and the first lawsuit
Attrition documents alleged stock manipulation involving thecyberwars.com — a "review" site attrition says Evans started while denying involvement. Two weeks later the EFF writes up LIGATT's attempt to silence its online critics with what the EFF calls an "unsubstantiated lawsuit."
The first recourse to law. Observe the sequence: audited in June, litigating by July. In this species the interval between challenge and courtroom is measured in weeks.
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OCT 2010
The bookings dry up
Attrition's index logs Evans "removed from many speaking engagements." The client-claims file — false claims about clients, questionable spending — is already open.
ACT III — THE COUNTERATTACK (2011)
Cornered organisms choose fight or flight. This one chose discovery.
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JAN 2011
The subpoenas die first
A judge quashes Evans's subpoenas targeting his online critics, calling them "extremely troubling" — The Register's report, as indexed in the attrition dossier. The court's rebuke lands before his main suit is even filed.
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FEB 2011
Everything, at once
February 3: LIGATT's company email is breached and published — a crime committed against him — and Security Generation runs "LIGATT CEO Gregory D Evans Hacked and Exposed." February 13: attrition alleges forged signatures on stock documents. February 14: CBS Atlanta airs its "Tough Questions" exposé. February 23: LIGATT fires back at CBS. February 25: Evans files suit against attrition.org and seven others.
A full behavioral repertoire in twenty-two days. The field marks its calendars.
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MAR 2011
99.3 percent
Attrition publishes its analysis of Evans's Spyware Reference & Study Guide: 99.3% plagiarized. Laptop Security Short & Simple had already scored 32% or more; the research file's tally across his catalog: five of eight books, up to 99.3%.
In this field a 99.3 is very nearly a perfect score. Few specimens achieve it. None have bragged about it, though one suspects this one considered it.
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JUL–AUG 2011
The industry closes the door
CSO Online's Bill Brenner publishes "LIGATT Security, Gregory Evans and the damage done," declining an offered interview: "the accusations and court rulings are too well documented to avoid." On the Full Disclosure mailing list, a thread titled "An enemy of the infosec community needs to be brought to justice" circulates — the community's own testimony, in the community's own register.
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EPILOGUE
Still operating
The research file's status column reads: still operating. The attrition dossier — one of the most extensive on the entire Charlatan List — remains online. The archive keeps the tape running.
both sides, on the record
The criminal record: guilty plea to conspiracy and wire fraud charges; Bureau of Prisons #13432-112; court-ordered restitution of nearly $10 million — the last figure supplied by his own publicist [1] [3].
The plagiarism file (attrition.org's analyses, theirs not ours): Spyware Reference & Study Guide 99.3%; Laptop Security Short & Simple 32%+; whole chapters of How To Become The Worlds No. 1 Hacker lifted without attribution; five of eight books affected per the research tally [1].
The adjudicated item: a judge quashed his subpoenas against online critics as "extremely troubling" [1] [3]. And attrition.org's verdict on the products: bloated wrappers around ping and nmap [3].
Evans's own account: a reformed ex-hacker who served his time and paid his court-ordered debt — the redemption arc is the industry's oldest credential. He maintains his expertise is real: successful hacks of AT&T, MCI, and Sprint, and a million dollars a week in the late '90s, per his promotional pitch [3].
His stated position on the campaign against him: that it was racially motivated targeting of a Black-owned security company — a charge he pressed publicly and repeatedly, per the items indexed in the attrition dossier and CSO's account [1] [3]. He fought back in the open: fired back at CBS Atlanta after its segment, and took his critics to court rather than the shadows.
Scope of the record: the plagiarism percentages are attrition.org's analyses, not court findings. The stock items are allegations, never adjudicated in the sources here. The published company emails were stolen — the breach was a crime against him, and provenance is worth stating even where it is not refutation. His conviction dates to 2002; the sentence was served.
YOU DECIDE
Scoped to the claims, never the man. The claim "World's No 1 Hacker" is self-conferred and rests entirely on its bearer's word — weigh it against a wire-fraud guilty plea that is fact, plagiarism percentages that are attrition.org's published analyses, and one adjudicated data point: subpoenas against critics, quashed as "extremely troubling."
Weigh the costly signals: attrition.org kept the dossier online through legal threats and a lawsuit naming it — it is still up. Evans's answer to a percentage was a subpoena.
The archive does not judge. The archive merely keeps the tape running.
evidence locker
PRIMARY RECORD
Attrition.org — Gregory D. Evans charlatan dossier FACT — the primary archive: dated index of criminal-history, plagiarism, financial, and legal items, 2001–2011. One of the Charlatan List's most extensive files.
attrition.org/errata/charlatan/gregory_evans/
PRESS & WATCHDOG
CSO Online — "LIGATT Security, Gregory Evans and the damage done" (Jul 2011) ATTRIBUTED — reproduces the attrition index verbatim and Evans's own PR pitch in full.
csoonline.com/article/2134794/… Security Generation — "LIGATT CEO Gregory D Evans Hacked and Exposed" (Feb 2011) ATTRIBUTED — archived snapshot; the original host now returns an SSL error.
web.archive.org/web/20230925131649/…
THE COMMUNITY & THE DISCOURSE
Full Disclosure — "An enemy of the infosec community needs to be brought to justice" (Aug 2011) TESTIMONY — the community's own register, contemporaneous and unedited.
seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2011/Aug/52
The standard. Everything above is sourced to the attrition.org documentary archive, named press reporting, and the subject's own promotional material. Facts are stated as facts; accusations are stated as accusations and wear their accuser. The plagiarism percentages belong to attrition.org's published analyses, not to a court. The defense is presented at full strength, including what the record does not show. No motive is asserted, no private character diagnosed. The burden of proof is on us, not the subject. If it couldn't survive a defamation challenge, it wouldn't be on this page.