Rare unmasked Anonymous hacker has surprising answer when asked what he thinks is the biggest threat to mankind

A rare unmasked Anonymous hacker has a surprising answer when asked what he thinks is the biggest threat to mankind.

The thing he believes is the largest threat to humanity might shock you.

Anonymous hackers are usually just that - anonymous - but one member has been unmasked.

Anonymous hackers are known for hiding their identity (Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Christopher McKinlay sat down with a former FBI agent, Michael Panico, to talk about hacking and cybersecurity with podcast host Kjersti Flaa.

Both McKinlay and Panico had previously offered their expertise for the 2015 film Blackhat, starring Chris Hemsworth.

Most famously, McKinlay is known for having hacked into the dating website OkCupid in order to make himself the most popular male figure in LA, which is how he met his then-fiancée.

He was also involved with Anonymous for a number of years - an activist group of hackers who are known for performing cyber attacks on other organizations.

During the episode, Flaa asked McKinlay: “So who do you think is the biggest threat [to mankind] right now?”

McKinlay doesn't skip a beat in his firm and definitive answer.

“I think the biggest threat is the FBI, the NSA and their counterparts in foreign governments,” he begins, seemingly unphased by the former FBI agent sitting by his side.

“I mean, these are all essentially companies that try to justify their budgets in various ways, often by scare-mongering with virtual impunity.

“We’ll launch exactly the same kinds of assault and they'll lock people up for decades.”

Flaa laughs at his deadpan and honest response as Panico awkwardly responds: “Well I obviously have nothing to do with that.

The hacker shared what he thought was the biggest threat to humanity (YouTube/@Flaawsometalk)

“I don’t think the government is the worst entity in the world. I mean there's plenty of criminals out there and there are plenty of unscrupulous people out there, who are launching attacks, real attacks that we see all the time,” he argues.

“And you know, understandably security and privacy are opposite ends of the same spectrum, right, so there's always going to be a democracy, I would hope, a healthy debate between what the governments do to protect us, and, you know, the rights of citizens.”

McKinlay seems amused by the awkwardness of the exchange and responds: “Yeah, and you can find that debate right here.”

To which Flaa laughs and responds: “Let's start the debate!”

The group then goes on to discuss ‘how can we protect ourselves from these things happening’.

McKinlay responds: “Ground zero is to use strong passwords, long passwords, different passwords for every site.

“More generally I think it's important that all of us as consumers demand security as a priority to companies that we do business with,” he continues.

“Too much, the MO, breaches happen and we'll put out the fires and we'll keep going, but we don't make it a forward priority.”

Panico agrees: “Yeah, that's true I think we should vote with our dollars with our participation, so when certain entities that we deal with are proven to not have good security, we should probably move to ones that do have good security and incentivise institutions, and organizations and companies to provide security for their customers.”