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I was seriously wondering why out of all the high profile accounts used in the scam, Trumps account was not. Now it all makes sense. Florida.
 
He got caught by using a "private" VPN service. Which, wasn't so private against the government after all.

some VPNs dont have an issue with reporting IP addresses that use their services, and do log activity.

some VPNs, do not. the information of which do and which do not is readily available
 
Seeing the overwhelming sentiment of the comment section reminds me how cruel this world has already been. Yes, the criminal is a teenager, and yes, criminal activities should receive appropriate punishment, but the comment section makes the teenager sounds like a serial killer that killed hundreds of people or something that is against the entire human race, and that scares me.
On the other hand, if these 130 accounts are still high profile but not so insane like Apple’s official Twitter account, it might get into headline but probably not going to appear on this website, let alone being a headline. And I would boldly guess the action from law enforcement would be much slower and so-called “swift justice” would probably not happen, and certainly not that quickly.
 
sorry, but this was an epic failure at Twitter. If there was a bug in the code or something, i'd be more sympathetic but this guy tricked employees at Twitter, where clearly the internal controls were inadequate. but im sure throwing a teenager in jail for 30 years will make someone feel better.
 
17 year old hacks a multibillion dollar company? When is this? 1983? How does Twitter security team feel about themselves and their pay grade?

Also 45 years seems like a punishment for committing murder, imagine being 19 just about to start your life after leaving school(might be still in school) then getting a sentence where you get out at 64 years old ready to die...just because you thought it was exciting to get some bitcoin which amount to what? $100k?

We no longer live in 1979 were you can use demon dialer to dial up modems and log into banks and hope you will not be caught. And hiding behind a VPN is not really hiding in 2020. Just ask the amount of people who have been caught using jail broken amazon fire sticks and think companies don't know what they are doing.

Why would you jail break an Amazon Stick?
 
Seeing the overwhelming sentiment of the comment section reminds me how cruel this world has already been. Yes, the criminal is a teenager, and yes, criminal activities should receive appropriate punishment, but the comment section makes the teenager sounds like a serial killer that killed hundreds of people or something that is against the entire human race, and that scares me.
On the other hand, if these 130 accounts are still high profile but not so insane like Apple’s official Twitter account, it might get into headline but probably not going to appear on this website, let alone being a headline. And I would boldly guess the action from law enforcement would be much slower and so-called “swift justice” would probably not happen, and certainly not that quickly.

to be fair, he could have tricked people into taking 10s of millions of dollars and not be discovered so think about that...how would you feel if someone scammed you for a million dollars, not give it back, and was never found
 
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"US Attorney for the Northern District of California David Anderson said Sheppard “faces a statutory maximum penalty of 45 years of imprisonment” if convicted"

I'm not American. How often does people get the maximum penalty? Or is it just as likely that they get 1 year or 5 years? I assume 45 years is just the maximum penalty for this category of crime?
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Pathetic that Twitter got owned by 3 kids. Those kids should have put their knowledge to better use, but it’s amazing that a 10 billion dollar company doesn’t have smart enough employees to be safe against teenagers.
You make it sound like 20 year olds are dumb. I'd say they're the best hackers. They have unlimited time to learn whatever they want.
 
I’m sorry, but the crime definitely does not equal a 45 year jail sentence, especially at that age.

Let’s break down what actually happened.
Some kid hacked into Twitter, which as we’re finding out now was not very secure in the first place, and tricked some dumb people into giving him money.
Yes, it’s fraud, and it’s a crime. But a 45 year sentence?
He’s 17 right now. In 45 years, he will be 72.
It will be 2075.
I don’t think a lot of you realize how much time that actually is.
45 years ago, Watergate had just happened. That feels like forever ago. Watergate is in history books now.

Now in no way am I defending this kids actions.
Obviously what he did was wrong.
But let’s also keep in mind that, he was a kid!
If this kid was 13, would you be saying the same thing?
Because trust me, it is possible for a 13-year-old kid to do the exact same thing that this 17-year-old kid did. So if an eighth grader did this, would you have any more sympathy?
If not, then you’re just a cold human being.
There’s absolutely no way that this kid should have to spend almost the entirety of his adult life in prison.
Our prison system is messed up as it is.

And the worst part is, people have gotten away with a lot more.

There are rapists who have been let off the hook, there are pedophiles who have been let off the hook, there are murderers who have been let off the hook.
But sure, the one kid who scammed some dumb people out of money, lock him up for his entire adult life.
Personally, I think the kid should get between two and five years, plus probation, plus mandatory ethics training.
On top of that, I think that Twitter should be held accountable as well.
The kid isn’t even technically an adult yet, he can’t drink, he can’t smoke, he can’t go and fight for our country, and you’re gonna lock him up for, again, scamming dumb people out of money?
Because, and I’m pretty sure this isn’t controversial at all, but anyone who fell for that hack is dumb.
 
