Inside the World’s Biggest Hacker Rickroll

In Cook County, Illinois, at 10:55 am on April 30, 2021, all the TV screens and classroom projectors began controlling themselves. The screens were turned off. The projectors that were already on automatically switched to the high definition version. There was a message that was displayed on the displays. The timer was counting down to zero.

The projector was turned off by the teacher using the remote, but it was not effective. The teacher told the students that the projector had been overtaken by them. The group thought it could be a message from the president. In Illinois, the scene was repeated across dozens of classrooms. There were hundreds of screens in classrooms and hallways. There was a system that had been taken over.

A senior on the verge of graduating was located in the corner of the classroom. The last of his custom code was executed correctly as he sat pouring over his laptop chatting with three other friends. The first notes of Rick Astley's song "Never Gonna Give You Up" were played as the clock struck zero.

The person who goes by the name WhiteHoodHacker tells WIRED that he was in the hallway and everyone was laughing. After taking over the schools' PA systems, Duong and his friends played the song one final time.

The Big Rick was a high school graduation prank that took months of planning to pull off. I was hesitant about doing the whole district.

The group broke into the school's IT systems, discovered a new vulnerability, wrote their own script, and secretly tested their system at night. Many of the techniques were illegal.

Minh Duong began hacking his school when he was 14. He says he didn't understand basic ethics or responsible disclosure and jumped at every chance to break something. At the hacker conference,Duong revealed new details about the incident. During his freshman year, using a computer in a cupboard next to the IT classroom, he started scanning the school's internal network and eventually laying the groundwork for the rickroll years later.

The 19-year-old says he was able to access internet-connected security cameras and post a picture of himself on his website. The issue was reported and access was shut down, and he was caught and told to stop scanning the school's network.