Tampa teen accused of being ‘mastermind’ behind Twitter hack • Hacker News Board

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

#371

Post by rwbhn » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 9:56 PM UTC

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.

Source for those charges? Article this currently points to says "The third defendant is a juvenile. With exceptions that do not apply to this case, juvenile proceedings in federal court are sealed to protect the identity of the juvenile. "

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

#372

Post by ChrisLomont » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 9:56 PM UTC

VonBlue wrote: post #145

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

It’s routinely done by researchers.

Here’s a lot of papers on it.

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0,15&q=bitco...

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

#373

Post by throw_m239339 » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 9:57 PM UTC

qppo wrote: post #244

They should have just scammed old people with spoofed phone numbers, then the government would never have caught them.

Well their biggest mistake was to live in US and be US citizens. Most of the people operating high scale phone scams live abroad, India, Africa, South East Asia...

Don't do that though, don't scam people.

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

#374

Post by ehsankia » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 9:59 PM UTC

sna1l wrote: post #301

From the Verge[1] article it seems like there was someone else providing access to the accounts? So was it social engineering or not? > Intriguingly, Sheppard and Fazeli may just be middlemen for the scam — “an unknown individual” with the handle “Kirk#5270” is believed to be the one who got access to Twitter’s internal systems. It’s not clear if the Tampa teen is Kirk#5270, though it sounds like that’s possible. The…

Damn, did these kids really get MafiaBoy'd?

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

#375

Post by ehsankia » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 10:00 PM UTC

stevievee wrote: post #302

The announcement video is quite intense and feels odd for some reason. Maybe it's the aspect ratio or cold intro - not sure. https://youtu.be/z80K3-q3Kqg

Not sure anyone else watches this show, but this video gives me strong Homecoming[0] vibes.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homecoming_(TV_series)

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

#376

Post by boogies » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 10:01 PM UTC

latchkey wrote: post #219

Pfhreak wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We protect juveniles for a reason. It seems reasonable to make an effort not to spread their identities around on social media (even if they are reported by press sites.)

Except for the part that it is Florida and they release all this stuff... which is what brought on the whole Florida Man meme. https://www.wfla.com/news/hillsborough-county/tampa-teen-acc...

Legal ≠ ethical

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

#377

Post by boring_twenties » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 10:05 PM UTC

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?

> is there any way I could prove that I was a victim

Sure, you just need to find the transaction hash, and prove that you own the sending address.

> and get my crypto back?

Now that the government has control of the wallets, my guess would be probably, eventually.

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

#378

Post by junar » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 10:06 PM UTC

sna1l wrote: post #301

From the Verge[1] article it seems like there was someone else providing access to the accounts? So was it social engineering or not? > Intriguingly, Sheppard and Fazeli may just be middlemen for the scam — “an unknown individual” with the handle “Kirk#5270” is believed to be the one who got access to Twitter’s internal systems. It’s not clear if the Tampa teen is Kirk#5270, though it sounds like that’s possible. The…

It seems like "Kirk" is believed to be some other individual. From the complaint against Sheppard:

> On July 21, 2020, federal agents executed a search warrant authorized by U.S. Magistrate Judge Alex G. Tse at a residence in the Northern District of California. Among the occupants of the home was a juvenile (“Juvenile 1”). ““Juvenile 1” was believed to be a Discord user identified in chats as an individual who assisted “Kirk#5270” and “Chaewon” in selling access to Twitter accounts. Upon execution of the search warrant, “Juvenile 1” agreed to be interviewed. “Juvenile 1” admitted to law enforcement agents that he/she was the Discord user who was identified in chats as assisting “Kirk#5270” and that he/she participated in the sale of illegal Twitter access. “Juvenile 1” admitted that he/she worked with “Chaewon” to sell Twitter account access. According to “Juvenile 1,” his/her knowledge of “Chaewon” was that “Chaewon” lived in the United Kingdom and “Juvenile 1” knew “Chaewon” by the name “Mason.” According to “Juvenile 1,” he/she and “Chaewon” had discussed turning themselves in to law enforcement after the Twitter hack became publicly known.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/press-release/file/1300126...

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

#379

Post by bmitc » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 10:06 PM UTC

aerovistae wrote: post #370

It's sad to me how the authorities are bragging about how quickly they caught them and how effective they are at solving this type of crime. The truth is, the vast majority of these crimes go unpursued. They handled this quickly because it was so prominent, but if this happened to an everyday individual, the police wouldn't even bother. I don't see this as much of a triumph. It never should have happened in the first…

It's also just another case where those not in power who attacked those in power are swiftly and promptly dealt with versus those in power perpetuating the same attacks go free. I would rather see them gloat over putting people with real power and influence with their attacks in jail versus bragging about locking up teenagers and people in their early twenties.

There's a quote in the article, "There is a false belief within the criminal hacker community that attacks like the Twitter hack can be perpetrated anonymously and without consequence", which just reiterates this perception of the justice system being "hard" on crime. Yet it conveniently ignores being soft on crime if you're rich or in power.

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

#380

Post by dagmx » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 10:07 PM UTC

lima wrote: post #362

happytoexplain wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Frankly, I don't take "a teenager did it" as an extra mark against hacked systems any more. It's the details that matter - the difference between one teenager and multiple adults being able to hack something is not large unless the context is government hacking.

Maybe in terms of raw skills, but adults are likely to have more experience, better judgement and better opsec.

Not to mention likely have better access to hardware and other resources