Florida Teenager to Spend 3 Years in Prison for Twitter Hack That Affected Apple

[5232152]

I don't see how 3 years is overkill. More than likely, he will only serve a fraction of the imposed sentence. He is lucky he didn't get more time.

Society paying for sending a 17-year-old to jail.
He will lose years he could have gone to school.
Most likely keep being a burden for society.
This is the failure of the American system is not to promote moving forward but to punish. Hell, doesn't even follow the words of Jesus Christ if you want to go the constitutional way on this one.

 

[fiatlux]

like it or not, the justice system cannot function without plea bargaining

Plea bargaining only exists in the common law countries. Plenty of justice systems work without it.

 

[Eorlas]

Someone needs to tell these kids before they do stupid stuff, that there are plenty of tech companies that would happily employ them for their expertise in these matters.

"hi, I can hack your accounts. what sort of employment would you offer me?"

not exactly a resume

 

[anotherelise]

I wonder how much money was sent in. If he kept the secret key safe it's possible he could get out of jail in 3 years and be retired.

 

[nathansz]

that seems an extremely excessive sentence sentence for a child that basically played a trick

 

[Wiesenlooser]

Poor Kid!

Here in Germany a driver killed a 19y old girl. He was drunk, drove a car, then hit her...

Long story short, all he got was a 5000€ fine, and could even keep his driving license. Probably not much different in the US.

And a Twitter Hacker, lol - A HACKER, better call him Scammer, get 3ys.

What the hell are you talking about, I'm sure that is BS.

 

[dontwalkhand]

Someone needs to tell these kids before they do stupid stuff, that there are plenty of tech companies that would happily employ them for their expertise in these matters.

With 190 years of experience, a bachelors degree, and knowing someone in the industry already. Good luck getting the likes of Facebook, Apple, etc to hire you without this when there's 9,000 people in like for the same job.

 

[Arsenikdote]

Hah yeah it does. With the billions of tweets per day or whatever the number is, that’s a very small crack to find.

Social engineering...calling up a twitter employee and pretending to be another employee. Without this, nothing would have happened. If anything it makes it obvious how flawed Twitter internal security policies are, not that this kid is above average in any way. Many companies need better security policies and more would be exploited if more people wanted to risk going to jail to try and make a quick buck.

Poor Kid!

Here in Germany a driver killed a 19y old girl. He was drunk, drove a car, then hit her...

Long story short, all he got was a 5000€ fine, and could even keep his driving license. Probably not much different in the US.

And a Twitter Hacker, lol - A HACKER, better call him Scammer, get 3ys.

Not a poor kid at all. He committed a crime and got punished. Sounds like you think a drunk driver should have received more of a punishment. I would agree, but that has nothing to do with this kid's punishment.

Ridiculous sentence. Drunk drivers who kill get less.

Same thing, just because you are unhappy about how drunk drivers are treated doesn't make a completely different crime's sentencing ridiculous. It would be the same as saying the price of milk ridiculous because of how much caviar costs. Sure they are both food products (crimes) and they both cost money (sentencing length) but other than that the two are not related in terms of comparison.

 

[barkomatic]

He was just a kid at the time and I think there would be better ways to rehabilitate him. It’s ridiculous that in this country the solution is always prison time in a revenge based justice system. That’s not the case in more advanced societies with a lower crime rate.

 

[bparzonz]

Poor Kid!

Here in Germany a driver killed a 19y old girl. He was drunk, drove a car, then hit her...

Long story short, all he got was a 5000€ fine, and could even keep his driving license. Probably not much different in the US.

And a Twitter Hacker, lol - A HACKER, better call him Scammer, get 3ys.

He's not just a hacker, he's a thief. They're not all that comparable for a few reasons.

1) Alcoholism is treatable. Addiction as a root cause of manslaughter shouldn't be punished in the same way that a preplanned criminal act is... unless you believe that justice is meant to be exclusively punitive. As tragic and negligent as driving drunk is, it is likely that he will not be a danger to society with the programs and oversight I imagine he's required to perform. Recidivism for DUI-related offenses is less than 1/3. Recidivism for the closest related offense I could find for theft (burglary), is nearly 2/3's.

