Inside the Courthouse Break-In Spree That Landed Two White-Hat Hackers in Jail

The story of the Coalfire case has come to represent a kind of warning about the precarious position of penetration testers in the eyes of the law.

“The nerve this hit in the community is this: The law can be on your side. The contract can be on your side. But if the politics are not on your side, you can be played as a pawn.”

Some in the security industry have treated Coalfire’s Iowa imbroglio as a “teachable moment,” as penetration tester Deviant Ollam puts it.

When he was sitting in jail early on the morning of September 11, though, he says a thought occurred to him that he’s turned over in his mind ever since: “What if I wasn’t white?”

Andy Greenberg