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Tampa teen accused of being ‘mastermind’ behind Twitter hack

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

#421

Post by tazedsoul »

ggggtez wrote: post #278

Imagine a 17 year old robs a bank and steal 100k from the savings accounts of random people. Or a 17 year old steals a couple of cars from random people off the street... The crime is not breaking into Twitter. The crime is theft. Twitter didn't steal that money, this guy did. Let's not pretend the internet is a magical land without consequences.

If a 17 year-old gains access temporarily to a bank vault, while they’re in there it’s not possible they could also cause a nuclear war. The crimes are similar at face value but meaningfully different.

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

#422

Post by rriepe »

ipsin wrote: post #55
henryfjordan wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Florida has some of the most permissive laws about mugshots and criminal info. The reason for the "Florida Man" meme is not that people in Florida are more weird than anywhere else, just that it's easier to find the mugshots online.

The story below the linked one is how a man rammed his way into a gated community, beat two people to death with a baseball bath, and then the police found the suspect unconscious after he drank some bleach. That seems more weird than my local news, by a bit.

That's still downstream of Florida's sunshine laws. If that happens in your state, there's a chance the media doesn't hear about it, or hears about it too late.

In Florida, the media hears about anything that involves an arrest because it's all published for public inspection. It's not just mugshots but other records too.

The smallest community newspapers in Florida will have a section about who got arrested.

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

#423

Post by jessaustin »

vkou wrote: post #414
woutr_be wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they knew up front they would be doing this, they could’ve shorted Tesla in smaller positions, over multiple accounts. There’s tons of people shorting Tesla, would it really be traceable to any of those?

Yes, because the SEC isn't stupid, and would trawl through the data, until they found: * A set of freshly opened accounts. * That only shorted a single stock. * Right before a major hack. * That cashed out all at once. * That never traded again. And then they'd start calling the owners of those accounts, and asking questions. Most of those accounts would be legitimate traders, but that's fine - there's not that many…

It would be nice if SEC were this dogged in its pursuit of actual insider trading.

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

#424

Post by burntbridge »

ggggtez wrote: post #278

Imagine a 17 year old robs a bank and steal 100k from the savings accounts of random people. Or a 17 year old steals a couple of cars from random people off the street... The crime is not breaking into Twitter. The crime is theft. Twitter didn't steal that money, this guy did. Let's not pretend the internet is a magical land without consequences.

Using your analogy imagine the bank had kept the client's money in a cardboard box in a shed out the back. They did this because they didn't want to pay for a safe. The thieves should prosecuted but so should the bank.

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

#425

Post by tazedsoul »

I’d imagine the FBI has more than just the link to these individuals via their drivers licenses being used for verification. Surely, these drivers licenses may have been used fraudulently by a hacker who wishes not to be found out so embarrassingly?

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

#426

Post by DubiousPusher »

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.

Overcharging has become the norm. Not just in high profile cases but in everyday ones as well. It's an effective leveraging tool used to get the accused to accept the actual charge in a plea bargain.

Generally the American criminal justice system has bent all of its pressure upon convictions without trial. The system is designed to make your life a nightmare upon accusation in the hopes you cannot afford or dare to resist.

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

#427

Post by perl4ever »

jdmichal wrote: post #72
ipsin wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The story below the linked one is how a man rammed his way into a gated community, beat two people to death with a baseball bath, and then the police found the suspect unconscious after he drank some bleach. That seems more weird than my local news, by a bit.

Maybe it's weirder than your local news, because your local news never finds out about those weird police calls like they do in Florida?

It's my opinion that Florida is weirder, because driving around, the weird signs of weird people (roadside, or on their vehicles for instance) are weirder and more common than up north. Not an airtight proof, but an independent datum not biased for the same reasons as the news.

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

#428

Post by wickedwideweb »

freehunter wrote: post #345
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…

People really need to stop suggesting disabling Javascript as a solution. It’s not a solution. First, it puts the blame on the victim. “Oh you got hacked? Should have turned off Javascript.” Stop blaming the victim. Browsers come with Javascript turned on by default and many sites expect Javascript will work, so it’s a reasonable expectation that users leave Javascript enabled. Secondly there are a lot of devices tha…

People really need to stop suggesting using condoms as a solution. It’s not a solution.

First, it puts the blame on the victim. “Oh you got an STD? Should have used a condom.” Stop blaming the victim. Birthday suits don't come with condoms by default and many people expect unprotected sex, so it’s a reasonable expectation that people don't wear condoms.

Secondly there are a lot of places that people have SEX (Software EXchange). It’s not convenient to put on condoms in all places. If I used condoms when going to the local glory hole, every dick I sucked that needed a condom would make me stop, go to my bag, find my box of condoms, open one, and put it on him. Then go back to sucking dicks, bust this guy's nut, then go through the hassle of taking the condom off. That’s not a reasonable workflow to even suggest.

Lastly... ah nevermind, I don’t actually want to know if you honestly believe anyone is enforcing sex-after-marriage with a gun. It’s not true in any way but it’s such a ludicrous statement that I honestly don’t even want to hear if you’re being serious or not. For my own mental health I will pretend you’re joking.

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

#429

Post by jessaustin »

ProAm wrote: post #38
cookiecaper wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess would be that he is being tried as an adult and thus not eligible for the protections afforded to juveniles.

Tried as an adult for a hack on a social media site?

Don't expect reason or a sense of proportionality from USA "justice system". Prosecuting a social media hack will get a lot more attention than prosecuting e.g. some common crime of violence. Prosecutors are basically the worst people in USA. (In case you're wondering, yes they are worse than police.)

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

#430

Post by Sebb767 »

slg wrote: post #140
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.

The age of the attacker is irrelevant to Twitter's role in this story. However your underlying point still stands. If we want these types of attacks to stop, we can't just let all these companies off with a public embarrassment being the primary punishment. At a certain point we have to start calling it negligence when companies fall for these attacks and fail to have proper precautions in place to prevent them.

> The age of the attacker is irrelevant to Twitter's role in this story.

I don't think so. Of course, you cannot put every 17 year old in a bucket, but I'm 99% sure that there is no hacker that age with three decades of experience. Therefore, this is strongly suggesting (yet not proving) that the skill cap needed is rather low.

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