Malicious Life Podcast: Inside Operation Flyhook Part 1 Transcript

Do you ever wonder how different you’d be today if you grew up under a different set of circumstances?

Like, I can imagine, maybe, that I wasn’t born in Israel. So I might not have joined the Navy, which became so integral to the skill set I developed and the kind of man I am today. And, you know, I’m obsessed with history, but maybe I wouldn’t be so into it had I grown up in a less historically significant part of the world. I could’ve gone into a different line of work. Or what if, in another life, I grew up rich, and didn’t have to work at all? Then I could spend all my days doing what I really want to do…

INTRO TO ALEXEY
The year is 1999.

The internet is now in homes around the United States, and the world. Yahoo, Ebay, Amazon–what were just startups a few years earlier are now the hottest companies in the world. Really, any half-baked company with a “.com” at the end is running rampant in the stock market, even if all they do is sell toys or pet food. Whole new industries are popping up, and millions of jobs along with them. Everybody wants in.

Alexey Ivanov is exactly the kind of person to benefit from the boom because, when it comes to coding, he’s little short of prolific. According to his CV, Alexey’s either good or proficient in HTML, Javascript, SQL, C, C++, Assembler, good or excellent with MS-DOS, Linux, Solaris, every version of Windows, with a comprehensive understanding of LAN, WAN, DNS, TCP/IP FTP, DNS, equally proficient with IBM, Sun Microsystems, HP and Cisco hardware. And that’s just a sampling from a much longer list–to read out his entire CV now would take too long.

The point here is that Alexey knew his stuff. He could’ve qualified for a job at any internet company in the world. But Alexey Ivanov was born into a different set of circumstances than you and I. He was a lot like us in other ways–bright, talented, technical–but, instead of being from America, or Germany, or Japan, Alexey was born in Russia. And not even Moscow, or St. Petersburg, but…

“[Ray] from a little place called Chelyabinsk which is kind of in the middle of nowhere in…