Agent Steal

Justin Tanner Peterson (July 28, 1960 Washington, D.C. – March 2010 Los Angeles, California) was an American hacker, concert promoter, sound engineer, private investigator and an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. While tasked with helping to catch other hackers and fugitives wanted by the FBI, he continued to commit serious crimes.

Justin Petersen, born on July 28, 1960 in Washington D.C., started hacking computers in 1978. In 1984, he moved to Los Angeles. It was there he found an affinity for Los Angeles night life, with the Sunset Strip being a major focal point. In 1989, Petersen, using the handle Agent Steal and the alias Eric Heinz that he had been living under since his departure from the East, cracked the computers of the Pacific Bell Telephone Company in California and used his access to intercept the telephone lines of several local FM radio stations. With this access, he and a couple of associates were able to ensure that they were the only callers who could get through during on-air contests, and thus the only winners. Although the associates remain officially unknown, strong rumors persist that Kevin Poulsen (aka Dark Dante), and Ronald Austin were involved. Their winnings included $50,000 in cash, several trips to Hawaii and two Porsches. Realizing he was being pursued by the FBI, Petersen moved to Texas, where he then hacked into a national credit reporting agency, ordered fraudulent credit cards using the information he found, and used them freely.

After receiving a tip, Petersen was arrested in Texas in 1991. In an FBI affidavit, Petersen admitted to physically and electronically conducting illegal telephone taps and breaking into Pacific Bell's COSMOS and other companies' computer systems to check telephone numbers and determine the location of telephone lines and circuits. A grand jury in Texas returned an eight-count indictment, accusing Petersen of assuming false identities, accessing a computer without authorization, possessing stolen account IDs and fraudulently obtaining and using credit cards. Petersen also faced several other charges pertaining to national security: one charge regarded his supposed compilation and documentation of U.S. Federal Government wire taps of persons currently under surveillance. Under a plea bargain the charge was dropped after a debriefing by unknown law enforcement entities (presumably the FBI or US Secret Service), according to Littman.

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