'Iceman' Gets 13 Years For 2nd Hacking Offense 289
Hugh Pickens writes "Computerworld reports that Max Ray Butler, who used the hacker pseudonym Iceman, has been sentenced to 13 years in federal prison for hacking into financial institutions and stealing credit card account numbers, the longest known sentence ever handed down for hacking charges. This isn't Butler's first time facing a federal hacking sentence. After a promising start as a security consultant who did volunteer work for the FBI, Butler was arrested for writing malicious software that installed a back-door program on computers — including some on federal government networks — that were susceptible to a security hole. Butler served an 18-month prison term for the crime and fell on hard times after his 2002 release. In desperation, he turned again to cybercrime and by the time of his arrest in September 2007, he had built the largest marketplace for stolen credit and debit card information in the world."
long term sentence (Score:5, Insightful)
And lesson we've all learned today, class? Don't crap in your own backyard.
Re:long term sentence (Score:4, Funny)
Eye for an eye (Score:2, Funny)
If your penetrating backdoors then dont be surprised when your are sent to pound me in the ass prison to have the same done to you.
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I think had he had abilities, he wouldn't have gotten caught.
Re:but but obama wants hackers (Score:4, Funny)
I think this one failed the Turing test.
Looks like Iceman is being put on ice... (Score:4, Funny)
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Good thing he didn't choose Assman for his hacker pseudonym.
Re:Looks like Iceman is being put on ice... (Score:4, Funny)
Read the Fine Print (Score:5, Funny)
12 Years, 11 months of the sentence for using the pseudonym Iceman.
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His ego was writing checks that his body couldn't cash.
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Was his Goose cooked? And tenderized?
Lol too soon.
Re:Read the Fine Print (Score:4, Funny)
>12 Years, 11 months of the sentence for using the pseudonym Iceman.
And after 12 years, 11 months he'll be using the pseudonym Assman.
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12 Years, 11 months of the sentence for using the pseudonym Iceman.
I have some photos of what the "Iceman" may look like after his release.
http://imgur.com/KJHkT.jpg
-Cheers
Good. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Good. (Score:5, Insightful)
If you really want to reduce fraud, make the banks financially responsible for it. As it is, there's little incentive for the industry to increase their security.
I'm not saying this guy shouldn't be in jail. We should absolutely punish those who take unfair advantage of the system. But if we really want results, we should fix the system.
Re:Good. (Score:4, Interesting)
And make the rape victims responsible. And the carjacking victims. Yeah man!
We should absolutely punish those who take unfair advantage of the system. But if we really want results, we should fix the system.
What would be the results of "fixing the system"? If you make the banks eat every penny of fraud, you'll wind up with a system that is much more inconvenient for the honest users. You might as well not have a credit card.
Here's an example. I was travelling. As in I was not at home. I made a charge in Holland. VISA called me at home, where I wasn't, and left a vague message saying "call us". I went on to England and made some more charges. I got home and "got the message". I called VISA. They asked me if I had made the charge in Holland. I said yes. "No problem". Two days later, another "call us message". I did. "Did you make this charge in Holland?" Yes. "Did you make this charge in England?" Yes. "No problem."
A few days later, yet another "call us" message. I did. Again, "did you make this charge in Holland?" Yes. Yes. I asked why I was repeatedly being called about this, and finally someone forwarded me to the fraud department. "Those people are morons" (paraphrasing). "Your card was compromised in Holland, we are cancelling it and sending you a new one."
Well, that's very nice, I said, but I'm leaving on a trip tomorrow at 6AM and I need that card to pay for things. Why didn't you do this the first time I called? "Those people are morons." (paraphrased)
So I get my new card and realize that my webhosting is paid on the old one. I've cut up the old one and destroyed it, and I'm not near my vast files filled with past statements, but I know I need to get the account data changed. "I need to change the account for my billing," I say. "What's the old account number?" "I dunno, I don't have that card anymore." "We can't change accounts without the old number." Sigh.
So, no, I don't think the system should be fixed because the system becomes unusable when the security becomes tight. I LIKE being able to order stuff over the phone and have it shipped to my work instead of billing address (because of the security issue of UPS just dropping stuff on my front step with no signature). I sometimes NEED to be able to buy stuff with my personal card and have it delivered to odd places around the world so I can get my work done when I'm there.
