I swear, it's like Forida exlusively produces people who are on either extreme of the intelligence bell curve.
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Three People Charged in Twitter Bitcoin Hack [Updated]
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Given the US's refusal to extradite Sacoolas for killing a kid by dangerous driving, I'm sure we'll get right on sending that kid from Bognor Regis straight over to serve that *checks notes* 45 year prison sentence.
What I find pathetic is that some users here want those kids to get life sentence.
People really are truly insane.
People really are truly insane.
You kinda knew it was going to be some kids--there's no way you pull off a hack of that scale then just use it on a petty Bitcoin scam otherwise. There is absolutely no way an international manhunt backed by multiple huge tech companies is worth ~$100K split three ways.
I'm also not the least bit surprised they got caught, given what they pulled, who they pulled it on, and how much worse the consequences could have been on an international level if they'd done something other than a 3rd-tier-spam-grade scam.
To those thinking these guys deserve a job somewhere--why? From the paltry details Twitter released today, it was moderately clever spear-phishing social engineering, but the flaw was entirely with Twitter's sloppy internal processes, not that these guys were some kind of technical or social-engineering geniuses. And even if they were, it's one thing if they used the hack to show off, but when you use your skills to steal money from completely random saps on the internet, that's blatant fraud whether you did it in a technically clever way or not.
The 17-year-old, being 17, deserves the same relative leniency as other idiot minors who made very stupid decisions. The other two much less so, although they didn't kill anybody or ruin anybody's life, so a 30-year term seems wildly disproportionate to the crime.
I'm also not the least bit surprised they got caught, given what they pulled, who they pulled it on, and how much worse the consequences could have been on an international level if they'd done something other than a 3rd-tier-spam-grade scam.
To those thinking these guys deserve a job somewhere--why? From the paltry details Twitter released today, it was moderately clever spear-phishing social engineering, but the flaw was entirely with Twitter's sloppy internal processes, not that these guys were some kind of technical or social-engineering geniuses. And even if they were, it's one thing if they used the hack to show off, but when you use your skills to steal money from completely random saps on the internet, that's blatant fraud whether you did it in a technically clever way or not.
The 17-year-old, being 17, deserves the same relative leniency as other idiot minors who made very stupid decisions. The other two much less so, although they didn't kill anybody or ruin anybody's life, so a 30-year term seems wildly disproportionate to the crime.
I hope they make an example out of them, it'll teach others not to screw around with cybersecurity.
This is something that I say to myself to believe that my iCloud, OneDrive, and other "cloud" data is secure because... you know... these big companies have enough $ to make sure to pay for talent... when in reality, businesses don't make $ by giving it out freely.
Why pay competent techs when one can pay half or less? I see this all over sadly. It is extremely pathetic. All in the name of profit.
He's protected from cruel and unusual punishments.
This. 20 years ago being super clever and hacking into a big tech company may have looked great on your resume. Today if you managed to pull a major white-hat hack, maybe.
But if you do a social engineering hack--clever or otherwise--then use it on a Bitcoin scam? I don't particularly want someone with a track record of blatant criminal activity and fast-talking skills anywhere near the guts of my network.
Independent pen testing is about the only job this kind of hacker is going to be able to get on the right side of the fence. Which can, admittedly, be lucrative.
Kids do stupid stuff like shoplift a chocolate bar or buy weed and booze. When you hack into corporations and defraud people out of $100,000's, that's not 'kids doing stupid stuff'. That's a person acting with sophisticated intent and working knowledge of the consequences of their actions.
Deserve all the punishment they get. And the idiot employees of Twitter who provided user credentials/access (you can't just telnet in - you'd need VPN credentials, server credentials, database credentials etc.) should all be fired.
If this 17 year old 'kid' committed 1st degree murder, somehow I don't think you'd be so quick to dismiss it as kids doing stupid stuff. Not comparing the crimes, but the intent and knowledge of the consequences were all in place.
This isn't due to a lack of maturity.
omg if I had a drink it’d be all over my iPad... I haven’t thought of that in eons. Thanks, I needed that this afternoon after the day and night I’ve had.
He tried to scam millions of people. Maybe if he didn't do it and just breach Twitter to prove it's possible, then yes.
The month is not even over. He didn’t even make it out of the month without getting caught. Two weeks. The bar is a lot higher today. Back when the feds really didn’t under cybercrime they just accepted that these kids could do things they could not. Now the fed recruit from the top schools. How do you think they found him so quick. The have people 20 times as talented. They took down the Silk Road and that pirate who changed his name to dot com. Also the original pirate bay guys are also sitting in jail. Don’t believe the hype that getting caught is just a pitstop to a fed cyber security job. Those days are over.
First degree murder is deserving of a 45+ year prison sentence. I don't think these kids deserve a 45 year prison term, or we're making crimes disproportionate to damage done. Prison though, definitely. And if they were the CEO of banks, they'd get either a bailout or being forced to resign.
I would wager the many of the free VPN services are run by the CIA or the GRU.
So glad we can catch these fools who think they’re so brilliant they can steal others’ money. Good luck, hope it worked out for you.
Given the UK’s self-inflicted desperation to secure a trade deal with the US now that you’ve left the EU, I suspect your Government will indeed get right on it. Do you honestly see Boris Johnson and Priti Patel standing up to the US?
Darth Tulhu
macrumors 68020
Florida, like most of the US, is more rural than most people expect.
Hence we end up with the intellectual deficit that became nationally evident in November roughly four years ago.
It's unfortunate that so many people here are willing to hope that a 17-year-old's life is essentially over based on little more than an accusation. I'm sure there's plenty of evidence to back up the charges here, and if convicted, certainly some jail time is deserved. Maybe we should wait until we hear the evidence before passing judgement?
Let's also keep in mind that if this kid really masterminded the attack, he's a rather brilliant if misguided 17 year old. The goal here should be rehabilitation, not to ruin his life. If the accusations are accurate, this kid's skills would be an incredible asset for any number of employers. Why waste hundreds of thousands of dollars keeping him locked up for life based on a single (admittedly incredibly stupid) action?
Am I the only one that thinks you'd have to be pretty dumb to have fallen for this? Why would a company or rich individual need you to send money to them, in order to send you money back? This is just a modified version of the nigerian prince emails. Perhaps it's just me but as soon as I saw this it set off a huge red flag despite the fact that it came from the official Apple twitter account.
It's not just the police. Look at the mob justice so many in this thread alone are advocating for.
Americans have forgotten (or perhaps never learned) that a mere accusation does not imply guilt, and have largely given up on rehabilitation even once guilt has been established, seeking instead only to punish at an incredible cost to all parties involved (except for the private prisons, of course).
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45 years indeed sounds crazy excessive even if I believe what they did was seriously wrong. But even 10 years for a kid in his age in this period of life which has him be 27 by the time out (basically your entire early adult life erased and everything that implies) sounds like a pretty strong signal. This penalty would approximate that of second or even first degree murder and AFAIK no one here was even harmed; e.g. raped (a far, far lesser penalty), injured or assaulted otherwise.
The potential to wreak havoc on the political systems or destroy stocks was there with this very serious breach of high profile accounts but this ruling shouldn't depend on possibilities, but what they actually did. And that was use accounts to steal $100K Bitcoin.
The potential to wreak havoc on the political systems or destroy stocks was there with this very serious breach of high profile accounts but this ruling shouldn't depend on possibilities, but what they actually did. And that was use accounts to steal $100K Bitcoin.