2) To be fair, I imagine there are other circumstances you are not describing or aware of about the girl. Maybe it is different in Germany, but in the U.S. DUI manslaughter is a felony and carries a minimum of 1 year in jail. The fact he got no jail time implies to me that something else is going on. But if not, although yes, the punishment for manslaughter should be more severe, that doesn't mean the thief should be treated less severely.

3) Organized theft is defined in the U.S. as a crime of moral turpitude. These are punished more severely as they require moral deficit to be performed over and over with the intention to harm. I imagine this theft took months to set up and at every step of the way those involved had the opportunity to decide not to steal from people and ignored it. Now perhaps you could argue that someone driving drunk has plenty of opportunities to prevent themselves from doing so, and I'd agree (Not driving to a location with the intention to drink, giving someone else your keys etc etc). But these actions are preventative measures, just as alcohol treatment will be (drug tests and rehab). How do you get a kid not to defraud people again in the same way? You have to keep him away from computers and keep a close eye on him, which is exactly what is happening here.

 

[contacos]

Poor Kid!

Here in Germany a driver killed a 19y old girl. He was drunk, drove a car, then hit her...

Long story short, all he got was a 5000€ fine, and could even keep his driving license. Probably not much different in the US.

And a Twitter Hacker, lol - A HACKER, better call him Scammer, get 3ys.

What the hell are you talking about, I'm sure that is BS.

German rulings are questionable in general. There are rapists that get like a 1k fine because the child was „only“ 2 years old and thus supposedly won’t remember the crime potentially causing mental issues in the future.

 

[ikramerica]

Sentenced as a juvie, out by 19 including the bootcamp, youth record sealed.

 

[BaltimoreMediaBlog]

If Tim Cook were truly smart or had any sense of humor, the later of which we know is not possible, he'd have hired this kid already. Apple wins though. He'll get out of prison after being raped repeatedly in jail and likely overdose on opioids with no prospect of any job. Thank You Timmy!

 

[PassiveSmoking]

I am not really a fan of plea bargaining. I am also not a fan of using logical fallacy to try and rationalize the irrational of your example.

How is it irrational to think somebody doing a scam should get less prison time than somebody who caused a death through gross negligence?

 

[ArrayDecay]

Fair sentence.

 

[Wolf Of Infinite Loop]

So they were able to get two bitcoins. What a caper 🤣

 

[Suckfest 9001]

He was just a kid at the time and I think there would be better ways to rehabilitate him. It’s ridiculous that in this country the solution is always prison time in a revenge based justice system. That’s not the case in more advanced societies with a lower crime rate.

Yeah pretty glad I don’t live there that’s for sure.

 

[hot-gril]

That’s obscene. A fine for killing a kid? Maybe we should be using a benchmark that isn’t absolutely ******* insane.

Probably less than the fine and/or jail you get for certain banned speech there.

 

[Agent OrangeZ]

Why is everyone acting like this kid is a "super hacker" that has talent that should be hired by these companies? The kid got access to Twitter "god mode" because Twitter was stupid enough to have those credentials posted in their Slack channel.

 

[IllinoisCorn]

That’s a fair amount of time for that crime. By “fair” I mean “large.”

 

[IllinoisCorn]

Yeah this is overkill. I mean it’s already quite clear that the US legal system is a joke but this is a little over the top considering there are mothers out there who abused/killed their children and they got off lighter than this guy.

This guy’s post might sound hyperbolic, but it’s accurate.

 

[macsareveryinteresting]

Bitcoin eh.

 

[Eso]

it’s not like he actually hurt anyone.

lol what? How is stealing a person's money not hurting them? He stole $117,000 - that's more than you are likely to get by robbing a bank.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

this might be the wrong takeaway but who the hell falls for a trillion-dollar corporation saying they'd double your bitcoin? i mean come on

The same people who falls for other types of scams. Even a fraction of a fraction of people who saw it gave them bitcoin, that would still be a massive profit due to the large following these accounts have.

 

[Mrjetsondc]

This thread is full of corporate boot lickers