"White hat" Facebook hacker gets 8 months in jail
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Re: "White hat" Facebook hacker gets 8 months in jail
#2[Without knowing the full details of the case or proceedings] I don't see how putting this, clearly quite gifted, young person in jail for 8 months is going to help him, Facebook or anyone else for that matter.
Surely, there must be other options except jail?! Maybe some form of community service where he would then be an asset rather than a cost to the general public. If he can infiltrate Facebook, I am sure there are government sites and systems with much more sensitive information that he could be testing and identifying security threats.
Eight months hard time, plus the stigma of a criminal record, just seem like such a waste.
Re: "White hat" Facebook hacker gets 8 months in jail
#3https://www.facebook.com/whitehat
Facebook themselves have a policy of tolerance toward white hat hackery (basically `give us a reasonable amount of time before releasing to the public' and `do what you can to protect other users' privacy). I want to hear their side of this.
Re: "White hat" Facebook hacker gets 8 months in jail
#4Is it possible to be a "white hat" hacker if you weren't actually contracted by the target for penetration testing?
Re: "White hat" Facebook hacker gets 8 months in jail
#5[Without knowing the full details of the case or proceedings] I don't see how putting this, clearly quite gifted, young person in jail for 8 months is going to help him, Facebook or anyone else for that matter. Surely, there must be other options except jail?! Maybe some form of community service where he would then be an asset rather than a cost to the general public. If he can infiltrate Facebook, I am sure there a…
He may have found a security hole so disastrous and so ingrained that its easier to jail the kid than to fix the problem.
Re: "White hat" Facebook hacker gets 8 months in jail
#6[Without knowing the full details of the case or proceedings] I don't see how putting this, clearly quite gifted, young person in jail for 8 months is going to help him, Facebook or anyone else for that matter. Surely, there must be other options except jail?! Maybe some form of community service where he would then be an asset rather than a cost to the general public. If he can infiltrate Facebook, I am sure there a…
Well, that's true of incarceration in general.
Re: "White hat" Facebook hacker gets 8 months in jail
#7https://www.facebook.com/whitehat Facebook themselves have a policy of tolerance toward white hat hackery (basically `give us a reasonable amount of time before releasing to the public' and `do what you can to protect other users' privacy). I want to hear their side of this.
I found myself wondering if perhaps the 'white-hat' reference is a blunder in the headline. This article woefully lacks any actual details regarding what he did or how he approached communication with Facebook, only stating that he was a white-hat hacker for Yahoo once (which obviously proves nothing).
Re: "White hat" Facebook hacker gets 8 months in jail
#8Is it possible to be a "white hat" hacker if you weren't actually contracted by the target for penetration testing?
Indeed. It's all about what you do as a result of your shenanigans. If you, say, leave a discrete note behind that you have a gaping security hole the size of a hallway on your systems, that would be considered white hat, as opposed to say, stealing a bunch of internal emails, code, etc and selling it or putting it out on torrent sites.
Re: "White hat" Facebook hacker gets 8 months in jail
#9Is it possible to be a "white hat" hacker if you weren't actually contracted by the target for penetration testing?
Facebook, Mozilla, Google, and lots of other companies encourage this with exploit bounty programs.
Re: "White hat" Facebook hacker gets 8 months in jail
#10Is it possible to be a "white hat" hacker if you weren't actually contracted by the target for penetration testing?
Yes. White hat hackers often approach these large companies' white hat programs themselves.