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I’m sorry, but the crime definitely does not equal a 45 year jail sentence, especially at that age.

Let’s break down what actually happened.
Some kid hacked into Twitter, which as we’re finding out now was not very secure in the first place, and tricked some dumb people into giving him money.
Yes, it’s fraud, and it’s a crime. But a 45 year sentence?
He’s 17 right now. In 45 years, he will be 72.
It will be 2075.
I don’t think a lot of you realize how much time that actually is.
45 years ago, Watergate had just happened. That feels like forever ago. Watergate is in history books now.

Now in no way am I defending this kids actions.
Obviously what he did was wrong.
But let’s also keep in mind that, he was a kid!
If this kid was 13, would you be saying the same thing?
Because trust me, it is possible for a 13-year-old kid to do the exact same thing that this 17-year-old kid did. So if an eighth grader did this, would you have any more sympathy?
If not, then you’re just a cold human being.
There’s absolutely no way that this kid should have to spend almost the entirety of his adult life in prison.
Our prison system is messed up as it is.

And the worst part is, people have gotten away with a lot more.

There are rapists who have been let off the hook, there are pedophiles who have been let off the hook, there are murderers who have been let off the hook.
But sure, the one kid who scammed some dumb people out of money, lock him up for his entire adult life.
Personally, I think the kid should get between two and five years, plus probation, plus mandatory ethics training.
On top of that, I think that Twitter should be held accountable as well.
The kid isn’t even technically an adult yet, he can’t drink, he can’t smoke, he can’t go and fight for our country, and you’re gonna lock him up for, again, scamming dumb people out of money?
Because, and I’m pretty sure this isn’t controversial at all, but anyone who fell for that hack is dumb.
It's "up to 45 years".

And is it OK to hack as long as the victim is dumb?
 
For anyone who doesn’t think that our justice system is completely screwed up, look up a celebrity by the name of 6ix9ine, Spelled exactly like that. He spent two years in prison. Only two years. And what did he do? Well, he has messing with an underage female when he was already an adult, he has racketeering charges against him, attempted murder, several planned murders, gang affiliation, gang activity, and several assault cases against him. On top of this, there’s A lot of people who claim that he sexually abused them. He spent two years in prison, out of a 47 year sentence, just because he cooperated with the government. Go look at his case, then tell me this 17-year-old kid deserves 45 years in prison, while people like 6ix9ine get to roam free
 
It's "up to 45 years".

And is it OK to hack as long as the victim is dumb?
It’s never OK to hack, but the affect of a hack should be taken into account as well. If this kid would’ve went on Twitter, hacked these accounts, and said that he was starting a nuclear war or said something that could have threatened our actual national security, then absolutely lock him up for 45 years. But he didn’t, he did a bitcoin scam. I’ve visited websites where the first thing you see is a bitcoin scam. It’s all about the affect of the action. In this case, there wasn’t much. Some people lost money. People lose money every day. It doesn’t make it OK, but it also doesn’t make it OK for them to chuck him in prison for 45 years.
However, if you want to see him in prison for 45 years, that’s on you. It’s your tax money that’s paying for his meals.
But this kid didn’t do anything that hurt anyone else so much that he should be robbed of his entire adult life in my opinion.
 
to be fair, he could have tricked people into taking 10s of millions of dollars and not be discovered so think about that...how would you feel if someone scammed you for a million dollars, not give it back, and was never foundcrim
But at the same time, the charge to a killer killing one man could be “what if he kills 10 other people in the scene” or “he could’ve killed 50 more people also at that shopping mall”. Instead of appropriate charges, the court would charge the killer “attempts of killing 50 other people in the vicinity”. The mindset like you just described would mean any criminal, such as thief stealing a couple chocolate bars in a shop should be charged Lifetime sentence because “he could’ve stolen everything in that shop”.

Granted, the crime committed by that teenager has the potential to be worse than what has published in the newspaper, but such “what if” mindset would mean every single human in our society should be charged life sentence or death sentence as long as any crime is committed, such as speeding. However, our society does not put someone in jail just because someone is speeding, but does when his speeding also causes crashes and injures.

I dont know if you heard about China installing surveillance cameras all over the place and uses AI to identify any “potential crime” based on someone’s behaviour. That System seemed working pretty well at identifying potential criminal and allow law enforcement to ”proactively prevent crime”. The sentiment of this comment section sets a perfect stage for such proactive system to be in place and mass surveillance would be a reality across the entire developed world very soon, and there would be nothing else regular people can do to circumvent that.

In summary, the mindset is dangerous. I get the sentiment but it is bad to beat down a criminal to death just because “he/she could‘ve done much worse”, and that law system should always punish criminals based on actual damage instead of imaginary “what if”. Unless people unconsciously wish China’s “proactive criminal prevention system” in place in our developed world, we’d better careful what we are thinking.
 
