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“The AT&T Hacker” Sentenced To 41 Months In Prison

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Re: “The AT&T Hacker” Sentenced To 41 Months In Prison

#51

Post by nicholassmith »

I wonder if he's going to become a modern Ned Kelly. I'd hope not, I'm sure there's better folk heroes for us.

He remained unrepentant, he said next time he'd go the harsher route, rather than detecting the flaw and reporting it they'd made sure to collate a lot of information from the leak and according to weev reported it before approaching Gawker.

I think the sentence is out of line with his crime, but he was never going to get a slap on the wrist and told to go his merry way. They've probably done their homework and found he's been up to merry hijinks with computers for longer than most people have known how to email.

Maybe slightly cynically of me I wonder if this his act of ultimate trolling, to force the courts to go for a harsh sentencing and to get a wave of sympathy that leads to people DDoSing .gov pages.

Re: “The AT&T Hacker” Sentenced To 41 Months In Prison

#52

Post by drhayes9 »

smsm42 wrote: post #46
drhayes9 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a more useful analogy is this: there's a large municipal building in town that stores a lot of its citizen's vital records, and they've been slipshod on security. You gather evidence about just how slipshod they've been and turn it over to a journalist. Conflating what weev did to someone walking around inside your house brings in too many emotional triggers about private property. He wasn't in someone's hous…

You don't "gather the evidence", you rather take the records for 100,000 citizens, put them on a truck and dump them in the frontyard for a local newspaper, after considering how much you could sell it for and deciding it's probably more fun to just cause public embarrassment. If you wanted just to show the system is insecure, 2 records would be enough. Stealing 100K of them is not something you do if your goal is ju…

There's definitely a "being an ass" component to this, no doubt... but one could argue that presenting two records to a journalist implies a small security hole. 100k of them is a giant security hole.

Re: “The AT&T Hacker” Sentenced To 41 Months In Prison

#53

Post by jellicle »

numbsafari wrote: post #19

If you are driving down the street, and notice that I put the deadbolt onto my house backwards (so that it locked from the outside), is the appropriate thing to do to let yourself in and walk around looking at all my stuff and then call the local news station and invite them in along with you, or is it to call the police or leave me a note letting me know I've got a problem?

Try making an honest comparison instead. This photo was taken at a restaurant, from the outside looking in, before it opened for the day:

http://www.blogto.com/upload/2008/02/20080215_rats.jpg

The restauranteurs were not informed about it; it went straight to the media and to the city health department. The restaurant was shut down later that day for health violations.

Has a crime been committed? Did the photographer have a moral, ethical, or legal duty to attempt to quietly inform the restaurant that they have a rat problem? Should the photographer have been prosecuted for interfering in the business operations of the restaurant? Suppose we know the photographer is an asshole. Does that change the calculus?

Re: “The AT&T Hacker” Sentenced To 41 Months In Prison

#54

Post by objclxt »

flyinRyan wrote: post #49
objclxt wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think this particular case is black and white. Judging by my Twitter feed, a number of security researchers and white hats feel the same way I do: the law as it stands is not good, but what Weev did was also really, really unhelpful and borderline stupid. Rather than disclosing to AT&T, he leaked it directly to Gawker, and discussed how to potentially abuse the data he had (by shorting the stock, selling the…

Sounds like a bunch of victim blaming to me. So the guy is an idiot, is that enough to go to prison now?

...you did read the bit where I said "the sentence is absolutely disproportionate"? I think you can be a victim and a bit of an idiot at the same time. I'm trying to point out that in terms of changing the law so this sort of thing doesn't happen again he's hardly a fantastic poster child.

Re: “The AT&T Hacker” Sentenced To 41 Months In Prison

#57

Post by thomasvendetta »

sigzero wrote: post #33
thomasvendetta wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Precisely that. Sure, he made a mistake, but so did AT&T, and now because of it he's potentially going to spend 41 months of his life in jail. Life is too short as it is.

He "made a mistake"? That is what we are calling it now?

I can see where you're coming from saying something like that... But it is a mistake in my eyes. It was an unwise decision that he probably would not have made had he known he faced 3+ years in prison.

That being said, this guy is obviously not a saint. I don't want to sound like I'm defending his affiliation with GNAA or the fact that he went to Gawker with it.

If it had been someone who gives to community, is polite, and respectful, and instead had gone to the NYT or another publication, they still could lose 3+ years of their life. To a mistake.

Re: “The AT&T Hacker” Sentenced To 41 Months In Prison

#58

Post by rdl »

flyinRyan wrote: post #50
numbsafari wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to defend them, because what they did was reprehensible, but they were charged as juveniles. This guy is an adult. If the two guys from Steubenville had been over 18, the sentences would have been considerably higher.

What a horribly screwed up system that seeks maximum penalty for a guy who wanted the public to be able to see the research they actually pay for but charge rapists as juveniles as if rape is less evil if you're less than 18 when you commit it.

I think there's a strong case for less culpability for children. If a 5 year old (EDIT: "accidentally" not intended here) rapes or kills someone, that's a different crime than if an adult does it.

But, 18 shouldn't be the dividing line for responsibility.

Re: “The AT&T Hacker” Sentenced To 41 Months In Prison

#59

Post by rtwtlkj »

smsm42 wrote: post #39
rdl wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the thing is that weev genuinely doesn't care if he gets 41 months vs. 36 months. This is a long troll by him; by being a troll, he brings more attention to the case, maximizing lulz, and bringing bigger guns to bear in his defense. If he'd gotten 3-6 month suspended sentence, even if you thought that was a bit much for essentially incrementing numbers, you'd probably not care much. If he were facing life in…

If he doesn't care why should I? I know many security researchers who aren't trolls and they are doing fine. When it happens to somebody who isn't purposefully self-destructive, then it may be a better case for concern.

You will when its your turn.

Re: “The AT&T Hacker” Sentenced To 41 Months In Prison

#60

Post by rogem002 »

cgag wrote: post #40
vinhboy wrote: post #22

I've never seen an uglier IAMA on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ahkgc/i_am_weev_i_may...

Just when you think your opinion of Reddit can't get any lower... I can't believe how many people think you should go to jail for being mean.

The default subreddits have suffered from an eternal september, if you unsubscribe from them & find the more niche subreddits it gets a lot better.
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