Security and convenience is a trade-off. You want to err on the side of security. Most people want to err on the side of convenience.
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Yet the scumbags at AIG and the financial institutions robbed most americans blind and they were given end of the year bonuses!
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I hope that he has to serve the full sentence, and doesn't get out on parole
Since he's up on federal charges, he'll have to serve a minimum of 85% of his sentence time--about eleven years.
Re:Good. (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, blame the criminals for exploiting a system...
Um, yes. That does make sense.
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Which is rather like saying "It wasn't the murderer's fault Bob got killed, it was Bob's own fault for not walking around in a kevlar vest!"
Re:Good. (Score:5, Insightful)
In this analogy, Bob (the consumer) is a victim from all sides. He was wearing a vest but it turned out to have tissue paper inside rather than kevlar and had a target painted on it. For some reason, the courts side with the manufacturer of the vest, accepting their claim that it was up to Bob to verify the vest's construction.
The criminals are naturally at fault, but the banks are also to blame for flimsy security and trying to stick the consumer with the cost of the inevitable fraud. The law is at fault for actually letting the banks stick it to the consumer.
For some bizarre reason, banks are treated as if they are intrinsically honest, conscientious and correct. Recent events provide ample evidence that the assumption is faulty.
If they had to actually demonstrate that you made a charge before they could try to collect money from you, you can bet the system would be tightened up overnight.
Re:Good. (Score:4, Informative)
If the person is there in person, then ID check...
Actually doing anything meaningful along that line is against the merchant agreements companies sign to accept credit cards.
From Visa's [visa.com]:
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Funny you should mention that; a week or so ago, I printed out that same passage, and the page or two surrounding it, and stowed it away in my wallet for the next time a clerk insists on seeing my ID in order to complete a sale.
(Some people might think I'm a man of principle. Most others would probably say that I'm just an asshole, making it harder for the commonfolk who "are just doing their jobs." Myself, I see it like this: If I have to follow the rules when I deal with people, then so does everyone-
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Well of course, if they were all just a little Building and Loan, then Old Man Potter wouldn't have stolen Uncle Billy's deposit. Let's go give Old Man Potter the Nobel Prize and kick Uncle Billy in the balls!
(Tune in next week when we explain why Oliver Twist was really the villain!)
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Not all banks limit to 4 digit numbers, my bank required a minimum of 6, suggest 8 and supported upto 10 digits for your pin.
The downside to this was that banks that only used the 4 digit system wouldn't allow you to use your ATM card to withdraw cash.
It was almost impossible to find a place in North Carolina that would accept over 4 digit pins back when I was there...
Not just pin numbers! (Score:5, Insightful)
In an ideal world, identification (username) and authentication (password) would be separate. But that's not the case in the financial world. Every time you use a credit card or cheque, you're leaving behind a trail that contains either your credit card number and security code (if online), or your bank's routing number and your account number. Your one-time authorization for withdrawal has given away the keys to the kingdom! It's like social security numbers in that respect. Only a few services (Discover bank?) allow you to setup single-use identifiers that work around this problem without rebuilding the whole system from scratch. More should. If you need to setup recurring payments, you should be able to tell your bank who's going to be doing it, how often, for (about) how much, and get a number that a hacker could not reuse for some other purpose. (And while you're at it, you make it transportable, so you can redirect that number to your new bank account when you get tired of your old bank screwing up, without having to remember to notify everyone that your bank account number's changed.)
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Yeah, blame the criminals for exploiting a system designed to dispense cash based solely on a 4 digit number; That makes sense. Credit card fraud wouldn't happen nearly to the degree it does if financial institutions had designed the system to be more resiliant to attack.
Each person must be responsible for his or her own actions. Blaming the victim only reinforces the Just World Phenomenon [wikipedia.org].
Re:Good. (Score:5, Insightful)
Or rather, we should nix the fallacy that ONE bad act can earn blame on just ONE person.
Think about this. If a criminal broke into a storage unit because the guard was asleep, the guard doesn't get off scot-free, right? Even though the criminal gets the blame?
They both contributed to the theft. The thief by actually doing it, and the guard for letting it happen.
