I think Jesse is doing something similar to Evan Ratliff of Wired. He's probably doing some research for a book or presentation based on web identities.

Just look at all the talks he gives about the internet on this youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7taUhf_ROU

He also have a very large web presence and searches I would do of him didn't yield anything about his break in of the university's computer.

It was only with "textfiles.com" information was I able to find anything.

For me, it is highly suspicious that he would give up this critical piece of information, but given the nature of his work, it seemed like he really wanted to see if people could find out who he was.

He's also a regular commentator on CBC as a technology analyst:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Jesse+Hirsh+CBC

I think Jesse is trying do a similar experiment to what Evan Ratliff did for Wired Magazine. He's probably doing research for a book or a presentation based on personal identities on the internet.

Just look at all the talks he gives about the internet on this youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7taUhf_ROU

He also has a very large web presence and searches on Google for him never yielded anything about him breaking into the computer system.

It was only with the critical piece of information about "textfiles.com" was I able to find anything on Google about his past.

For me, this is a little bit too convenient and highly suspicious based on the type of work he is involved with, especially as a tech commentator on the radio in Canada.

I was the one that posted it originally as anonymous, then I realized it wasn't getting any views because it was sinking to the bottom so I created a throwaway account and posted it again.

Here is the offending file on textfiles.com:

I found it by doing a search on google for "site:textfiles.com university computer system" and it came up as the first match

The Anarchives

In early march of 1995 I was arrested for "Unauthorized Use Of A Computer". (About 15 years ago)

I was being accused of breaking into the computer systems at the University Of Toronto for the purpose of publishing "Anarchist newsletters".

---------------

Doing a little bit more research shows that Jesse Hirsh is also a contributor to Slash Code:

http://www.slashcode.com/docs/AUTHORS