UK Tabloids Doxxed the 'Hero' Hacker Who Stopped a Global Cyberattack (theoutline.com) 164
The UK-based security researcher, who "accidentally" halted the spread of the ransomware Wanna Decryptor over the weekend, has been doxxed by UK tabloids. From a report: [...] Journalists have published his name against his will, bringing him unwanted attention and sending a signal to privacy-sensitive researchers that no good deed goes unpunished. The researcher, writing under the username MalwareTechBlog, published a blog post on his personal site with findings about the virus, explaining how it was stopped and what would have to be done to prevent it from coming back. News outlets, including the Daily Mail, The Guardian, and CNN called the anonymous researcher a hero. The researcher was initially responsive to press inquiries. He told reporters that he was 22, lived in the south of England with his parents, and worked for an L.A. security firm. However, he told The Guardian that he wanted to remain anonymous "because it just doesn't make sense to give out my personal information, obviously we're working against bad guys and they're not going to be happy about this." It took about a day for UK papers, including The Mail, The Sun, The Telegraph, and The Mirror, to suss out the researcher's name and publish photos of him, show up at his house, and track down his friends and associates for interviews. "It's caused a fair bit of stress," he told Forbes. "I don't want fame."
Question (Score:3)
How many of those papers are owned by Rupert Murdoch?
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One: The Sun
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/17851358/who-is-sun-owner-rupert-murdoch-and-what-does-he-do
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What does that have to do with it?
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The media really is terrible (Score:5, Insightful)
It isn't really "fake news" as Orange Jesus would say, just garbage news.
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Local news reporting still tries to inform you about what's going on around your town/city.
Most news from the larger media companies and the networks, however - especially the regurgitated "breaking news" from 24/7 cable news networks - is just gossip. Long gone are the days of covering stories with journalistic integrity (see CNN and the 1991 Gulf War, compared to Wolf Blitzer's "The Situation Room", for comparison's sake.)
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Address the claim directly. " I don't think CNN have ever done that" That's the claim, in very simple English. I don't think CNN have "ever" done that. I don't care about a youtube video about ice cream. I'm talking about nearly 37 years versus a few minute clip. My point still stands. You showed me a 2 minute clip.
2 minute clip ... let's give you some math genius. 37 Years = 19,447,200 Minutes. Are you going to sit and confirm that the other 19,447,198 minutes is the same? Get out of here.
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The tabloid-reading masses were not, as far as I could tell, clamoring for the identity of this computer superhero in the same way they're evidently clamoring for a picture of Brittney Spears' ordering a soda.
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Re:The media really is terrible (Score:5, Informative)
These are the same type of reporters that hacked the voicemail of a missing girl and then deleted some of the saved voicemails in the hope she'd get more which convinced the police she was still alive and caused the investigation to be suspended for a couple weeks. British tabloids are the ones leading the charge into a world with no journalism, respect or privacy.
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Reporters, well anyone employed at these garbage "papers" are vile disgusting people.
Yep. If you happen to meet someone who works at one of these rags, plead with them to kill themselves.
They won't get it (Score:1)
The press will continue to lament how they are perceived negatively in spite of them being the real heroes of every story they report.
Transparancy (Score:5, Insightful)
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Tackle the cause not the symptom.
While the latest anglo-american elections (Brexit, Trump) suggest that the extermination of humankind has some merit ("tackle the cause not the symptom"), I would personally prefer to address the symptom instead. Humans will probably always be gullible, but we could at least teach critical thinking in primary education and alleviate some of this (that would address the symptom, even though the fundamental problem -- flawed human psychology -- will probably persist for the f
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they exist because it works, because people fall for the clickbait. Tackle the cause not the symptom.
The root cause is humanity itself. The second order cause is freedom of the press. The third order cause is a business model based on attention grabbing. The fourth order cause is people willing to do anything because they want money.
Which cause should we tackle exactly?
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Re:Transparancy (Score:4, Insightful)
Er... how exactly do we tackle the cause, which as you said is human nature?
With education. When I was in jr. high I had an English teacher who cared enough to teach us about techniques of propaganda. This sort of thing (along with, you know, basic logic — the only place I got any of that was in GATE) should be an explicit part of the curriculum. Instead we got No Child Left Behind, which leaves teachers no time for that kind of jazz. They have to teach to the tests, and have no time for anything else. (I guess now we have Every Student Succeeds instead, and I haven't heard as much about that, so perhaps it's somewhat less evil.)
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Tackle the cause not the symptom.
Sounds good!
(destroys humanity and replaces it with robots)
Good work (Score:5, Insightful)
Irresponsible and possibly dangerous (Score:5, Insightful)
Bad press: Exposing an accidental good actor that specifically asked to remain anonymous so he could do his work.
This was like outing a police officer's name and address after he nails a low-level gang leader. It could get very messy for this 22 year old online. Hacked social media accounts, DDOSed any personally managed online resources (web servers, etc.). And that's if it's a low-level script kiddie type trying to make some cash - and not some more malevolent group.
Celebrity isn't what you want in that line of work...
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If he really wanted to remain anonymous then he should have kept his mouth shut instead of posting on a personal blog and then giving interviews to the media.