The crooks actually doing the fraud should get nailed. But I think the banks have plenty of blame themselves for trying to weasel out of security.
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Re:Good. (Score:4, Insightful)
A sleeping gaurd does not contribute to theft. They fail in their job function, but they didn't do anything to cause the other person to steal either (unless you're claiming they were working together, which you don't seem to be doing). Following your logic, I would be contributing to my own home being burgurlized because I DIDN'T even hire a guard.
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For example, I have the most secure server in world. It's on the floor in my closet
oh really, what would stop someone from say, breaking into your house and physically stealng said server? people all too often forget physical security, when they have physical access you are boned.
Re:Good. (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, that would like blaming burglers for breaking into houses protected by only wooden doors and glass windows. Burglary wouldn't happen nearly to the degree it does if house-owners designed their houses with steel doors and bullet-proof glass windows.
Re:Good. (Score:5, Insightful)
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So to boil it down to a quick soundbyte... (and to brazenly steal from our arm's bearing soundbyte-makers)
Computers don't hack people, People do.
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Saying the banking system is innocent of neglecting security is like saying a security guard who happens to fall asleep on duty isn't responsible if there's a break in.
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Saying the banking system is innocent of neglecting security is like saying a security guard who happens to fall asleep on duty isn't responsible if there's a break in.
True, but this does not absolve the criminal from doing the time. No different than saying that rape is okay because the victim was "asking for it, all dressed up like that".
In an ideal system, the CC companies would have to eat the responsibili- oh, wait... they already do; CC fraud is usually something the CC company has to eat the costs of (after a certain liability point, anyway).
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True, but this does not absolve the criminal from doing the time. No different than saying that rape is okay because the victim was "asking for it, all dressed up like that".
Actually it is different; in one case, the guard was PAID to do something, and he didn't, which is wrong. The woman just dressed how she wanted to. There's nothing inherently wrong with any particular style of dress, but people like to pretend certain styles of dress are more moral than others.
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Actually, no. When the charge is ruled fraudulent, it is reversed, so the merchant ends up holding the bag. The only party that never loses is the bank.
the security guard put a bag of money at his feet (Score:5, Insightful)
and someone takes it
fact: the security guard is responsible
fact: the asshole who took it is responsible
the security guard is responsible for neglecting his duty, NOT FOR THE MONEY
the asshole who took it is guilty of taking something that isn't his, they are on the line for the money
two different responsibilities
but even beyond that, the fact that we NEED security guards is because so many people, such as yourself, don't understand simple fucking morality in this world
there are moral people, who would not take something that is not theres. and there are roaming monkeys with no moral compass who take whatever they can get. such people are the problem with this world. there's no defense for such being such an asshole. if it's not yours, don't fucking take it. it's really that fucking simple. learn it
just because security is lax doesn't entitle you to a damn thing or entitle anyone for any excuse for committing a crime. if you take something that isn't yours, you are guilty, no matter if it is fort knox or a bag of money behind an open door: same level of guilt
try to understand basic morality at some point in your life
In THIS case I blame the criminal (Score:2)
Lots of IT people have fallen on hard times since the dotcom bust, but we didn't turn to crime.
However, I wouldn't make any blanket statements about always blaming the criminal. What about people who live in countries with inadequate social services who steal bread to feed their kids? There are always circumstances in which it makes sense to blame the system rather than the criminal, but this is not one of them.
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IMO, if there really is no more legal way to feed one's dependants then stealing is more moral than allowing them to starve. It is then better to steal from one who would miss what he has lost less, because that does less harm to others. It all depends if you consider your duty to your family/friends more important than your duty to society at large.
feeding oneself is more morally grey, but I suspect that most people would take care of themselves before worrying about strangers if they truly are that despe
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I expect most all of us would break almost any law if the life of someone we cared about was on the line. So, now that we've established that we're all criminals, the only question is one of how much motivation one person needs, versus another...
Crimes always increase when the economy gets w
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Short version:
People respond to incentives.
Re:Good. (Score:5, Insightful)
I often find myself agreeing with your posts but not this one. While I do agree that the PCI (Payment Card Industry) needs some major overhaul, people are still responsible for their crimes. Yes, I do blame criminals for being criminals.
