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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

#331

Post by chasd00 »

nonsapreiche1 wrote: post #121
montenegrohugo wrote: post #27

If this turns out to be true, then we can conclude two things: 1. It's incredible that the security of Twitter allows for a solitary 17-year old to gain full access to (any) account. 2. This also explains why the profit of the hack was 'only' ~$100k. Many speculated about how incredibly valuable such a hack could be and how much more a group could have profited from this hack. Using it for two hours of bitcoin scammi…

never underestimate the intelligence of a teenager!

Never overestimate the intelligence of teenager either.

I say this as a former teenager

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

#333

Post by ggggtez »

dshep wrote: post #220

Trying to paint this 17-year old kid as a criminal mastermind strikes me as rather gross. I can see it as a kid doing it to see if he could, and using an obviously meme-worthy fake post that got out of hand. I think everyone has done some dumb things at this age without thinking about the consequences. If that is the case here, I hope this doesn't ruin the guys life.

> dumb things

I never stole $100,000 when I was a kid. Sometimes 17-year olds murder other people too. Society can't ignore it just because he's a minor. If he had posted memes, that would be one thing. But instead he decided to use this hack to commit grand theft.

Any leniency due to his age will come from the Judge.

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

#334

Post by trollied »

cellis wrote: post #25

I actually think this kid has a bright future. My prediction: 1 year jail time, 5-10years probation. Will get hired as a security consultant.

You might like the Darknet Diaries podcast (if you don't already subscribe).

Often interviews reformed "hackers" who have turned their lives around.

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

#335

Post by paulpauper »

alexander1100 wrote: post #170

I personally lost $6000 dollars, is there any way I could prove that I was a victim and get my crypto back?

assuming not a troll, there is a possibility the money will be seized and returned to victims . i assume if the stolen coin are on coinbase, they have been frozen,

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

#336

Post by shuntress »

SahAssar wrote: post #310
shuntress wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is like saying that gold coins are explicitly designed not to allow recourse and refunds and that transactions in gold are not reversible by any legal authority. In both BTC and solid gold, reversibility is not a property of the currency. It is a part of the system which uses that currency. However, with Bitcoin (unlike with gold) the currency is explicitly designed with verifiable identity being fundamental to…

What I said was "not reversible by legal authority". That's true for both gold coins and bitcoin if the legal authority don't have them to give. I'm not saying bitcoin is less accountable and giving 6000$ in gold coins to a stranger promising to double them would only be slightly more responsible since then you'd at least know a physical jurisdiction. What I'm saying is that when bitcoin X leaves wallet Y to wallet Z…

You are not wrong but you are glossing over the fact that by "digital transactions" you seem to actually mean "transactions brokered by a third party".

USD also works the way you describe. I may write someone a check based on a fraudulent premise then later demand my money back. If they have already cashed that check and run then the money is gone from their account and there is no way to reverse the transaction. The bank may charge them, cancel their account, pay me back anyway, etc. These are all actions taken by the third party broker.

With USD the accountability of my_account -> check -> fraudsters_account -> cash is all part of the third party's (the bank's) system.

With BTC, this chain of accountability (my_wallet -> transaction -> fraudsters_wallet) is part of the currency itself.

If the fraudster is later caught and their fraudulent gains seized, with BTC I can prove which of those fraudulent gains came from my wallet and be reimbursed with potentially little technical fuss.

My point is that your point may be true of the systems built to handle transactions made with bitcoin but is not true of bitcoin itself.

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

#337

Post by Taek »

ggggtez wrote: post #278

Imagine a 17 year old robs a bank and steal 100k from the savings accounts of random people. Or a 17 year old steals a couple of cars from random people off the street... The crime is not breaking into Twitter. The crime is theft. Twitter didn't steal that money, this guy did. Let's not pretend the internet is a magical land without consequences.

> Imagine a 17 year old robs a bank and steal 100k from the savings accounts of random people.

I think that's a great comparison. But it's not an armed robbery, it's a break-and-enter where no property gets destroyed.

How many felonies does the robber get after being caught? I don't actually know but I'm guessing 1-3? Certainly stealing $100k is a deserving felony. But 30 felonies seems a bit steep.

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

#338

Post by Ericson2314 »

pcunite wrote: post #323
nonsapreiche1 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

never underestimate the intelligence of a teenager!

Imagine what a russian could do.

nyt 2025: Chinese-russian teenager gets donald trump elected in every single country using birth certificate 2fa

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

#339

Post by stefap2 »

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.

A year or two and return the money. It's not like he tried to break into a nuclear plant. It is a messaging app, mostly nonsense.

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

#340

Post by ggggtez »

>White House officials were concerned about President Donald Trump’s Twitter account, which he uses daily to push out news and other information. They assured the public that his account has extra protections.

I had suspected that they had added special protections on his account after the (2017?) incident where an employee temporarily deactivated his account (and got fired for it). I guess this confirms it.

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