Since he's a minor, didn't those Florida news sites break the law by releasing his name? I wonder if this could lead to a mistrial.
 
Wow, twitter got owned by a kid. Maybe they need to hire better security experts.

in terms of punishment, I would say if the 100% of the stolen money can be collected and returned, offer a reduced punishment. If they spent the money or it disappeared, they should get 10 years.
 
Wow, twitter got owned by a kid. Maybe they need to hire better security experts.

in terms of punishment, I would say if the 100% of the stolen money can be collected and returned, offer a reduced punishment. If they spent the money or it disappeared, they should get 10 years.
This.
either way, a 17 year old should not be in prison until he’s in his 70s unless he actually caused long lasting harm or trauma, or actuallly posed a national security risk.
 
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nothing besides bitcoin is secure, this lesson was needed, nobody was hurt, absolute legend!
 
So an American woman of adult age KILLS a young boy in the UK and gets away with it. Yet a young misguided boy from the UK is now facing 45 years in California for a bit of social engineering and sending some tweets. Nobody died, they only got $100K.

My gosh the USA justice system is ****ed up.
 
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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.
Sending Bitcoin to “Apple” is pretty stupid. Meanwhile billionaires are using COVID-19 as an excuse to loot the treasury and face no punishment.
 
Get this kid a job.
It gives me great satisfaction to see that those guys are going to be punished. People need to learn that every crime executed via the internet is not a trivial offense. Apparently even in this forum what people take from the story is his skill (which sadly didn‘t even need to be that great for this), not his crimes. Why would I employ an obvious a**hole?
Should we also offer terrorists jobs in the police for their shooting skills, or perhaps give a murderer a job as a chemistry teacher for his skillful dissolving of corpses in acid?
 
45 years!!!!! in prison? Bloody hell, American justice system is truly messed up.

Jesus, 45 years is insanely excessive. Oh well, glad I don't live in good ol' USA! The police state with minimal freedom

Btw, not saying that hackers should be free to do this, not at all. Its just in general. USA claims to be country of freedom but its actually the opposite. All you need to do to realise how messed up it is is to know that they have PRIVATE prisons (profit organisations). Ha, insane!
Nope that's appropriate. This kid is a thief, tried to steal peoples crypto by using famous accounts. He should be treated as such.
 
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It gives me great satisfaction to see that those guys are going to be punished. People need to learn that every crime executed via the internet is not a trivial offense. Apparently even in this forum what people take from the story is his skill (which sadly didn‘t even need to be that great for this), not his crimes. Why would I employ an obvious a**hole?
Should we also offer terrorists jobs in the police for their shooting skills, or perhaps give a murderer a job as a chemistry teacher for his skillful dissolving of corpses in acid?
Because terrorists are actually dangerous. People should be smart enough to not send Bitcoin to Fake Apple, but then again anyone who buys Bitcoin is not that smart anyway.
 
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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.
I could not agree more! Clearly (and sadly) I think it is going to be demonstrated that the death of one boy is considered less important than the reputation of a multi national company and some replaceable $$$ 😔

I hope I am wrong!
 
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If a teenager committed fist degree murder I'd still consider 45 years a grossly excessive sentence. America seriously just gets weirder by the day, you guys need an intervention :\

I agree that 45 years is beyond excessive for these three teenagers for the scam they pulled.

Three teenagers have recently been sentenced to 16 and 13 years in jail for the ‘manslaughter’ of PC Andrew Harper over here in the UK. I don’t profess to know all about the case but IMO they got off far too lightly. I’d even go so far as saying that 45 years isn’t anywhere near enough for these three teenagers. Life minimum.

What sentence would you say someone who commits murder in the first degree receives? Suppose you half that sentence and the scum bag(s) get out and kills your wife or child? How do you feel about the sentence then?

Teenagers do stupid ****, some show remorse, others don’t. To be an adult psychopath, you were probably a psycho in your teens too.
 
Sad sad response. Read what Chaos215 wrote. Spot on.

And please, rethink your stance as this is truly not the right way to go.

To illustrate it a bit better. Next time you cross red light as a pedestrian etc. - do you want to get 2 years in prison? Because clearly if this deserves 45 years or a life sentence then crossing the red light on a crossing should get you 1-2 years, right?
Sooner or later everyone will be in prison. Don't you understand that that is not the right approach?
How about mild speeding? 1-2 years in prison for that - would you like that?
Or parking where you are not meant to - 1 year for that.

Because posting a scam post that is punished 45x more than bad parking is adequate, right? So yeah, all bad parking = PRISON for 1 YEAR!
Lets all fill USA with prisoners! Hahahhahaha

People are nuts!
There is no law dictates you can be imprisoned 2 years in prison for speeding.
 
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