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The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2

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Re: The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2

#31

Post by Scaevolus »

I liked this quote:

"For some reason they thought there was a connection between me and Sasser, which I denied. Sasser was big news back then and its author, Sven Jaschan, was raided the same day as me in a co-ordinated operation, because they thought I could warn him.

"My bot used the same vulnerability in the LSASS service that his did, except it didn't crash the host system, so I guess they thought I gave him the exploit code. Of course I denied this and told them that I never write such shoddy code."

Re: The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2

#33

Post by kmfrk »

true_religion wrote: post #14
jasonjei wrote: post #9

Considering that he's been sentenced and assuming he has served the term of probation, if he were to set foot on the US, could he be tried and sentenced again, or does Double Jeopardy protect him even if he already had proceeded through the German court system?

Double Jeopardy doesn't protect you from being tried in multiple jurisdictions. An American example is the "D.C. Snipper" who was charged in Maryland, Virginia, and D.C. to maximize jailtime and possibility of conviction.

Any idea what the statute of limitation would be for his crime in the US?

Re: The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2

#34

Post by Locke1689 »

true_religion wrote: post #14
jasonjei wrote: post #9

Considering that he's been sentenced and assuming he has served the term of probation, if he were to set foot on the US, could he be tried and sentenced again, or does Double Jeopardy protect him even if he already had proceeded through the German court system?

Double Jeopardy doesn't protect you from being tried in multiple jurisdictions. An American example is the "D.C. Snipper" who was charged in Maryland, Virginia, and D.C. to maximize jailtime and possibility of conviction.

It does prevent multiple convictions if the crime only happened in one jurisdiction.

However, since in this case the defendant wasn't tried in the United States but in Germany it would all depend on criminal offense treaties between the two countries, not just US law.

Re: The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2

#35

Post by bluesnowmonkey »

Am I the only one who thinks what he did was not only criminal but morally wrong, and that he deserved to go to prison for a long time?

I realize that everybody likes to call themselves a "hacker" because they can program a computer, but this is an actual black-hat hacker. There are bad guys in the world and he's one of them. He wrote malware. He stole source code and gave it to the world. And this wasn't some evil corporation he was trying to bring to justice for its crimes. This was Valve. All they do is make cool games for the world. It's incredibly difficult work and they do a fantastic job. What kind of asshole do you have to be to shit all over them like this kid did?

Re: The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2

#36

Post by thomasz »

atourgates wrote: post #20
podperson wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the German police clearly thought he was not going to get justice from the US (hence the remarks about how lucky he was that they got him before he got on the plane) and saved him from falling into the FBI's trap.

Considering the rash of "OMG the police barged into my house, shot my goldfish and raped my star wars collection" type stories I've been hearing, is it safe to assume that the German police are quite a bit more sensible than their American counterparts? The whole experience sounds rather civilized. The police let Gembe get dressed, eat breakfast and smoke a cigarette before bringing him down to the station. And when…

> is it safe to assume that the German police are quite a bit more sensible than their American counterparts?

It depends. Gun ownership isn't nearly as common in the US, so they can safely assume that a 17 year old blackhat won't pull a gun on them.

On the other hand, I've seen a ~4.9 feet tall girl getting knocked unconsciously with a Mp5 during the eviction of a squat. In 2003, a schizophrenic in custody was beaten to death by officers in Cologne. They were sentenced from 12 to 18 months in probation. In 2005, Oury Jalloh burned to death in a holding cell in Dessau while being tied with handcuffs to a fire-proof mattress at his hands and feet. In 2008, Josef Hoss was beaten to a bloody pulp by a special unit after his arrest. He is irreparably crippled. He later recieved 30,000€ for compensation.

Re: The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2

#37

Post by die_sekte »

atourgates wrote: post #20
podperson wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the German police clearly thought he was not going to get justice from the US (hence the remarks about how lucky he was that they got him before he got on the plane) and saved him from falling into the FBI's trap.

Considering the rash of "OMG the police barged into my house, shot my goldfish and raped my star wars collection" type stories I've been hearing, is it safe to assume that the German police are quite a bit more sensible than their American counterparts? The whole experience sounds rather civilized. The police let Gembe get dressed, eat breakfast and smoke a cigarette before bringing him down to the station. And when…

Germany neither has a War on Drugs nor a meth problem. There have been highly criticized raids in Germany, but there are fewer raids per capita in Germany, and in Germany police-citizen interaction is less violent (no automatic assumption that that driver that was just pulled over is armed, for example).

Re: The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2

#38

Post by sukuriant »

mey wrote: post #16
l0nwlf wrote: post #13

I wonder why Valve didn't offered him a job. He was naive but talented and passionate about gaming.

Valve maintains systems that contain sensitive financial information, sensitive internal IP, and a whole library of external IP from other publishers. This wasn't a script kiddie pulling things off bit-torrent, this was an elaborate penetration into a corporate network. If I was in Valve's position, I would blackball him from working there because he couldn't be trusted, and the damage he caused. Damage caused was at…

I haven't the faintest clue about how accurate the sort of story I'm about to use as a counter-point is, but what about capable hackers that succeed in breaking into government servers then being given a choice to either work for said government organization, or go to jail for a very long time?

Assuming those sorts of cases actually happen, how is this any different?

Re: The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2

#39

Post by Semiapies »

jcw wrote: post #2

I'm happy to see that, while he did something wrong, because he was honest and openly remorseful throughout, he ended up not going to prison. The cops even seemed cordial, they let him get breakfast and a smoke. I wonder how differently things would have played out if he lived in the US.

The cops were "cordial" after rousting him out of bed while pointing automatic weapons at him. In other words, they armed up and stormed the residence of a suspect of a non-violent crime. That sounds pretty standard for the US, and for the same reason indicated by the instruction, "Get out of bed. Do not touch the keyboard".

SWAT-style tactics are rarely about any actual belief that the suspect has weapons and is likely to resist arrest, but about violently (sometimes lethally) subduing a suspect who might destroy evidence and impair the prosecution's case.

And, of course, the overtime pay for SWAT work in many US jurisdictions. Don't know how that works in Germany.

Re: The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2

#40

Post by burgerbrain »

thomasz wrote: post #36
atourgates wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering the rash of "OMG the police barged into my house, shot my goldfish and raped my star wars collection" type stories I've been hearing, is it safe to assume that the German police are quite a bit more sensible than their American counterparts? The whole experience sounds rather civilized. The police let Gembe get dressed, eat breakfast and smoke a cigarette before bringing him down to the station. And when…

> is it safe to assume that the German police are quite a bit more sensible than their American counterparts? It depends. Gun ownership isn't nearly as common in the US, so they can safely assume that a 17 year old blackhat won't pull a gun on them. On the other hand, I've seen a ~4.9 feet tall girl getting knocked unconsciously with a Mp5 during the eviction of a squat. In 2003, a schizophrenic in custody was beaten…

The difference between Germany and the US? Those types incidents are uncommon enough that you can remember individual occurrences.
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