He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux • Hacker News Board

Re: He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux

#81

Post by viral_krieger » Thu, Apr 14, 2016, 8:42 PM UTC

I wonder why he was so willing to talk.

Re: He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux

#82

Post by bronz » Thu, Apr 14, 2016, 8:57 PM UTC

I am fascinated by TruCrypt and Bitcoin -- they had a very big impact on the world but their authors are completely unknown. Are there any other instances of things like that?

Re: He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux

#83

Post by brotherjerky » Thu, Apr 14, 2016, 8:59 PM UTC

karambahh wrote: post #76

c6bb950be wrote: post #71

This is a very interesting story

Edited to protect parent's privacy

I assume the original comment you wrote was edited, because this reply makes no sense otherwise.

Re: He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux

#84

Post by drjesusphd » Thu, Apr 14, 2016, 9:00 PM UTC

stcredzero wrote: post #47

ben_jones wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno. My personal opinion is that humans to some extent are innately good, and that it's the broken ones who turn to crime. Furthermore it's the EXTREMELY broken ones that become the crime lords etc. and those people often have massive flaws in their character such as the arrogance you described. Basically I don't think he could've ever accomplished what he did if he wasn't arrogant and wreckless to his core.

My personal opinion is that humans to some extent are innately good I agree. it's the EXTREMELY broken ones that become the crime lords etc. and those people often have massive flaws in their character such as the arrogance you described. If you examine crime lords and their activities and morality, then compare them with world leaders from before 1800, then you will find that the behavior they exhibit is fairly comm…

Why do you think world leaders before 1800 are significanly different than the ones since?

Re: He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux

#85

Post by danso » Thu, Apr 14, 2016, 9:16 PM UTC

I'm assuming that this submission's headline differs from the original ("He Got Greedy") to make it more useful for HN readers...but I wish it were how other reputable news sites, such as The Washington Post, constructed their linkbaity headlines: `the-short-answer: the linkbait phrase`

As a reader, it makes me no-less interested in the content.

Re: He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux

#86

Post by ljf » Thu, Apr 14, 2016, 9:33 PM UTC

viral_krieger wrote: post #81

I wonder why he was so willing to talk.

So that he couldn't be prosecuted for the other crimes he committed. Once he admitted to this main crime they knew about, they said they wouldn't charge him with further crimes.

Re: He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux

#87

Post by tlack » Thu, Apr 14, 2016, 9:46 PM UTC

bronz wrote: post #82

I am fascinated by TruCrypt and Bitcoin -- they had a very big impact on the world but their authors are completely unknown. Are there any other instances of things like that?

I'm collecting examples of situations like that. If you'd like to discuss in depth, please send me an email - it's in my profile.

Re: He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux

#88

Post by dredmorbius » Thu, Apr 14, 2016, 10:30 PM UTC

danso wrote: post #85

I'm assuming that this submission's headline differs from the original ("He Got Greedy") to make it more useful for HN readers...but I wish it were how other reputable news sites, such as The Washington Post, constructed their linkbaity headlines: `the-short-answer: the linkbait phrase` As a reader, it makes me no-less interested in the content.

If your story's so weak that disclosing basic who / what / where information in the headline kills its value, you don't have a story.

Drives me nuts.

https://plus.google.com/104092656004159577193/posts/7juQbQ5B...

Re: He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux

#89

Post by alexandrerond » Thu, Apr 14, 2016, 10:48 PM UTC

roel_v wrote: post #36

fweespee_ch wrote: post #23

> “He got greedy,” Jody continued. “He probably could have closed up shop in 2006 or 2007, been a rich millionaire, and never have been investigated at all.” This does seem to be a common thread with highly skilled and intelligent criminals. Their pride convinces them they can keep going when the truth is it is time to pull the ripcord years before they got caught and walk away with all the wealth a person would ever…

It's the common thread among those that get caught . What's to say how many there are that do retire as millionaires before getting caught?

And those who don't retire and don't get caught too. Tbh, looking at the how long he lasted heading a global organization and his exploits, it seems not too unlikely that others can just pull it off.

Re: He Got Greedy: How the U.S. Government Hunted Encryption Programmer Paul Le Roux

#90

Post by noir_lord » Thu, Apr 14, 2016, 10:49 PM UTC

nickbauman wrote: post #39

aws_ls wrote: post #35

"In the early days of RX Limited, employees purchased individual web domains at public sellers like GoDaddy. Later, RX Limited spawned its own domain-selling company, ABSystems—the equivalent of opening a printing press for web addresses. But instead of selling those addresses to others, ABSystems generated them by the thousands, virtually for free, exclusively for RX Limited." This guy knew how to scale! Started/bou…

I real-life Breaking Bad story.

Would make a hell of a film, they'd inevitably screw up the technical accuracy on the computer side unless we could get the Mr Robot director on-board.