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On Guccifer, the hacker who revealed George W. Bush's secret bathroom art

On Guccifer, the hacker who revealed George W. Bush's secret bathroom art

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george w bush painting (smoking gun)
george w bush painting (smoking gun)

While Edward Snowden has earned both praise and criticism for his massive leak of NSA documents, hackers like Guccifer don't often concern themselves with such high-minded goals as digital privacy. Instead, he'd rather revel in leaking juicy tidbits from the lives of the most powerful. Adrien Chen, who had contact with Guccifer during his tenure at Gawker, looks back on the hacker's greatest leaks, including President Bush's private, bizarre bathroom art collection and Hillary Clinton's email exchanges after the Benghazi attack. Chen admits that there's something strikingly journalistic about Guccifer's antics. He writes:

Hacking, like journalism, can be about revelation—but a core motivation is often more self-interested: attention. Guccifer wanted to dominate the discussion, and he succeeded. He was extraordinarily media-savvy, cultivating relationships with outlets and seeding stories like a PR pro.

Indeed, Guccifer could be likened to Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, hosting a "fabulous, scandalous party" for the media, ever hungry for gossip. The only difference? The hacker, identified as Marcel Lazar Lehel, was arrested by Romanian police last week.