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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

#621
post #385
post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then you need processes in place to make sure a single person being careless cant do this much damage. There are low tech solutions that would greatly improve security[1], however the overhead this introduces is hard to justify in a world in which these breaches aren't that damaging to a company. We need to change incentives for companies by either mandating these security practices or implementing harmful repercussi…

I agree that better security practices are advisable, but you're victim-blaming. Twitter wasn't 'asking for it', and neither were the individuals who lost bitcoins; the 'hackers' intentionally perpetrated deceptions, misrepresentations, and fraud against both Twitter and the general public. If you compare what these three did to a white-collar crime, the dollar amount was small, but the behavior was egregious.

> you're victim-blaming.

Twitter is not the victim here; the users who had their accounts taken over are. Twitter did not lose anything, except an entirely reasonable loss of reputation, because they could have taken measures to prevent this sort of thing from happening, but did not.

Companies need to be held accountable for their breaches. Sure, sometimes a company did do everything they could to prevent a breach, and took steps to mitigate the damage in the event of a breach, and they still happen. But that is vanishingly rare. The main thing I've learned from all the breach disclosures (at least where companies are truthful and forthcoming about what happened) is that security practices are lax and insufficient pretty much everywhere.

That's not ok, and we need to do something to incentivize these companies to properly protect our data, before we all become victims. If financial sanctions and public shaming is the best way to do that, so be it.

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

#622
post #385
post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then you need processes in place to make sure a single person being careless cant do this much damage. There are low tech solutions that would greatly improve security[1], however the overhead this introduces is hard to justify in a world in which these breaches aren't that damaging to a company. We need to change incentives for companies by either mandating these security practices or implementing harmful repercussi…

I agree that better security practices are advisable, but you're victim-blaming. Twitter wasn't 'asking for it', and neither were the individuals who lost bitcoins; the 'hackers' intentionally perpetrated deceptions, misrepresentations, and fraud against both Twitter and the general public. If you compare what these three did to a white-collar crime, the dollar amount was small, but the behavior was egregious.

The fact that Twitter had a system in which any of thousands of employees at all levels could single-handedly with no oversight alter any of the information in any account shows this was absolutely Twitter's fault.

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

#623
post #312
post #167

The story has been updated, three people have now been charged, the teen, a man from Orlando and a man from the UK. https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/31/21349920/twitter-hack-arr...

> Originally, “Kirk” claimed to be a Twitter employee, according to a Discord chat log So these guys were able to get into Twitter but they chatted freely on Discord without considering everything would be recorded? And then they make one of the most public hacks in recent history without considering someone would go through all the logs with all the noise they made?

Criminals are greet examples of the Dunning-Kruger effect.

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

#624
post #609

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They absolutely deserve the blame. At least if I was an insurance company, I’d definitely put that in my contract.

Ok well, according to this https://www.awinins.ca/blog/am-i-covered-if-i-leave-my-front... "As long as it can be established that your possessions have been taken without your permission most policies will pay out on a claim even if your front door was unlocked or your window open." so - as it says later "Familiarise yourself with the terms of your policy" which I guess would lead me not to buying insurance from your…

The OP was making a point. Not actually getting into what legal (not relating to ethics) mechanisms there are for insurance.

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

#625

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Setting five police cars on fire is punk rock, not "domestic terrorism" Setting cars on fire is not an act of spreading terror. It is an act of defiance

Your Honor, I firebombed those police cars because I'm PUNK ROCK! do you see how you sound

Calling lighting some cars on fire terrorism sounds more frightening than anything else. I feel terrorized just by that.

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

#626

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sentences should run concurrently. 4 years for setting a car on fire is not unreasonable, although maybe a little harsh depending on priors. It's a dangerous thing to do. But setting five cars on fire is not particularly worse than setting one car on fire.

Setting five police cars on fire is an act of domestic terrorism. That's not in any way a normal protest action.. That's what the prosecutor will argue.

It feels terrorizing to call lighting cars on fire terrorism.

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

#627

> Although the case against the teen was also investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice, the Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office is prosecuting Clark because Florida law allows minors to be charged as adults in financial fraud cases such as this when appropriate. The FBI and the Department of Justice will continue to partner with the office throughout the prosecution. Wow. It isn’t news, but what a…

What do you believe is terrible?

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

#628
post #531
post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From memory, I recall the FBI did a study, and found that half of their employees would plug in a USB drive that they found on the ground in the parking lot. After training, that number was reduced to a quarter. If a security-focused government police agency is so vulnerable, it is unreasonable to expect perfection from a (less paranoid) company.

1. When was this study conducted? I remember a story like this from somewhere around 2008. A lot has changed since then. In fact, I recall that during my onboarding at a medium size tech company, it was an explicit part of the company's security training curriculum. 2. I think you may actually have it backwards. I would imagine the engineering group at Twitter (the people who have important credentials) is in some wa…

Comparatively, Cern does a phishing study from time to time [1] and the campaigns are in line with current expectations: People fall for phising, and security training has only a short term effect on phising. Unfortunately I can't find the real results right now.

We once had a bachelors thesis comparing the results over multiple years, and the results were mostly stable. (Years are mid 2010s).

[1] https://home.cern/news/news/computing/computer-security-cern...

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

#629

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Overcharging has become the norm. Not just in high profile cases but in everyday ones as well. It's an effective leveraging tool used to get the accused to accept the actual charge in a plea bargain. Generally the American criminal justice system has bent all of its pressure upon convictions without trial. The system is designed to make your life a nightmare upon accusation in the hopes you cannot afford or dare to r…

> Overcharging has become the norm With regard to "has become", this is completely false. Overcharging is not "new" in any way, shape, or form, as I hope the recent post commemorating Aaron Swartz's death would have reminded all of us.

Yes, my apologies. I have become so ensured to history lately. I mean in the last 40-60 years or so. Essentially since defendants have made themselves peaky with the consequences of Gideon v. Wainwright the legal recourse has been to combine several tools to prevent trials.

Justice is expensive and Americans just don't have a taste for it.

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

#630
post #530

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This kind of feels like "privilege" of the sort where you can kind of identify with this kid (he's a hacker, into computers) so you're excusing his actions. Yes, everyone has done some dumb things at this age, but the consequences of this were pretty severe, and he certainly knew what he was doing. Just calling this a "meme-worthy fake post" is minimizing what he did.

>but the consequences of this were pretty severe Can you elaborate on this? The consequences were mild at best, with people easily duped being duped and twitter having a (understandably) worse reputation.

Think of what this teenager could have done if he had hacked Trump's twitter, or any other current head of state. The best case scenario then is a diplomatic incident, the worst is war or genocide.
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