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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

#681

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Again, you are misunderstanding the intention. 9/11 was an act of terrorism. Setting police cars on fire is vandalism, destruction of government property, maybe something for endangering police officers or something. All things condoned by your local friendly "anarchists". What it isn't is terrorism. Now go and listen to some Rage Against the Machine. Are they terrorists?

Is lighting crosses on fire terrorism?

Yes, because the whole point of that act is to terrify whoever lives on the property of the cross you're burning

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

#682

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one deserves any blame for being burgled when leaving their front door opened - however if a bank leaves the vault open they deserve blame because what's in the vault is not just theirs. Twitter left the vault open.

When did a pie on a windowsill become a free pie? That’s hobo mentality. It’s not your pie. Keep your goddamn hands off the fucking pie.

If hobos are a known problem, you have no right to be shocked when one steals a pie.

If hackers are a known problem, a huge company like Twitter has no right to claim it was completely blindsided when it gets hacked.

Twitter is a multinational corporation with access to the personal data of hundreds of millions of users.

It has a duty of care to those users, and at a minimum it should have a dedicated team with security policies and recovery plans.

Aside from the reputational damage, an aggressive and ambitious lawyer could make a good case for a very expensive class action if those plans turn out be defective and/or inadequate.

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

#683
post #437

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You are not wrong but you are glossing over the fact that by "digital transactions" you seem to actually mean "transactions brokered by a third party". USD also works the way you describe. I may write someone a check based on a fraudulent premise then later demand my money back. If they have already cashed that check and run then the money is gone from their account and there is no way to reverse the transaction. The…

This is such a weird hill to die on

I was excited by Bitcoin when the whitepaper came out and I just think it's neat.

The huge explosion in Bitcoin popularity with daytrader "lambo" jerks led to a ton of people (even technically inclined people) talking about Bitcoin without understanding it too well. So now it sort of sets me off.

Plus, it's way easier (and more fun) to fight about something frivolous like Bitcoin than it is to fight about things that are actually important.

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

#684
post #543

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How exactly do you short a specific cryptocurrency?

You go on Binance, BitMEX, Bybit, FTX, Phemex or any other exchange that offers futures or perpetual swaps that track the bitcoin (or whatever) price. This is basic stuff. You can create a BitMEX account in minutes, load some bitcoin in and short with 100x leverage with minimal time or effort, just need a small amount of bitcoin to trade with. He could have done the scam on eg Elon Musks amount to get some bitcoin an…

> load some bitcoin in and short with 100x leverage

Sounds like a great way to have a crooked exchange make you insolvent very quickly. Be very careful using any kind of leverage.

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

#685
post #265

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Is bad security ok for, say, a bank or a nuclear power plant?

A nuclear power plant, no. Because, its most likely public property and so govt should have a say in its security. Even if it was a privately owned nuclear power plant, a breach would catastrophically and directly affect people who are not just its customers. But, a bank, which is a privately owned entity. I think yes. If I own a bank and have bad security practices, and a breach impacts only my customers. I think th…

Large banks are designated as SIFI (systemically important financial institutions, aka "too big to fail"). When they screw up, the government steps in and props them up with taxpayer's money. To those banks losses from lax security are externality.

In that sense they are not very different from nuclear power plants. Indian Point is owned by Entergy and it gets the money when everything works fine, but the risks are covered by the government through Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act.

If your house is robbed, it's your problem. But if you store personally identifiable information for everyone and it gets stolen, now it's everyone's problem.

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

#686
Whenever I read news like these, I just think that this is such a waste of talent (assuming Twitter's security isn't analogous to Swiss cheese). This kid could have gone into ethical hacking and general security.

Now not only he's getting thrown in prison (over something he probably wasn't even convinced he could do, if the subpart attempt at capitalizing on it is any indication) for years, he's lost any potential career on the field.

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

#687
post #588

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"We have to put an accept button on every new website you visit or democracy will end"

"Any government regulation is literally fascism/communism and will inevitably lead to the deaths of millions of people." Do you see why straw man arguments aren't helpful?

[deleted]

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

#688

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Not home security, but I'm of the opinion this should apply for businesses and public places in some case. For instance, I usually carry a gun on me. If I go into the court house or a concert venue I'm prohibited from doing that. IMO they have now assumed a level of liability to provide a reasonable level of effective security and they're negligent if they don't and I'm injured or kill because of a mass shooting anyw…

I find it odd that you think a gun protects you in public. Its always seemed to me like you are more likely to be shot if you're carrying a gun, because an armed criminal now has to shoot you first if they want to ensure that they are not shot themselves. If you are unarmed they can simply threaten to shoot you and need not actually shoot. I guess in the US thee are so many guns that perhaps criminals will just assum…

The gun is well concealed and I'm an accomplished competitive shooter - no I'm not concerned about that.

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

#689
post #684

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You go on Binance, BitMEX, Bybit, FTX, Phemex or any other exchange that offers futures or perpetual swaps that track the bitcoin (or whatever) price. This is basic stuff. You can create a BitMEX account in minutes, load some bitcoin in and short with 100x leverage with minimal time or effort, just need a small amount of bitcoin to trade with. He could have done the scam on eg Elon Musks amount to get some bitcoin an…

> load some bitcoin in and short with 100x leverage Sounds like a great way to have a crooked exchange make you insolvent very quickly. Be very careful using any kind of leverage.

If you don’t trust your exchange not to commit that kind of fraud, then you shouldn’t trade on it at all, as there are many ways they could defraud you even if you trade at 1x. There are plenty of. reasons why I wouldn’t recommend trading at 100x, but “the exchange might commit fraud” isn’t at the top.

Still, in the described scenario, where you use a scam and market manipulation, 100x seems like a great tool.

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

#690

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you say that?

Software engineers are much more aware and focused on the problem of technical attacks. An fbi agent has no innate reason to distrust usb sticks. After all, they're just for "moving files" or whatever other basic tasks they use them for.

With a corrupted USB drive, the FBI Agent may as well be drawring bleedn ded
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