Professional hacker has made more than $2 million by exploiting Twitter, Uber and US government
Poppy Bilderbeck
Featured Image Credit: @thedawgyg/Twitter/boonchai wedmakawand/Getty
Hacker Tommy DeVoss 'dawgyg' has opened up about making $2 million by exploiting the weaknesses in some major companies' computer systems.
DeVoss was nine years old when he first got into hacking and he certainly didn't expect to end up where he is now.
The 39-year-old hacker was sent to prison multiple times for illegally hacking into systems belonging to all types of major companies - even US military computers - but he later decided to jump ship and work on the right side of the law.
And it's certainly worked in his favour, leading him to make a whopping $2 million.
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After his release from his final stint in prison, DeVoss discovered 'bug bounties' - the opportunity to get paid to legally exploit vulnerabilities in big companies' computer systems.
He found adverts online from companies as notable as Google and also found 'a bug bounty program on HackerOne'.
HackerOne is a US-based firm that workers with ethical hackers to help expose vulnerabilities in computer systems which companies can then work to repair, to reduce the likelihood of future security breaches.
DeVoss spent 10-20 hours every month on the program and hacked into systems becoming to companies as huge as Yahoo, Uber and even the US government.
He tells the Mail Online: "I started hacking Yahoo - they gave me my first bounty in March of 2016, and then they just went from there.
"There's a decent number of us now that are making a living out of this, but the vast majority are not."
And that's because more and more hackers are looking to get into more ethical hacking, so there's more competition.
DeVoss warns: "If you decide to do this, you cannot be somebody that doesn't take failure well.
"Bug bounty hunters fail 999,999 times for every time that they're successful.
"So you have to be okay with the fact that most of what you do is gonna end up being unpaid."
However, you shouldn't let that put you off. DeVoss notes you may 'fail a lot', but will be 'constantly learning' how to improve your technological skills.
And he adds you can 'make really good money from legally hacking' you just have to stick at it.
If his $2 million from his HackerOne days are anything to go by then that should be all the proof you need.
Tommy now works as a Staff Security Engineer for software company Braze.