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Harvard Student Charged In Bomb Hoax

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11–20 of 55 posts

Re: Harvard Student Charged In Bomb Hoax

#11
post #2

http://www.scribd.com/doc/192157170/Eldo-Kim-Complaint It sounds like they determined from the email provider that the message came from a Tor exit node, then from there they looked for who had made a connection on Harvard campus to known Tor relays. He had, so they interviewed him and he confessed to everything. I don't see any strong indication of a weakness in Tor from this, but it's a bit concerning that you coul…

[deleted]

Re: Harvard Student Charged In Bomb Hoax

#12
post #2

http://www.scribd.com/doc/192157170/Eldo-Kim-Complaint It sounds like they determined from the email provider that the message came from a Tor exit node, then from there they looked for who had made a connection on Harvard campus to known Tor relays. He had, so they interviewed him and he confessed to everything. I don't see any strong indication of a weakness in Tor from this, but it's a bit concerning that you coul…

Running TOR at the same time the message was sent. Plus The police do not have to have probable cause to speak to you. Of course what you say back is entirely up to you.

In addition, I imagine a list of students who had finals in those buildings around that time also entered into the equation. Talking to the guy using tor at the time, who had finals at the time, is a no brainer.

Re: Harvard Student Charged In Bomb Hoax

#13
post #4

Why bother risking expulsion/FBI charges/a tainted professional reputation for the rest of your life for more time on a test? Even if he succeeded, I doubt anyone could pull something like that off and then focus on schoolwork for the next day or two. Plus, .

I feel bad for him, 20 years old, got in to Harvard -- had a pretty bright future ahead of him -- he's never going to live this down.

Re: Harvard Student Charged In Bomb Hoax

#14
post #7
post #2

http://www.scribd.com/doc/192157170/Eldo-Kim-Complaint It sounds like they determined from the email provider that the message came from a Tor exit node, then from there they looked for who had made a connection on Harvard campus to known Tor relays. He had, so they interviewed him and he confessed to everything. I don't see any strong indication of a weakness in Tor from this, but it's a bit concerning that you coul…

This basically adds no new information about Tor, except what we already knew -- that you should really have a private bridge, and that Tor traffic is readily discernible from normal traffic (hence, avoid using it on networks where authorization is linked to your identity!). The affidavit doesn't say how they linked the GuerillaMail address to Tor, presumably they used a subpoena. He could have easily avoided detecti…

Or just not confessed; him using TOR around the same time is not going to be enough to convict him.

Re: Harvard Student Charged In Bomb Hoax

#15
post #2

http://www.scribd.com/doc/192157170/Eldo-Kim-Complaint It sounds like they determined from the email provider that the message came from a Tor exit node, then from there they looked for who had made a connection on Harvard campus to known Tor relays. He had, so they interviewed him and he confessed to everything. I don't see any strong indication of a weakness in Tor from this, but it's a bit concerning that you coul…

Serious question: why do people talk so highly of a security protocol which even Harvard students fail hard at actually using in real life? If people who are the global 99.999'th percentile of tech literacy lose their lives and careers relying on this stuff, in what way is it a meaningful solution to third-world victims of repressive governments? I'm assuming at this point that thousands of Syrian, Egyptian, Iranian,…

The "failure" you mention here is his confession.

If all they had to go on was what's in the article -- that "the person who used Guerilla Mail used Tor to access it" and "[Kim] used Tor around the same time the e-mails were sent" -- that's not enough to charge him with a crime.

It's enough to go and talk to him about it, but if he had wanted to, he could have protected his identity (but possibly prolonged the investigation, depending on what other resources the agent had) by simply denying that he had anything to do with it.

Re: Harvard Student Charged In Bomb Hoax

#16
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Running TOR at the same time the message was sent. Plus The police do not have to have probable cause to speak to you. Of course what you say back is entirely up to you.

In addition, I imagine a list of students who had finals in those buildings around that time also entered into the equation. Talking to the guy using tor at the time, who had finals at the time, is a no brainer.

he wouldn't have gotten nabbed in a court of law -- all you need is a motive.

Re: Harvard Student Charged In Bomb Hoax

#17
post #2

http://www.scribd.com/doc/192157170/Eldo-Kim-Complaint It sounds like they determined from the email provider that the message came from a Tor exit node, then from there they looked for who had made a connection on Harvard campus to known Tor relays. He had, so they interviewed him and he confessed to everything. I don't see any strong indication of a weakness in Tor from this, but it's a bit concerning that you coul…

[deleted]

Re: Harvard Student Charged In Bomb Hoax

#19
post #2

http://www.scribd.com/doc/192157170/Eldo-Kim-Complaint It sounds like they determined from the email provider that the message came from a Tor exit node, then from there they looked for who had made a connection on Harvard campus to known Tor relays. He had, so they interviewed him and he confessed to everything. I don't see any strong indication of a weakness in Tor from this, but it's a bit concerning that you coul…

so why didn't he go to starbucks or something to do this, I would have anticipated all this. I guess he was running out of time, and under the pressure he made a careless split second decision.

Re: Harvard Student Charged In Bomb Hoax

#20
post #2

http://www.scribd.com/doc/192157170/Eldo-Kim-Complaint It sounds like they determined from the email provider that the message came from a Tor exit node, then from there they looked for who had made a connection on Harvard campus to known Tor relays. He had, so they interviewed him and he confessed to everything. I don't see any strong indication of a weakness in Tor from this, but it's a bit concerning that you coul…

Serious question: why do people talk so highly of a security protocol which even Harvard students fail hard at actually using in real life? If people who are the global 99.999'th percentile of tech literacy lose their lives and careers relying on this stuff, in what way is it a meaningful solution to third-world victims of repressive governments? I'm assuming at this point that thousands of Syrian, Egyptian, Iranian,…

I see your point because the fact he used Tor at all led them to him. But it sounds to me like he cracked under police pressure, otherwise they might not have had anything at all on him.
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