Re:Good. (Score:4, Insightful)
I hope that he has to serve the full sentence, and doesn't get out on parole. Credit card fraud is not fun. I can only hope that more people convicted of credit card fraud receive sentences like this.
Yeah, blame the criminals for exploiting a system designed to dispense cash based solely on a 4 digit number; That makes sense. Credit card fraud wouldn't happen nearly to the degree it does if financial institutions had designed the system to be more resiliant to attack. And by more resiliant, I mean doing something other than coating the cash in BBQ sauce and waving it in front of the hungry and unemployed masses while chanting "Hell no, we won't upgrade!"
Oh wow, so I guess by your logic, I should not blame the person who broke into my car and stole just because the lock wasn't designed against simple lock-picking (it isn't hard to pick a lock.)
Blame the faults of the implementation of a technology, and absolve the criminal of his own personal and moral responsibility. Awesome display of stupidity.
Re:Good. (Score:5, Informative)
I hope that he has to serve the full sentence, and doesn't get out on parole. Credit card fraud is not fun. I can only hope that more people convicted of credit card fraud receive sentences like this.
Yeah, blame the criminals for exploiting a system designed to dispense cash based solely on a 4 digit number; That makes sense. Credit card fraud wouldn't happen nearly to the degree it does if financial institutions had designed the system to be more resiliant to attack. And by more resiliant, I mean doing something other than coating the cash in BBQ sauce and waving it in front of the hungry and unemployed masses while chanting "Hell no, we won't upgrade!"
Oh wow, so I guess by your logic, I should not blame the person who broke into my car and stole just because the lock wasn't designed against simple lock-picking (it isn't hard to pick a lock.)
Blame the faults of the implementation of a technology, and absolve the criminal of his own personal and moral responsibility. Awesome display of stupidity.
This is often refered to as 'the poor victim mentality' over here, and seems to work from the basic premise that the criminal has become a criminal because society at large has failed him/her somehow... it's a lot of vawing hands and requests to ignore the man behind the curtain, but somehow the criminal commits crime as a plea for help. This is the same logic that lays behind blaming the rape victim for the fact that the rapist raped them - if they hadn't shown so much naked skin, the poor, misunderstood rapist would have been able to control himself...
I guess stealing at least 27.5 million US dollars (the amounth he has to reimburse the victims with) and setting up a online shop for selling credit card information is a very, very loud plea for help. Or possible a sign of a well developed sence of greed and a belief in that you couldn't be caught - if we were to blame the criminal, that is.
And off course the criminal is to blame. After all, most of us don't break the laws - even if we have the knowledge to do so. The ones who do break them break them willingly and with intent; most of them with a reasonable knowledge that what they are doing is wrong and will be punished.
Which is not to say that the credit card companies shouldn't try to improve the security of their cards. Over here most - if not all - banks and credit card companies will send you a code-dongle (BankID [wikipedia.org] - use an online translater to read it if you don't speak Norwegian) that is considered safe - so safe in fact that the banks say they wont hold you responsible if your card is abused online. Downside is off course that it's only supported within Norway, so if I buy something from a non-norwegian online shop I still have to rely on the older, less secure solutions.
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You make a good point that the credit card system is retarded but the poeple who steal CC numbers are still filth.
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Yeah, blame the criminals for exploiting a system
Yeah, that's like blaming the murderer for shooting people. The real culprit is clearly the gun. Or maybe the victims' lack of body armor.
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Someone making a mistake isn't a licence to commit a crime. I do think companies should be held responsible for their flaws but doing that doesn't involve letting people run rampant and causing damage for innocent people.
Interesting..... (Score:5, Insightful)
That in light of
"Butler served an 18-month prison term for the crime and fell on hard times after his 2002 release, he said in a sentencing memorandum filed Thursday. "I was homeless, staying on a friends couch. I couldn't get work," he wrote. In desperation, he turned again to cybercrime."
I'm not saying he's right, but it does highlight something interesting about finding work as an ex-con.
Re:Interesting..... (Score:5, Insightful)
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The right answer is to lie and say you aren't a felon.
Re:Interesting..... (Score:4, Insightful)
So, when a criminal does his time, gets out, and can't find a job, your only response is, "It's your own fault." That's just stupid.
