Ochoa breaking into police databases proved incredibly easy. "It would take less than an hour and a half for me to break into the site, and the hardest part was just waiting for the data to download."
One day he went too far, however, hacking into an FBI criminal database that for some unknown reason had been linked to the website for the Alabama Department of Public Safety, which he had previously infiltrated.
Tempted by the challenge, Ochoa replaced the database with what had by then become his trademark - a photo of a woman in a bikini with the words "PwNd by w0rmer & CabinCr3w - <3 u B*Tch's."
The FBI traced the photo back to her exact coordinates, discovered her identity, and found her Facebook page which proudly declared she was "Engaged to Higinio Ochoa."
When Ochoa woke up one day to the loud banging of FBI agents at his door, he knew it was over. He spent 18 months in prison and was due to be released in September 2014 when a judge informed him that the terms of his parole had been modified:
If he so much as touched an Internet-connected device, he would go straight back to jail.
Avoiding the Internet in 2015 would be a formidable challenge for anyone, let alone someone who makes their living as a computer programmer. Ochoa still works with computers, writing code from home, but his server is cut off from the world wide web. To get a code to his boss, he has to have it printed out at a local printing center and sent via snail mail to his office.
Ordinary tasks like paying bills have become his wife Kylie's responsibility, and if Ochoa wants to watch Netflix, Kylie has to access the website and leave it running on "auto-play" so that he can continue watching without ever having to press "play."
“My wife and son have taken the place of the internet for me,” he told Reply All. To learn more about the case and Ochoa’s life without the internet, listen to the episode in full on the podcast’s website.
