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Tampa teen accused of being ‘mastermind’ behind Twitter hack

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

#151
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?

This report has some details: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/press-release/file/1300126...

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

#152
post #142

"Someone has to go to prison, Ben" - quoting Harvey Keitel from National Treasure movie (1:50) [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co4EsnwAM1Q

For all its flaws, I love that movie.

Based (loosely) on the Beale ciphers, a real-life combination of cryptography, myth, and scams (probably)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beale_ciphers

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

#153

Hold on... how could they have de-anonymized the blockchain transactions? That seems.. false

Why not? People link their wallets to other wallets and financial services with reporting requirements all the time. Bitcoin isn't anonymous

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

#154
post #137
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.

What does the 17yo have to do with it? Would it be different for an 18yo?

As a society we generally make some allowance for a perpetrator's mental capacity. One aspect to that is we generally accept that teenage brains are not quite the same as adults.

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

#155
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.

Having bad security is not criminal. If it was we wouldn't have a voting village at defcon cracked by pre-teens and there would be a lot more irresponsible CEO's in prison (so probably a better world).

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

#156
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Florida has some of the most permissive laws about mugshots and criminal info. The reason for the "Florida Man" meme is not that people in Florida are more weird than anywhere else, just that it's easier to find the mugshots online.

I grew up in Florida. It's not just easier to find mug shots online. It's a weird place. Alligators: https://nypost.com/2020/06/11/florida-man-fights-off-alligat... https://nypost.com/2018/07/30/florida-man-brings-gator-into-... https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/8-foot-gator-wrestled-from... Pythons: https://www.naplesnews.com/story/news/local/2019/08/12/6-foo... https://www.foxnews.com/science/alligator-fights-pytho…

Seconded, grew up in Tampa. Florida is weird, just not quite as weird as "Florida Man" makes it look.

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

#157
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Florida has some of the most permissive laws about mugshots and criminal info. The reason for the "Florida Man" meme is not that people in Florida are more weird than anywhere else, just that it's easier to find the mugshots online.

The story below the linked one is how a man rammed his way into a gated community, beat two people to death with a baseball bath, and then the police found the suspect unconscious after he drank some bleach. That seems more weird than my local news, by a bit.

> That seems more weird than my local news, by a bit.

Come to Oregon and we can talk weird.

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

#158

Hold on... how could they have de-anonymized the blockchain transactions? That seems.. false

All transactions are public on the Bitcoin blockchain. I haven't followed the wallets, but it's possible that they tried to cash out on an exchange and got caught. Or they were initially found via other means and a search of their computers found the corresponding wallet.dat files.

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

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does this mean the US visitors data is not protected? Or no resources to add a cookie banner?

It means they're tracking US visitors in ways intrusive enough to be illegal in Europe, yes.

Only if you enable javascript. This is exactly equivalent to opening every email attachment you receive. It's absurd this is considered the norm.

You can take individual responsibility and disable JS by default. Also, don't visit sites that you disagree with. This is much more ethical than the European choice to bring in people with guns to coerce sites into behaving how they want. It's easy to understand why international sites block European visitors to avoid that violence-backed coercion.

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

#160
post #137
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.

What does the 17yo have to do with it? Would it be different for an 18yo?

Conversely, would it be different for a 16yo? What about 15yo? Or 12yo?
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