They say life begins at 40. As I hit this milestone today, looking back at a career dedicated to high-tech solutions, cybersecurity, and pentesting, I realized that to truly understand defense, you have to understand the mind of the offender.
And I know that mind well. Because at 15 years old, I was the offender.
👦The Age of Innocence (and MSN Messenger)
The year was 2001. The internet was a wilder, slower, and much less secure place. I was a curious kid—awkward, innocent, and obsessed with how things worked.
There was a woman—an older acquaintance on her 40s—who had developed an unusual interest in me. It was confusing, and beyond my ability to fully process. I was too young and too "nerdy" to fully process that kind of attention, but I knew it was intense. This dynamic bled into the digital world, too. She would message me often on MSN Messenger, the notifications popping up time to time. She’d obsess over my appearance, typing out compliments that made my face burn, and even strangely offering to buy me colored contact lenses to "enhance" my look.
In hindsight, the dynamic was inappropriate, and at the time, I was simply overwhelmed. I eventually told my mother, who immediately stepped in to stop the contact.
But I didn't delete her from my contact list. Instead, my teenage curiosity overtook my empathy. I decided to turn the situation into a learning opportunity.
🧪 The Lab Rat and the "Oh Sh*t" Moment 😱
I didn't know the term "Remote Access Trojan" (RAT) back then, but I found a piece of software called Sub7. For those too young to remember, Sub7 was a legendary hacking tool that allowed you to control another computer remotely.
I sent her a file. She opened it. And just like that, I owned her machine.
At first, it was a game 🎮. I opened her CD-ROM drive remotely. I watched her mouse cursor panic as I moved it for her. It felt like magic. It felt like power.
Then, I clicked the button to activate her webcam.
Suddenly, the game ended. I was looking at a real person, in her private space, completely unaware that she was being watched by a 15-year-old kid miles away in the barrio. That was my "Oh Sh*t" moment. The realization of the violation hit me hard. I panicked, disconnected, and never touched her computer again or talked about it, "AT ALL". That moment became the foundation of my ethical compass. It was the first time I understood the real-world consequences of digital actions.
But that fear didn't kill my curiosity; it refined it.
🎩 The Evolution of a White Hat
That incident opened a door in my mind that never closed. I realized that the digital world was fragile, held together by code that could be bent or broken if you knew where to push.
I was always a bit ahead of the curve—I skipped kindergarten and graduated high school at just 16. During those years, I found my tribe: a set of twins and two other friends. We had been exchanging hacking tools, game cheat codes and learning from each other since middle school, pushing each other to see what was possible until we went our separate ways after graduation.
📡 The Phantom of the ISP
Throughout high school, specifically around the release of Windows XP, I took on the internet providers themselves. In the age of dial-up, when access was a luxury, I discovered a flaw in a major ISP's system. I crafted a fake ID and password, and through a system glitch I can't even fully explain today, it attached to a valid, open account. For years, until I turned 16, I had completely free internet access—a ghost in the machine surfing on bandwidth I hadn't paid for.
I didn't stop there. Around the same time, I built a six-foot satellite dish in my mother’s backyard—without her having any idea what kind of RF experiments I was running, for her, I was been just the curious tech-nerd as usual while I performed numerous tweaks, adjustments, and trial-and-error with encryption and positioning, I learned the fundamentals of wireless interception before the term was widely understood.
👮♂️ When the Police Came Knocking
Years later, I founded Rios Computer Designs, and the tables turned completely. My reputation for breaking into systems and data recovery processes had reached the ears of local authorities. I had uniformed law enforcement officers walking into my store—not to arrest me, but to hire me.
They needed access to password-protected devices and files for their investigations. It was a surreal moment: the kid who used to hack dial-up was now the expert the police relied on to crack digital locks. I don't even know if the legality was fully ironed out back then, but having officers rely on my skills was the ultimate validation.
🛡️ Why This Matters to You Today
I am sharing this story on RamonRios.net not to brag about juvenile delinquency, but to drive home a critical point for my clients and readers:
You do not know who your real attacker is.
When we think of hackers, we think of organized crime syndicates in far-off countries or faceless government agencies. And often, that's true. But sometimes, the attacker is just a curious kid next door testing a script. Sometimes, it's someone holding a position of trust at your local school.
- 🔌 Are they talking over your IoT devices right now?
- 📷 Are they watching through a camera you thought was off?
- 🛜 Are they stealing your WIFI sharing resources with your personal devices?
- 🔐 Is your password really protecting you, or is it just a minor speed bump for someone with enough curiosity?
⚔️ Turning Darkness into Defense
I spent my youth breaking through walls. I have spent my adulthood building better ones.
The skills I polished in those grey areas—understanding how systems break, how encryption fails, and how human psychology can be exploited—are the exact skills I now use to protect my clients. I know where the holes are because I used to crawl through them.
My work went beyond passive defense. I became a Scambaiter 🎣, logging hundreds of hours hunting the hunters. I tracked down active hackers, found their origins, and dismantled their operations. I have taken down fake websites, crashed their illegal CRMs, and even obliterated the phone systems they used to prey on victims.
🧰 The Modern Arsenal
Today, the tools are different. We don't rely on teenage curiosity; we test with top professional gear that mirrors the real-world threat landscape. My arsenal includes:
- 🐧 Kali Linux
- 🐬 Flipper Zero
- 🍍 WiFi Pineapple (Mark VII)
- 🦆 USB Rubber Ducky
- 📡 ALFA Network Adapters (AWUS036ACM)
I am also looking ahead at the next frontier: 🤖 AI Vulnerability. Actively studying Adversarial AI, Prompt Injection, and Data Poisoning. Why? Because the next generation of attacks won't just target your firewall; they will target the artificial intelligence making decisions for your business.
Today, at 40, my passion is completely devoted to High Tech and Advanced Solutions. I use my background to help others secure their digital lives, providing cybersecurity and pentesting that actually works against real-world threats.
The 15-year-old me wanted to see what he could get away with. The 40-year-old me wants to ensure you never have to worry about people like him.
Stay curious, stay secure.
Need a security audit or high-tech solution? Contact me at RamonRios.net/@tito.
🌴The Invisible Adversary