They are hooded cyber criminals in dark basements trying to crack your bank account PIN. They are insidious Russians stealing elections from offshore IP addresses. These are typically how we think of hackers, but Ryan Montgomery, also dubbed 0day, is different. He is what’s called a white hat hacker, or ethical hacker.
The 29-year-old cyber prodigy from Pennsylvania went from causing mischief online to helping authorities dismantle child predator networks. His stepping out from the shadows into the light was spurred on by a text message he received from a distressed friend in 2020; but his journey into cyberspace began much earlier. Montgomery began hacking almost in the womb: in the days of Napster and AOL, at age 11.
