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Tampa teen accused of being ‘mastermind’ behind Twitter hack

wfla.com

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Re: Tampa teen accused of being ‘mastermind’ behind Twitter hack

#141

Post by nmarks122 »

Taek wrote: post #131

Hitting a 17yo with 30 felony charges feels a bit steep to me. Also should any repercussions be considered against Twitter that a 17yo was able to gain access to the private messages of potentially some of the most important individuals in the world? If a 17yo could do it, I'm sure a nation state could do it.

Governments are touchy about propaganda channels, even (or especially?) when they are lower in quality than the Sun or the Daily Mirror.

Re: Tampa teen accused of being ‘mastermind’ behind Twitter hack

#143

Post by tptacek »

Taek wrote: post #131

Hitting a 17yo with 30 felony charges feels a bit steep to me. Also should any repercussions be considered against Twitter that a 17yo was able to gain access to the private messages of potentially some of the most important individuals in the world? If a 17yo could do it, I'm sure a nation state could do it.

Does it really change much about the sentence he'll face? Felony charges usually group.

Re: Tampa teen accused of being ‘mastermind’ behind Twitter hack

#144

Post by nordsieck »

Taek wrote: post #131

Hitting a 17yo with 30 felony charges feels a bit steep to me. Also should any repercussions be considered against Twitter that a 17yo was able to gain access to the private messages of potentially some of the most important individuals in the world? If a 17yo could do it, I'm sure a nation state could do it.

> Also should any repercussions be considered against Twitter that a 17yo was able to gain access to the private messages of potentially some of the most important individuals in the world?

200 Million Americans could drive a car into a crowd. That doesn't make it any less bad for someone to do.

Re: Tampa teen accused of being ‘mastermind’ behind Twitter hack

#146

Post by waihtis »

par wrote: post #126

> Today’s announcement proves that cybercriminals can no longer hide behind perceived global anonymity Anyone know what the loose end was that got these guys busted?

Guess is there was some opsec failures, and this is typical scaremongering with intent to deter future to-be-hackers

Re: Tampa teen accused of being ‘mastermind’ behind Twitter hack

#147

Post by ibejoeb »

Taek wrote: post #131

Hitting a 17yo with 30 felony charges feels a bit steep to me. Also should any repercussions be considered against Twitter that a 17yo was able to gain access to the private messages of potentially some of the most important individuals in the world? If a 17yo could do it, I'm sure a nation state could do it.

Nothing in the complaint (well, for the two others, since his is sealed) says that a state-level actor wasn't involved. Could be the tip of the iceberg. I find it hard to believe that this was prank hacking for about $150,000. You could sell Obama's handle for more, surely.

Re: Tampa teen accused of being ‘mastermind’ behind Twitter hack

#148

Post by tptacek »

par wrote: post #126

> Today’s announcement proves that cybercriminals can no longer hide behind perceived global anonymity Anyone know what the loose end was that got these guys busted?

Didn't Krebs run a story about these people a week or so ago? It looks like it was 100% loose ends.

Re: Tampa teen accused of being ‘mastermind’ behind Twitter hack

#149

Post by libraryatnight »

par wrote: post #126

> Today’s announcement proves that cybercriminals can no longer hide behind perceived global anonymity Anyone know what the loose end was that got these guys busted?

If there was any merit to the articles where people in the media were put in contact with people involved (and it seems so, now) then they left tracks all over the place. A) reaching out to the media at all. B) sharing screens of the OGUsername boards they hung out on C) Bragging.
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