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How police found Twitter user accused of sending seizure-triggering GIF

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Re: How police found Twitter user accused of sending seizure-triggering GIF

#21

Post by danso »

defen wrote: post #19
danso wrote: post #8

Dumb question, but what is the meaning of AT&T "toll records" used to link the user to an iPhone 6? > "AT&T responded and a review of the subscriber information showed the telephone number was associated with a Tracfone prepaid account with no subscriber information. However, a review of the AT&T toll records showed an associated Apple iPhone 6A Model 1586" That is, if you are a Tracfone user and Tracfone uses AT&T t…

So the lesson is if you are trying to murder people over the internet, don't plug your anonymous sim card into your iphone which is tied to your identity?

Is that the lesson? I would've guessed the lesson is to not try to murder people over the Internet.

Makes sense why AT&T was asked for data. I'm interested in why Tracfone wasn't. But I guess if it's enough to have a phone number and suspicion that it belongs to an iPhone, that's enough to send a search warrant to Apple. Given the popularity of the iPhone, I wonder if law enforcement has the option of querying Apple to see if an Apple account is tied to a number and save them the work of sending a search warrant to the phone service provider.

edit: replaced "subpoenaed" with "asked for data"/"search warrant". Doesn't look like a warrant was mentioned in the AT&T case.

Re: How police found Twitter user accused of sending seizure-triggering GIF

#22

Post by Vendan »

tyingq wrote: post #18
824ueirwfjd wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> reasonable protection from asshats Is there a strong argument that distinguishes this case of being "asshat on the internet" vs "homicidal with intent to kill"?

That would require insight we don't really have. Personally, I had no idea something like this would work. I assumed it would need something more powerful in intensity, like an actual strobe light. Maybe the suspect in this case knew it would work, maybe not.

Different screen size, but many games have a warning about epilepsy.

Re: How police found Twitter user accused of sending seizure-triggering GIF

#23

Post by bleachedsleet »

danso wrote: post #10
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. This appears to be the ordinary process. Can anyone point out what might be of interest here.

It was interesting to me because of how ordinary it was. I just assumed the user would be doing this from a regular computer, and that the police tracked down the IP. Not that the suspected troll would be dumb enough to use his own phone number to register for Twitter. And be someone who is "Clever" enough to use a pre-paid account but then dumb enough to sync data to iCloud. But I guess it's easy to erroneously conf…

These are common mistakes of cyber criminals. Usually people get caught because they miss a point of data leaking. A commom one is people using a VPN and then accidentally opening their browser that's still logged into Google...All of a sudden that IP is now linked to you personally. If you're going to commit crimes online keep everything separated and use a VM or better yet a different device altogether.

Re: How police found Twitter user accused of sending seizure-triggering GIF

#24

Post by imglorp »

robk wrote: post #2

That seems like a very reasonable process. Nothing unusual anyways.

The only part I take exception to is the hyperbolic kill portion of, "intent to kill, injure, harass..." of the complaint. Seizures are unpleasant, inconvenient, and you might get injured on the way to the ground but they are rarely fatal, and if the victim was known to be at risk of such, he would be in an ICU somewhere. Did the perpetrator intend to kill? That might be hard to prove.

Re: How police found Twitter user accused of sending seizure-triggering GIF

#25

Post by defen »

danso wrote: post #21
defen wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the lesson is if you are trying to murder people over the internet, don't plug your anonymous sim card into your iphone which is tied to your identity?

Is that the lesson? I would've guessed the lesson is to not try to murder people over the Internet. Makes sense why AT&T was asked for data. I'm interested in why Tracfone wasn't. But I guess if it's enough to have a phone number and suspicion that it belongs to an iPhone, that's enough to send a search warrant to Apple. Given the popularity of the iPhone, I wonder if law enforcement has the option of querying Apple…

Was trying to be witty, but really the lesson would apply to anyone trying to be anonymous on the Internet, including those who have more noble motives.

Re: How police found Twitter user accused of sending seizure-triggering GIF

#26

Post by wavefunction »

tyingq wrote: post #18
824ueirwfjd wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> reasonable protection from asshats Is there a strong argument that distinguishes this case of being "asshat on the internet" vs "homicidal with intent to kill"?

That would require insight we don't really have. Personally, I had no idea something like this would work. I assumed it would need something more powerful in intensity, like an actual strobe light. Maybe the suspect in this case knew it would work, maybe not.

The suspect specifically targeted the target because he said so in messages to some of his "fellow travelers" in whatever sorts of internet political circles he runs in.[0]

I would urge you to do some reading on these sorts of events. Following the facts of the case can do wonders for your own arguments.

[0]http://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2017/03/17/fbi-arrests-...

Re: How police found Twitter user accused of sending seizure-triggering GIF

#27

Post by trprog »

danso wrote: post #10
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. This appears to be the ordinary process. Can anyone point out what might be of interest here.

It was interesting to me because of how ordinary it was. I just assumed the user would be doing this from a regular computer, and that the police tracked down the IP. Not that the suspected troll would be dumb enough to use his own phone number to register for Twitter. And be someone who is "Clever" enough to use a pre-paid account but then dumb enough to sync data to iCloud. But I guess it's easy to erroneously conf…

>But I guess it's easy to erroneously conflate Apple's device security with iCloud security.

You might be overthinking it. I get the feeling that many people think of "online" as some sort of magical place where they are shielded from the consequences of their own behavior.

Re: How police found Twitter user accused of sending seizure-triggering GIF

#28

Post by richdougherty »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #9
tyingq wrote: post #5

Desktop browsers allow you to disable auto-playing animated images. I'm surprised mobile browsers don't seem to have this. If I suffered from this, I'd want some sort of reasonable protection from asshats.

That's a good place point. I see Apple's disability servies praised on a regular basis. One would have thought this scenario would have been thought of. Is it possible on iOS to disable animations / autoplay within an app?

It seems like it would be useful to do this at the OS level too, not just per application. I.e. detect and filter out combinations of pixels sent to the screen that could cause a seizure. That would make the whole device a lot safer. I wonder if (a) this is possible and (b) whether it would interfere too much with desirable animations.

Edit: There is (offline) software to check if a video could cause a seizure: https://trace.umd.edu/peat.

Re: How police found Twitter user accused of sending seizure-triggering GIF

#30

Post by rjeli »

vmarsy wrote: post #15

From an article related to the case [1]: > charged with criminal cyberstalking with the intent to kill or cause bodily harm and faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison if convicted, What is even more sad: > More than 40 Twitter users sent similar strobes to Mr. Eichenwald after they realized they could trigger seizures, he tweeted Friday. The agent went through these steps to identify the suspect: - Asked Twit…

Wow, did not realize Apple is so gung-ho about sharing iCloud data with LE. I love the Apple ecosystem but when I have to start fracturing out my services it's going to suck.

edit: should have read the post. Thought "ask" meant they handed it over willingly. Apple was served a search warrant, AT&T was not.

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