There seems to be a widespread belief that if you have a social problem, all you need to do is find somebody to blame. As when ex-cons can't find work: it's their own fault for breaking the law. Moral myopia aside, that just doesn't work out. If a criminal has no chance to "go straight" you're guaranteeing that he'll go on comiting crimes.
Yeah, yeah, many ex-cons will do that no matter what. But does that mean we have to make it their only choice? Perhaps helping them find lawful alternatives sticks in your self-righteous craw, but ask yourself, is that any worse than paying the huge costs (about $22K per prisoner per year) of an ever-growing prison population [wikipedia.org]? Not to mention the huge economic and human costs of the crimes this culture of punishment is facilitating.
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I suppose I would have a problem. That's not the point. This isn't about whether employers should ignore an applicant's criminal records. This is about what we do to try to re-integrate people who've left prison. And right now we don't do shit.
Take your embezzling bookkeeper. It's safe to say that once he's been convicted, he's going to have to find a new way to make a living. So it makes sense to retrain him to do something else while he's incarcerated. Otherwise, all the good will in the world won't help
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If you're not going to give him a second chance, why let him out of prison at all?
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If you're not going to give him a second chance, why let him out of prison at all?
Costs less. Duh.
Re:Interesting..... (Score:4, Insightful)
That's what the prison sentence was for.. I find it extremely unfair that even after you get out, the only job you can get with a felony like that is gas station attendant. I think equal opportunity laws should cover people with criminal records for this very reason.
He did it to himself. (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not saying he's right, but it does highlight something interesting about finding work as an ex-con.
His first conviction was for criminally violating the trust of his employer and working in direct contravention to his employer's interests and mission. His skills are such that to be employed effectively he must be trusted.
Oops!
He did it to himself. No employment for him. (He'd have been lucky to find burgers to flip.)
So then he starts a business. High corporate positions may have been barred to him by his first conviction, but a lot of smaller stuff still was open. Yet what does he chose? Cybercrime.
Oops!
When he finally gets out from THIS one he'll be watched so closely that even organized crime is unlikely to work with him.
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"It is a shame that someone with so much ability chose to use it in a manner that hurt many people," Dembosky said in an e-mail message." That in light of "Butler served an 18-month prison term for the crime and fell on hard times after his 2002 release, he said in a sentencing memorandum filed Thursday. "I was homeless, staying on a friends couch. I couldn't get work," he wrote. In desperation, he turned again to cybercrime." I'm not saying he's right, but it does highlight something interesting about finding work as an ex-con.
What type of work was he trying to get? Not that it is easy to find work as an ex-con, but it isn't impossible either (so long as the person lowers his expectations... read flipping burguers.) That is part of the cross an ex-con got to carry, right or wrong.
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I couldn't get work," he wrote. In desperation, he turned again to cybercrime."
Cry me a river.
Try standing out in front of Lowe's or Home Depot on a Saturday morning. It seems to work for others.
There's plenty of work for ex-cons who want to work. He just took the easy way.
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I do agree, why does it have to be a forwarning to employers that you had a criminal past. If I spent my time in jail as decreed by the law for my crime, I have served my sentenced and therefor deserve the respect of doing the time, and start with a clean slate. No one will hire a criminal because they do not believe they have been reformed. I tend to agree the system is faulty, but I would start with making it somewhat less complicated for an ex con to get a job.
If he was young, and made a mistake, and pai
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Perhaps that is the reason we as a society don't like to hire criminals. We think they get off too easy. Make prison something to regret going to. That way, not only do you not want to go back, but you've paid through the nose for your crime and people will understand you've learned your lesson.
And quite frankly, if life sucks so bad that you'd rather be in jail than on the streets, then there's something seriously fucked up about the way we take care of ourselves. If homeless folks can't even make a li
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One thing about developing a bad reputation like this is that afterward you are completely dependent on the charity of others to help sort it out. That's the way it should be. If you see someone else doing the exact opposite of what you did, there is some hope that you might understand the consequences of your own actions repent from them. Of course, finding someone in the position to help you out, with the heart to do so, can be really tough. I don't like they idea that we should atomically give people
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He made his choice twice now... throw him away.
(Yeah, it's cold, but he's stealing MY credit card n
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I'm not saying he's right, but it does highlight something interesting about finding work as an ex-con.
