MySpace co-founder Tom “Lord Flathead” Anderson: 80s teenage hacker?

Posted by Adam Stanhope in Blog & Internet, Media on August 30, 2008 at 2:29 pm


Tom Anderson

MySpace co-founder Tom Anderson isn’t just everybody’s “friend.” He is also a 1980s teenage “WarGames” style computer hacker!
TechCrunch:
In 1985, when he was fourteen and in high school in Escondido, California, Anderson was subject to one of the largest FBI raids in California history after hacking into a Chase Manhattan Bank computer system and subsequently showing his friends how to do it. He was never arrested because he was a minor, but the FBI confiscated all of his computer equipment and some newspaper accounts of the incident stated incorrectly (see image below from a 1986 LA Times story) that he was “convicted in federal court of computer hacking and placed on probation” (the statements were corrected in subsequent articles). Anderson used the hacker name “Lord Flathead.”

What a great story - Matthew Broderick, eat your heart out! [TechCrunch]


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COMMENT

10 comments to "MySpace co-founder Tom “Lord Flathead” Anderson: 80s teenage hacker?"

  1. Peeves
    August 30th, 2008 at 8:16 pm

    haha now he’s hacked his way into every teenager’s computer with the same gross 90’s style.

  2. frigga
    August 30th, 2008 at 8:54 pm

    If he was 14 in 1985, there is no way he was 32 in 2007.

  3. Adam Stanhope
    August 30th, 2008 at 9:13 pm

    That’s covered in the article… Read it.

  4. infrared.eye
    August 31st, 2008 at 3:17 am

    Anyone else notice that Thomas Anderson is Keanu Reeves’ name in The Matrix?

  5. lol
    August 31st, 2008 at 6:20 am

    lucky for U Peeves…I hadn’t had breakfast yet

    but that is a scary thought though LOL

  6. MoonCake
    August 31st, 2008 at 9:22 am

    well, now he can just buy his way out of trouble thanks to rupert murdock.

  7. Courtney
    September 3rd, 2008 at 12:22 pm

    Sounds like the movie HACKERS, was that loosely based on Tom? Very interesting.

  8. lord pinhead
    September 15th, 2008 at 1:54 pm

    amen brother amen

  9. sohpey &steph
    December 12th, 2008 at 7:39 am

    hiiiii steph &sophey here :) xxxx

  10. Kaine
    June 16th, 2009 at 12:00 am

    myspace.com/kayomarbilus - - - myspace.com/kayomarbilus The Internet has been buzzing with rumors that MySpace co-founder Tom Anderson died in a car accident. Rest assured, he’s still your friend on MySpace and he’s still very much alive.

    The rumor appears to have been started via text messages, but it quickly spread to the sketchier sides of the Internet, with people running to places like Yahoo Answers. One typical question goes:
    Did tom anderson of myspace die in a car crash?
    Followed by a string of spectacularly unhelpful responses, including:
    ummm….no. if he died, who would run myspace? it would eventually be shut down if he died, unless someone he really trusted run it for him..

    no if he did that would not be good for tila tequila lol

    I have not heard about that. It would certainly be sad if it is true.

    that is what someone just texted me !

    OMG i GOT DAT TXT!! LOL
    DiID HE??
    i DNT THiiNK SO

    ha, i already got this message like 20 times already lol.
    i dont think he died, they are just rumors like the one about lil waynes daughter.
    ppl just get bored and write a text message and just ask everybody to forward it.
    its that easy.
    for example, i can create a text message right now saying that obama died, and i ask everybody to forward it and everybody is going.
    myspace.com/kayomarbilus


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