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

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

#191

Post by kevin_thibedeau » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 8:14 PM UTC

athyuttamre wrote: post #151

par wrote: post #126

> Today’s announcement proves that cybercriminals can no longer hide behind perceived global anonymity Anyone know what the loose end was that got these guys busted?

This report has some details: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/press-release/file/1300126...

> On April 2, 2020, the administrator of the OGUsers forum publicly announced that OGUsers website was successfully hacked. Shortly after the announcement, a rival criminal hacking forum publicly released a link to download the OGUsers forum database, claiming it contained all of the forum’s user information. The publicly released database has been available on various websites since approximately April 2020. On or about April 9, 2020, the FBI obtained a copy of this database.

Seems very convenient. Parallel construction?

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

#192

Post by twhb » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 8:14 PM UTC

georgiecasey wrote: post #116

kube-system wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[cost of compliance] > [revenue from EU visitors]

And I don't blame the site at all. Another stupid rule from the EU preventing me from reading articles.

A man has a hotdog stand that he never cleans. One day, a health inspector comes by and tells him that unless he cleans his grill every day, he can’t keep selling hotdogs. The man shouts “I’ve never cleaned the grill in my life! It’s impossible, nobody does it! And who’s going to pay for the cleaner and the five minutes every day, me? No, I’ll just go sell my hotdogs somewhere else.” And he leaves. Later a regular comes by, sees the missing hotdog stand, hears it happened as a result of the health inspector’s visit, sees that other people are now eating the man’s hotdogs while he can’t, and thinks “Man I’m hungry. Screw health inspectors.”

Taking care of people can be a thankless job.

Here are a dozen healthier options: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=graham+clark&t=osx&iar=news&ia=new...

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

#193

Post by SahAssar » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 8:14 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?

If you want legal recourse and refunds why would you use a currency that explicitly does not allow for those?

Seriously, if you want the protections of the legal system, then use currency controlled by the legal system.

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

#194

Post by coldpie » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 8:15 PM UTC

libraryatnight wrote: post #149

par wrote: post #126

> Today’s announcement proves that cybercriminals can no longer hide behind perceived global anonymity Anyone know what the loose end was that got these guys busted?

If there was any merit to the articles where people in the media were put in contact with people involved (and it seems so, now) then they left tracks all over the place. A) reaching out to the media at all. B) sharing screens of the OGUsername boards they hung out on C) Bragging.

Yeah, as soon as that Vice article came out it was clear they were toast. You don't brag like that and get away with it.

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

#195

Post by superkuh » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 8:15 PM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #184

superkuh wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if you enable javascript. This is exactly equivalent to opening every email attachment you receive. It's absurd this is considered the norm. You can take individual responsibility and disable JS by default. Also, don't visit sites that you disagree with. This is much more ethical than the European choice to bring in people with guns to coerce sites into behaving how they want. It's easy to understand why interna…

> You can take individual responsibility and disable JS by default. Sure, you try explaining that to the general public, and why most of the sites they visit don't work anymore. It's hard enough to manage as a techie. This is the same argument snake oil purveyors use to complain about health and safety regulations, and it's silly for the same reasons. > This is much more ethical than the European choice to bring in p…

I don't know about the public. That is many people I don't have control of. I do know that I can do it myself and it works fine and I can work around things.

I think this is true for many technical people. And I think doing this would encourage many of us to think of better ways to design and implement no-JS fallback functionality when making things for the public to use.

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

#196

Post by shadowgovt » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 8:15 PM UTC

ibejoeb wrote: post #147

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.

Nothing in the complaint (well, for the two others, since his is sealed) says that a state-level actor wasn't involved. Could be the tip of the iceberg. I find it hard to believe that this was prank hacking for about $150,000. You could sell Obama's handle for more, surely.

Personally, I find "it was a prank" extremely easy to believe. It's the simplest answer to the question "Wait, if someone compromised Twitter so badly they could tweet anything from any account, why didn't they try to move the whole stock market or start World War III?"

"Because they're young punks and didn't think of that" is a reasonable answer.

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

#197

Post by ceejayoz » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 8:15 PM UTC

wahern wrote: post #180

js2 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in Florida. It's not just easier to find mug shots online. It's a weird place. Alligators: https://nypost.com/2020/06/11/florida-man-fights-off-alligat... https://nypost.com/2018/07/30/florida-man-brings-gator-into-... https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/8-foot-gator-wrestled-from... Pythons: https://www.naplesnews.com/story/news/local/2019/08/12/6-foo... https://www.foxnews.com/science/alligator-fights-pytho…

Those aren't particularly weird. People chopping off their limbs in copy-cat insurance scams is weird: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernon,_Florida For over a hundred years kooks and scammers from the Northeast and Midwest have made their way down to Florida. It's a weird place because weird and disreputable people move there. (Source: I grew up in the panhandle, and also inherited some "beach front" property in the…

Don't forget the random cannibal attacks!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_cannibal_attack

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

#198

Post by advisedwang » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 8:15 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?

You can probably find the blockchain transaction of you paying them. So long as you can prove you own the sender, that's you proof right there.

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

#199

Post by sheeshkebab » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 8:15 PM UTC

nordsieck wrote: post #144

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.

> 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? 200 Million Americans could drive a car into a crowd. That doesn't make it any less bad for someone to do.

Twitter is a meme service with a bunch of self absorbed individuals talking over each other... just FYI in case you lived under the rock for last 10 years.

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

#200

Post by subculture » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 8:15 PM UTC

par wrote: post #126

> Today’s announcement proves that cybercriminals can no longer hide behind perceived global anonymity Anyone know what the loose end was that got these guys busted?

Reading the two complaints, it seems that they basically obtained Discord chat records and tied those usernames to an OGUsers db that was hacked & leaked in April.

Seems like the OGUsers database was the key piece of info, but it was 'a rival criminal hacking forum' that actually got the db and the FBI 'obtained' a copy of it.