And that is why in the USA, even a 2 week sentence to jail is identical to a life sentence in prison, because a 2 week stay in jail will ruin all of the remaining years of your life (by design)
When you are starving and can't get money legally because the government set it up that way, its obvious what one must do to survive.
Personally I do blame the government for creating directly so much crime that wouldn't happen otherwise.
You see much less of this problem in countries with sane punishments for the harm
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Perhaps, in time, when he gets out he will have a new perspective on life. Probably not.
Quite right. (Score:4, Insightful)
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There is always manual labor jobs.
As long as its not violent or involve children most manual labor jobs are ok with some spots on your record.
If you can tough it out for five years then you can start getting back into office jobs.
By the time that he got arrested if he had stayed clean he could have started to rebuild his life.
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I might even buy this if it was a sort of "stealing bread to survive" kind of thing, just doing enough online hacking to put a roof over his head and food in his belly. But even if that's how this second dip into the world of mass theft began, any notion that this was just a form of employment kind of gets disproven by the sheer size of what he did.
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Yes, he should have done something moral like working as a defense contractor.
Hardly - he would have never passed the background check.
"Sargeant, you got a lot a damn gall to ask me if I've rehabilitated myself, I mean, I mean, I mean that just, I'm sittin' here on the bench, I mean I'm sittin here on the Group W bench 'cause you want to know if I'm moral enough to join the army, burn women, kids, houses and villages after bein' a litterbug."
For writing? (Score:2, Flamebait)
"Butler was arrested for writing malicious software that installed a back-door program on computers "
I hope that's for releasing/using the software rather than the simple act of writing it.
READ THE FUCKING SUMMARY (Score:2, Informative)
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The NASA hacker from England served 0 seconds in U.S. prison.
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The NASA hacker from England served 0 seconds in U.S. prison.
So far. AFAIK, his extradition is still pending.
Slashdot misses the point (Score:5, Insightful)
This isn't about a 13 year sentence for "Hacking."
This is a 13 year sentence for credit fraud, credit card theft, and oh yeah, he also stored the credit card numbers on a computer where other people could get to them.
There's no cleverness here that needs awarding. Back doors are easy to install when the FBI has already allowed you to contract there.
Doesn't make a lot of sense. (Score:2)
Well yeah, that makes sense, seeing as it worked so well the first time. . .
Sure it does (Score:2)
He's not homeless anymore.
Ok, kidding aside - if you know you're screwed, that means that you have less to risk on a second attempt. He's already an ex-con. When he gets out after this sentence he's going to be...an ex-con. Nothing will have changed, his prospects will be exactly the same. It's a good gamble, if you look at it from a game theory-ish kind of viewpoint.
But that being said I find it unlikely that he couldn't find any work at all. I mean hells bells, he's got the balls to install backd
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Usually when people say they can't find work, they mean work they are willing to do. He might be able to get a job at McDonalds or 7-eleven, but they probably weren't up to his standards.
I have a lot of friends who say they can't find a job because of the job market. When I ask them if they've tried at applying for a job at a fast food place with a help-wanted sign on the door they universally respond with something like "I won't work fast food" or "I'm looking for more money than that". It's hard to ear
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My wife has tried that. She holds a CPA and cant get a job flipping burgers. Why? the "overqualified" bullshit response. They know that the second a real job comes along she will bolt and run. Honestly you have to outright lie to employers today. Hide your experience and education if you might be overqualified.
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Ok, kidding aside - if you know you're screwed, that means that you have less to risk on a second attempt. He's already an ex-con. When he gets out after this sentence he's going to be...an ex-con. Nothing will have changed, his prospects will be exactly the same. It's a good gamble, if you look at it from a game theory-ish kind of viewpoint.
A sentence of several years suggests he did have a lot to risk, more than versus his first attempt in fact.
Good for the FBI (Score:3, Interesting)
No sympathy. (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, it could be good for him (Score:2, Informative)
He won't have to worry about where his next meal will be coming from or whether he can pay the rent....
