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Man jailed for parole violations after refusing to decrypt his Tor node

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Re: Man jailed for parole violations after refusing to decrypt his Tor node

#91

Post by resters »

righthand wrote: post #80
resters wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dashcam videos show cops abusing power and being on a power trip in various ways, some mildly annoying and some outrageous. This is also why mobile phone camera tech led to BLM as more and more people became aware of how police act when they think nobody is watching.

Mobile tech didn’t lead to Black Lives Matter. What even are you saying? People were recording the police way back during the Fergusson Mo protests.

I think you are being sarcastic, but in case you weren't, in 2014 60% of adults in the US owned a smartphone, so my point stands. Videos of police misconduct were already widespread before that. Someone took video of the killing of Eric Garner, etc.

Re: Man jailed for parole violations after refusing to decrypt his Tor node

#92

Post by rich_sasha »

I certainly sympathise, but actually don't find it at all surprising.

Tor is totally used for criminal activity. That doesn't mean it is inherently a bad thing, or that it is this guy's fault, but he can't completely wash his hands off it. If bad guys use the postal service, it's not the postman's fault, but he has to cooperate with law enforcement if they demand that.

I don't know about the US, but contempt of court is a thing in the UK at least. You can't refuse to submit evidence to court, including things like encryption keys or things only stored in your head - or face penalties including unlimited jail time.

Now, I get that this is the US so the arrest was dialled up to 11 and it seems all of this is extra-judicial - no court warrant etc. This is all very disappointing. But, to my non-expert eye running a Tor exit node is in the legal grey zone, and I guess you can't be too surprised when things like this happen.

Re: Man jailed for parole violations after refusing to decrypt his Tor node

#93

Post by praptak »

baggachipz wrote: post #37
unethical_ban wrote: post #18

3 years of pretrial detention for anything less than blowing up a building should be enough to enrage anyone. Even then, the legal system would be a failure. How is 3 years pretrial not blatantly unconstitutional and thrown out immediately?

Ah, you must be new here. All kidding aside, the "Global War on Terror" was the impetus for all of the surveillance and associated persecution of innocents without due process. Always disappointed, never surprised.

And the Global War on Terror wasn't even the first American War on Due Process. Remember the War on Drugs? It is mostly forgotten but the civil forfeiture remains as its legacy.

Re: Man jailed for parole violations after refusing to decrypt his Tor node

#94

Post by IlikeKitties »

romanovcode wrote: post #15

> Months later, the government arrested him. Their official reason? A minor, non-violent CFAA charge from an old workplace dispute that had nothing to do with Tor. This is exactly the argument for privacy to people who say "I have nothing to hide". Authoritative governments will always find a reason to dig something up and the less privacy you have the easier it will be. As a side note it sickening to see USA governm…

> This is exactly the argument for privacy to people who say "I have nothing to hide"

People who say this will not be swayed by any argument. What they are really saying is "I don't want to think about this".

There's a truth I've come to accept in recent times: The vast majority of people are not able to extrapolate from their immediate personal situation. If they are not effected by something right now in a way they personally feel, they do not and will never care.

Once you accept that fact, so many things make so much more sense in this world. The whole MAGA movement explains itself, the complete disregard of climate change or even local environmental issues make sense and the complete ignorance of privacy issues. The only way to sway these people is when they are personally affected. So consider this Truth the next time you find out a service has been collecting private information in an unsecured S3 Bucket.

Re: Man jailed for parole violations after refusing to decrypt his Tor node

#95

Post by ivape »

tptacek wrote: post #89

For whatever it's worth, the Reddit story here says that the federal courts used "fraudulent warrants to jail my husband again". Maybe! The other side of that story, via PACER, is a detailed parole violation warrant (you can hear the marshal refer to it in the video); the violations in that warrant: 1. Admitting to using cannabis during supervised release 2. Failing to make scheduled restitution payments and to coope…

We have to consider that crime on the internet is as real as crime in real life. Funny to say it out loud. Criminals move a certain way and just because you are a nerdy tech dude doesn’t also mean you’re not a gangster.

Edit:

Reminds me a lot of the lives of people in this saga:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01L8C4WBG/

The poor wife, “can you stop being a criminal for like, one month, please?”.

Re: Man jailed for parole violations after refusing to decrypt his Tor node

#97

Post by nashashmi »

coffeecantcode wrote: post #75
Bjartr wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Guilt by association is much more a social construct, than a legal one. The bar for legal consequences is expected to be much higher than mere association. It has never been perfect, nor uniformly applied in all circumstances, but it is and should remain a nominal goal of the justice system. For that to no longer be considered the case, even in a casual conversation like this, is a devastating shift of the Overton wi…

From my understanding, guilt by association is quite valid legally when it comes to Tor exit nodes, due to the fact that other people’s traffic appears as your traffic. It may not literally be guilt by association, but they’re two parts of the same whole in this case, right or wrong.

Guilt by association: if a group of three approaches another in a confrontation, and one person punches another then would all three be seen as violent?

Re: Man jailed for parole violations after refusing to decrypt his Tor node

#98

Post by crazypyro »

tptacek wrote: post #89

For whatever it's worth, the Reddit story here says that the federal courts used "fraudulent warrants to jail my husband again". Maybe! The other side of that story, via PACER, is a detailed parole violation warrant (you can hear the marshal refer to it in the video); the violations in that warrant: 1. Admitting to using cannabis during supervised release 2. Failing to make scheduled restitution payments and to coope…

He was also placed under electronic monitoring program and immediately went about installing a VM to allegedly circumvent the monitoring software along with searching for a very controversial website relating to pedophilia...

He also lied about using his computer, his wife told on him to his parole officer, according to the court documents.

He was on parole for DDOSing* a former employer...

*Ah, I see your update, guess it was less distributed and more direct denial of service with the physical destruction and all.

Re: Man jailed for parole violations after refusing to decrypt his Tor node

#99

Post by lenwood »

I know very little about cybersecurity, but my understand of TOR is that a node host wouldn't be able to offer much about the traffic coming across their server(s). The packages are encrypted and there is no entry or destination info, so he may be able to say how much traffic was coming across, but what else could he possibly know? Info on other nodes?

Re: Man jailed for parole violations after refusing to decrypt his Tor node

#100

Post by 1970-01-01 »

It's very important to get the official source on this one. Husband was legally restricted and being monitored by the FBI, so he decided to go install a VM to bypass the monitoring. It's not so much bravery against authority as it is hubris that got him 3 years.

https://rockenhaus.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/U.S.-v.-Ro...

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