Robert Willis, also known as rej_ex, is an American hacker and comic book writer. He is known for his work with the Sakura Samurai white-hat hacking group, and his contributions to the Wiley Tribe of Hackers book series.[1][2] In 2015, he helped build a platform and strategy for news syndication for his client Natural News, a fake news website. The site was ultimately used to promote the candidacy of Donald Trump against Hillary Clinton across hundreds of sister websites; the pieces would reach over 30 million people a week prior to the 2016 election.[3][4][5]
Willis was born in Stamford, Connecticut and raised by his mother and her family, who had immigrated to the United States from Italy.[3]
Willis became interested in computers at a young age, and began working online with hacker groups. He later identified the movies Hackers and The Matrix as contributors to his interest in hacking.[2]
Willis has worked in offensive security and red teaming for the military,[6] later receiving a Texas Medal of Merit for his cybersecurity work.[7][verification needed] He was also employed for a time at Threatcare, a cyberattack simulation company.[8] As of 2020, Willis was a managing member of 1337, Inc., a defensive cybersecurity company based in Austin, Texas.[7] He is also a member of the Sakura Samurai hacking group.[1] Through his work with Sakura Samurai, Willis has been involved in discovering security issues affecting Indian governmental groups,[9] the Fermilab particle physics laboratory,[1] Ford,[10] and John Deere.[11]
In October 2021, Willis revealed in an Ars Technica profile that he was "Hacker X", a previously anonymous individual described by Theresa Payton in her 2020 book, Manipulated: Inside the Cyberwar to Hijack Elections and Distort the Truth.[3] Willis described how he had helped build a disinformation network and run a massive fake news operation for Natural News, a website known for anti-vax conspiracies and for promoting then presidential candidate Donald J. Trump.[5] From 2015–2017, Willis and Natural News helped promote the candidacy of Donald Trump, spread hoaxes, and published political propaganda.[3][4][5]
Willis’s first comic series was called Paraneon, which included three titles: The Hive Network, Neon Skyline, and Portals. The books were originally launched as a Kickstarter, eventually raising over 300% of the original funding goal.[12][13] In 2021, Willis obtained the trademark for Gold Key Comics.[14]
Willis was an activist in the Connecticut Tea Party movement starting in 2009,[15] and acted as the head of its 4th Congressional district campaign. He caused a rift internally after threatening to vote Republicans out of office.[16][17] Willis received the nomination from the Republican Party for State Representative in the 105th District of Connecticut in 2014.[18][17] In 2021, Willis told Ars Technica that he identifies as socially liberal and fiscally conservative.[3]