What hard times did he fall on? (Score:2, Interesting)
He broke the law, got out, and had a chance to redeem himself. The article said he fell on hard times in 2002. He's a talented programmer, which means everything from programming and below he could do. I know plenty of folks who get out of prison, and bust their butts struggling, just to stay out, and they don't have near this guy's marketable skills. He's a felon, you say? As if that means he can't get work programming. Guess what: I'm a programmer. I got out of prison last January after serving a 6 year s
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Warrant for Floyd Landis the cyclist for hacking? (Score:5, Interesting)
That's right the guy who got caught with the performance enhancing drugs during the Tour de France had a warrant issued for him today for hacking. I don't know what it is over but maybe his attempts to tamper with the committee who tested him maybe. I don't know all the info but I just saw it on the news channel.
Nevermind here it is
France Issues Arrest Warrant for Cyclist Floyd Landis
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/sports/cycling/16landis.html [nytimes.com]
PARIS — The United States cyclist Floyd Landis was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs, but the fallout from his doping case has lingered.
Thomas Cassuto, a French judge, issued an arrest warrant for Landis last month, in connection with a computer hacking case, said Astrid Granoux, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris, which is handling the matter.
“That means he would be arrested if he came to France,” Granoux said Monday, adding that the warrant had not been distributed outside of French territory.
Landis, who raced for the Ouch Pro Cycling Team last year, parted ways with the team last fall. He could not be reached for comment Monday.
Cassuto is seeking to question Landis about the data hacking that occurred in the fall of 2006 at the Châtenay-Malabry antidoping lab, which is the facility that conducted the tests on Landis’s urine samples from the 2006 Tour.
A very public dispute between Landis and the lab’s officials was the crux of Landis’s defense in his doping case, which ended in his being barred from the sport for two years. Landis and his defense team had alleged that the lab’s testing procedures were sloppy, so its test results could not be trusted.
Pierre Bordry, the lab’s director, said a security breach of the facility’s computers occurred because hackers wanted to obtain data to discredit its scientists. He said that some of the stolen data had been altered to make it seem as if the lab had made errors.
In November 2006, lab officials filed a formal complaint saying that its computer data had been stolen and used in Landis’s defense. That confidential data was also sent to other labs and news media, officials said. A subsequent search of the lab’s computers turned up a Trojan horse, which is a program that allowed an outsider to remotely download files.
Investigators concluded that the program could have originated from an e-mail message sent to the lab from a computer using the same Internet protocol address as Arnie Baker, Landis’s coach.
Landis and Baker, who continue to insist that Landis did not use performance-enhancing drugs to win the Tour, deny being involved in the computer hacking.
He should have seek political asylum (Score:2)
by jumping into a Chinese or Russian embassy.
Another perspective (Score:4, Insightful)
He starts by doing legitimate penetration testing; he leaves backdoors for himself, but doesn't do anything nasty with them. Then he starts hacking into government computers, and does the same thing; leaves a door open but doesn't do anything else nasty. The FBI catches him for it... but rather than bust him, they attempt to enslave him. He helps them bust another computer criminal ring. But after a while he refuses to serve them and they do bust him. They lie and claim he was of no help, and throw him in jail for a year and a half. When he gets out, his skills are now useful for nothing but crime; no legitimate company will touch him. So, naturally, he does turn to crime. This time actually doing some damage. Well, what did you expect?
Re:Another perspective (Score:4, Insightful)
Turns to crime? He turned to crime at "Then he starts hacking into government computers".
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I see we're still dressing in the dark, Eugene.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Since those most skilled in the areas necessary to test our security infrastructure are liable to be executed in this manner for simply working to *acquire* said skills, let's just leave it up to some hostile foreign entity to find the security holes. We'll clearly be much better off in the long run.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, 3-year recidivism is something like 50% in the UK and US.
And the prison system is not a failure. It has been a wild success. At least 1% of our population is in prison, many for non-violent and victimless crimes. The prison lobby has been so successful that you never hear anyone talk about Big Prison the way you hear Big Oil or Big Pharma or Big Farma.
The reason you think the prison system is a failure is because you are under the mistaken impression that it's primary purpose is to rehabilitate
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
How many counts of stealing? Was he charged with first degree grand theft? And, not just stealing but also establishing a marketplace for stolen information, that could be one or more counts of facilitation, conspiracy, racketeering, etc.
Seeing as you don't know the number of charges nor what the actual charges were, your statement is foolish at best.