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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

#231

Post by Almondsetat »

NotMichaelBay wrote: post #187
1970-01-01 wrote: post #100

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...

Since it seems to have been glossed over in the court transcript, can anyone explain how exactly a VM or client for remote VM could be used to bypass the monitoring? Wouldn't the monitoring software capture any application's network activities, including a client for a Remote VM? I'm imagining something like Wireshark?

Monitoring software installed at the OS level can monitor both traffic and what applications generate it. But if the traffic is coming from a VM, it can only do the former.

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

#232

Post by echelon »

nerdponx wrote: post #145
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…

The funny thing about rights is that you have them even if you've done other bad things. The thinking on display here ("the guy was a criminal anyway") is the primary slippery slope to tyranny that we have seen in the past 100 years. Seems like he was legally eligible to be arrested for a variety of reasons. The FBI is still not allowed to use fraudulent warrants to that end. The rule of law is no such thing unless i…

> "the guy was a criminal anyway"

He violated 6 or 7 criminal things.

I'm on the civil rights and free speech maxxing side, but this was clearly a criminal in the act of actively criminaling.

The danger here is in crying wolf when this isn't a case of rights being violated for a non-perpetrator. This guy was willfully breaking laws left and right.

Don't cry wolf. We need that energy elsewhere.

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

#233

Post by MadnessASAP »

1970-01-01 wrote: post #100

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...

Yeah, that is a significantly more damning then what was given by his wife on Reddit. While SPICE is a normal means to interact with VMs, the defense couldn't offer any legitimate reason for him to be using one. They didn't even make an attempt to. They only established that the monitoring company couldn't say for certain that it was used explicitly to bypass the monitoring.

Also that it occurred right after the search mentioned on Page 28. It's a really bad look.

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

#234

Post by psunavy03 »

ranger_danger wrote: post #224
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…

It gets worse... both the wife and (either their husband or a previous partner) have their own threads on kiwi farms and are closely tied to both Encyclopedia Dramatica and Ethan Ralph. There's videos posted of them showing signs of severe mental illness. https://0x0.st/KcyY.jpg

. . . which means what, exactly, for those of us who are not Very Online?

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

#235

Post by Asooka »

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…

While the abuse by the system needs to be dealt with, if you are going to be a TOR exit node operator (or a thorn in the FBI's side in general), don't do the above. I sympathise with him in spirit, but this is a severe tactical blunder.

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

#236

Post by RankingMember »

petcat wrote: post #188
boston_clone wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you a lawyer by chance? I seem to remember cases or interpretations of the CFAA in which even guessing the username password combo of "admin:admin" would violate the act, resulting in teenagers or children being caught up in cYbEr FrAuD

It doesn't matter if you brute forced their crappy login with commonly-used credentials. You think it's OK for someone to rummage around in your garage just because they correctly guessed your keycode was 12345? Of course not.

Doesn't this posture also criminalize white-hat hackers, whose disclosures would protect you from the people who actually want to do damage?

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

#237

Post by ranger_danger »

tptacek wrote: post #228
ranger_danger wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It gets worse... both the wife and (either their husband or a previous partner) have their own threads on kiwi farms and are closely tied to both Encyclopedia Dramatica and Ethan Ralph. There's videos posted of them showing signs of severe mental illness. https://0x0.st/KcyY.jpg

Saying this only because I'm probably speaking for a lot of people here, but: I have no idea what any of that means.

I think it means we have very good reason to believe OP/adezero is severely embellishing the story and is simply lying (and has a documented history of it), even without all the actual evidence pointing directly to that.

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

#238

Post by Asooka »

echelon wrote: post #232
nerdponx wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The funny thing about rights is that you have them even if you've done other bad things. The thinking on display here ("the guy was a criminal anyway") is the primary slippery slope to tyranny that we have seen in the past 100 years. Seems like he was legally eligible to be arrested for a variety of reasons. The FBI is still not allowed to use fraudulent warrants to that end. The rule of law is no such thing unless i…

> "the guy was a criminal anyway" He violated 6 or 7 criminal things. I'm on the civil rights and free speech maxxing side, but this was clearly a criminal in the act of actively criminaling. The danger here is in crying wolf when this isn't a case of rights being violated for a non-perpetrator. This guy was willfully breaking laws left and right. Don't cry wolf. We need that energy elsewhere.

The part where he sustained a head injury during arrest and was denied medical help is definitely a violation of his rights. The rest ... yeah

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

#239

Post by klibertp »

perihelions wrote: post #146
jMyles wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This always happens though. Every time someone is thrown in a cage unjustly, the state tries to redirect us (yes, us, here in this forum and others like it) to look at other details of the situation, whether it's details of the person's political or personality or, in this case, details of this (also seemingly unjust) probation violation. Who cares if he smoked weed or installed a VM or evaded a government keylogger?…

I'll steelman the unpopular position: I think sobriety is a reasonable condition of freedom for someone with psychiatric self-control issues, that have lead them to commit felonies in the past. Vandalizing your employer's infrastructure over a grudge is, I suggest, strong evidence of a major impulse control issue. It think it makes sense and is in the public interest , draconian as it is, that this person shouldn't b…

> I think sobriety is a reasonable condition of freedom for someone with psychiatric self-control issues, that have lead them to commit felonies in the past.

Were he high on weed, maybe he'd not commit the felony in the first place. Yeah, banning him from alcohol is fine, from stimulants broadly - also OK, but weed? Honestly? How often, statistically speaking, does smoking weed make a person aggressive? While this person may be an outlier, without precise information on it, I'd say the ban on weed is as sensible as a ban on butter or relanium. If it doesn't serve any obvious purpose (like with alcohol: being drunk makes you do stupid things more often), then maybe it's really just a way of harassing this person?

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

#240

Post by iLoveOncall »

whimsicalism wrote: post #199
iLoveOncall wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You forgot to mention that in the hearing linked on the Reddit post it is shown that he made a search about a pedophile association as well right before downloading Spice. Page 28, lines 3 to 8 on https://rockenhaus.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/U.S.-v.-Ro...

i’ve made the same search multiple times before late at night and i am not a pedophile, just a wikipedia/history deep diver e: really? why am i downvoted for this

This was his last non-obfuscated internet traffic before he switched to his VM.
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