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Gavin Orsay aka HEROnymous Bot is a computer hacker, formerly working for the FBI and enlisted to entrap then-journalist Lucas Goodwin. Gavin used Agent Nathan Green's sting to gain access to the AT&T database, allowing him to extort both his handler and Doug Stamper.

He had also owned a female guinea pig named Cashew.

Biography[]

Orsay, a prominent hacktivist, got caught during one of his breaches. Under threat of a severe sentence, he took the FBI's collaboration offer — helping them entrap lawbreakers, mostly child pornographers, and botnet masters, via cyberspace-- in return for avoiding prison. Orsay would prove a valuable asset for the FBI, which controls him via constant surveillance of his condo apartment and communicates with him through a single agent. Initially, that contact was Agent Carter, working directly under agent Nathan Green.

Season 2[]

Interaction with Lucas Goodwin[]

After learning about the Tor browser and Deep Web from a Herald colleague while editing his piece on Chinese cyber attacks, journalist Lucas Goodwin posted a message on a Deep Web forum, seeking help hacking into AT&T's server in order to retrieve phone records that would confirm VP Frank Underwood's involvement in the death of Zoe Barnes. The post was seen by an FBI analyst who alerted his superior, FBI executive liaison Nathan Green who in turn revealed that information during February 2014 in person to his old friend Doug Stamper, VP Underwood's Chief of Staff. Despite Green claiming Deep Web messages are impossible to trace all the while dismissing the post as most likely the work of a 'lone wolf', Stamper still insisted on having the issue taken care of by baiting the poster into committing a criminal act and putting him away for cyber terrorism. Green protested mildly, seeing the bait operation as needless exposure, before quickly agreeing to go through with it after getting Stamper's assurances of a promotion to the FBI director post after the job is done.

Shortly afterward, in response to his Deep Web post, Goodwin got contacted via having his laptop taken over by a man calling himself HEROnymous Bot, telling the journalist he can get him what he wants. They arranged a meeting of sorts at a diner where Goodwin showed up physically while HEROnymous had a courier deliver an iPad to the journalist so that they can communicate. Speaking to him through a voice scrambling and animation software, HEROnymous further requested Goodwin place his finger against the screen so that he can be fingerprinted and to obtain access codes to the Herald's online network, both of which Goodwin agreed to unwittingly.

After getting the code to Herald's intranet from Goodwin who had to trick the paper's IT guy in order to obtain it, HEROnymous gave Goodwin his address and the two met face to face for the first time on February 13, 2014, the night of President Walker's State of the Union address. Asked by Goodwin about the reasons behind requesting access codes to the Herald network, Orsay revealed he had already hacked into it way before getting the codes from Goodwin, only using the task as a test of Goodwin's seriousness about the entire operation.

Over the following weeks, Orsay (who presented himself to Goodwin as a white hat company operator) sold Goodwin on the idea that in order for the phone records to be retrieved, he needs to insert a micro thumb drive containing Orsay's code into an AT&T server during a scheduled tour of their data center. Shortly thereafter, during yet another session at Orsay's condo during which the hacker wanted to walk Goodwin through every line of code he intended to write — a session that Goodwin decided to cut short due to work obligations resulting from the breaking story of yet another anthrax scare that forced a temporary Capitol Hill quarantine — Orsay somewhat melodramatically explained Goodwin the importance of details in an endeavor such as this one, punctuating his point by slapping Goodwin's face, all of which got somewhat shell-shocked Goodwin to stay.

The slap got Orsay a bit of a reprimand from Agent Nathan Green (who from this point on became his point of contact at the FBI instead of Agent Carter) telling Orsay he shouldn't be doing that in the future so as to not scare away the target. Orsay expressed dismay that the FBI was going after Goodwin, calling him "a small time guy who couldn't write a line of code to save his life". Further talking during their introductory meeting in Green's car at an empty Lowe's parking lot, Green answered Orsay's somewhat desperate question about how much longer FBI intends to keep doing this by reminding him that despite all his good work if he was ever to stop being productive no lawyer could save him and that he still hasn't given up his hacktivist friends, at which point a dejected Orsay said he couldn't do that and left the car.

Season 3[]

Employment at the FBI[]

In exchange for not being prosecuted, Orsay is employed in the FBI Cyber Crime division. His former handler and now Deputy Director Nathan Green still endeavours to have him arrested; attempting to spook him by hunting down Gavin's hacktivist colleagues to whom he passed the AT&T data.

Finding Rachel Posner[]

Now working for the FBI, Orsay is contacted by Doug Stamper who needs help finding Rachel Posner. Orsay agrees to help him, as long as the ban on his passport is lifted. Orsay first lies to Stamper, telling him Posner is dead, but once he receives his passport and has fled the country he admits he has lied. Now safe in Venezuela, Orsay tells Stamper that he will reveal Posner's location if he gets his friend out of jail. Angry that Orsay lied to him, Stamper flies down to Caracas and attacks Orsay in Puerto La Cruz (a port city located at the coast of Venezuela), forcing him to give up Posner's exact location. Stamper also destroys Orsay's laptop, effectively cutting him off from the outside world.

Personality[]

Despite being almost controlled by the FBI, Orsay is a prominent and proud member of the hacktivist community. He prides himself in not snitching on his hacker friends despite continual pressure to do so.

A man of refined taste, Orsay is sharp dresser whose online nickname HEROnymous Bot is an homage to Hieronymus Bosch, a 15th-century Dutch painter. The software Orsay wrote to make first verbal contact with Lucas Goodwin featured an animated avatar of the Prince of Hell, a creature from Bosch's famous triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights.

Behind the Scenes[]

Appearances[]

Season 2
"Chapter 14" "Chapter 15" "Chapter 16" "Chapter 17" "Chapter 18"
"Chapter 19" "Chapter 20" "Chapter 21" "Chapter 22" "Chapter 23"
"Chapter 24" "Chapter 25" "Chapter 26"
Season 3
"Chapter 27" "Chapter 28" "Chapter 29" "Chapter 30" "Chapter 31"
"Chapter 32" "Chapter 33" "Chapter 34" "Chapter 35" "Chapter 36"
"Chapter 37" "Chapter 38" "Chapter 39"
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