You can't really complain about people figuring out who you. If you want to stay anonymous, then stay anonymous!
He clearly wanted the attention, he just wants to control how much attention he gets which isn't up to him.
Re:Irresponsible and possibly dangerous (Score:4, Insightful)
So, if you say anything online at all, you have no right to complain if you get doxxed? Think through what you're saying, here.
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Easy for you to say, Jeremy from Portsmouth NH
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RU sure ur leet h4ck7h3p14n37 anonymity will protect you, Jeremy from Portsmouth NH?
Yeah, maybe he should have kept his mouth shut, but this is also blaming the victim.
Also, remember he's 22, so there's that.
Should he have control? Well, there's lot's of laws around the world apply to privacy, so there's that.
And we all want a little attention, so there's that.
Re:Irresponsible and possibly dangerous (Score:4, Insightful)
Online is the least of his troubles. He will have problems offline
You think malware groups are above harassment, robbery and/or thuggery? Hell, if the value is high enough, you can add attempted murder to the list. They are criminal organizations and they will not stoop to trying to get anyone hurting their business eradicated.
At the very least, he should get those tabloids to pay for his moving costs and for a new house.
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Added bonus: they also know they can get to family members without having to try too hard as they live at the same address. So, not only has he been put in danger by the tabloids, his immediate family is also under threat.
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At the very least, he should get those tabloids to pay for his moving costs and for a new house.
Don't tell me you support a legal system where media can be made to pay for the consequences of revealing the truth. I don't think we want to go there, though England already leans pretty far in that direction. There's no way the tabloids involved here are going to pay voluntarily if for no other reason than that it would be an admission that they did the wrong thing.
To be clear, doxxing this guy is unconscionable conduct on the part of the media companies responsible. The more they do this, and especial
Pond scum (Score:5, Informative)
Security Researchers have had death threats and setups, like having hard drugs posted to their house shortly followed by a tip off to plod and all manner of other nasty things.
Sadly it's not just Murdoch's sewerage - the other papers are just as bad.
I'm suspicious (Score:1, Troll)
How long before we find out that this 'researcher' is a former member of the clan that unleashed this hot garbage to the world, but left over some petty dispute so invoked the back door already known to him.
I find it hard to believe that Symantec and especially Kaspersky didn't find this 'kill switch' before this guy (allegedly) did.
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You have not read his blog. He specializes in malware tracking, detection, new malware analysis and the like. He has been writing nearly two articles per month since he was 18 and has a job doing similar work at 22. A very accomplished, if a bit overspecialized, young man precisely in the field we are discussing.
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Have you consider that perhaps the malware was more than a few bytes in length and different people started looking at different parts?
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Or maybe we can give him a little credit and assume he saw some sort of "if host exists, return, else infect".
If he gets harassed or attacked (Score:3)
because of this against-his-will exposure, he should crowdsource funds to sue the tabloids.
Math? (Score:2)
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Except for the fact that there is at least one new variant out which does not contain the same kill-switch.
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No, it's a two-parter. The worm side of things only affects accessible SMB shares, which essentially means on most networks it can only spread once it's gotten into the network via some other method. A lot of the attack went through phishing emails and the like, in order to get the payload into the internal networks where it would spread via SMB shares. Any networks already infected by the time he hit the kill switch were probably fully infected as you say, but enabling the kill switch stopped it being a
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he should sue them, assuming he lives... (Score:3, Insightful)
Those tabloids put him in harms way in the middle of a global IT security crisis.
When (not if) people in hospitals die because of this computer hacking, they should sue those tabloids, for putting a target on his head, and on the head of anyone who wanted to help. Bet your arse that there are others who will "just duck" to not get doxxed by those sorts of papers.
I think anyone whose life he saved, should help crowdfund a lawsuit against the papers that did this.
If he ends up being executed for this, I think that the state (is it UK?) should sue those agencies on his behalf for his wrongful death in which they were enabling participants.
What can you expect? (Score:5, Informative)
Wow, sucks to be him (Score:2)
Sounds like he didn't try too hard to hide his identity, depending on the newspapers' integrity to maintain privacy. Maybe instead he should have taken at least some of the steps Anonymous does to keep their identity secret.
It's inevitable that the perps will go after him. Hopefully it'll only be electronic, not physical. He may never be able to own a computer or a credit card again.
The sad thing is that this will serve, at least in part, to discourage other private white hats from publishing their works
Seems like it's time. (Score:2)
Is it time to doxx everyone involved in the production and distribution of these tabloids?
Alternatively, you could boycott anything printed by the same company that prints the tabloids so that they drop the tabloids as client. (printing presses are expensive)
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Is it time to doxx everyone involved in the production and distribution of these tabloids?
Sounds like a great idea. Go over to Reddit and get cracking...
Alternatively, you could boycott anything printed by the same company that prints the tabloids so that they drop the tabloids as client. (printing presses are expensive)
Excellent idea also. Boycott anyone who advertises in these three known garbage press outlets!
Or hey, put the two ideas, above, together, and simply go kill them all (tabloidists) in their homes! Two birds with one stone, I say.
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Or hey, put the two ideas, above, together, and simply go kill them all (tabloidists) in their homes!
Whoa, dude. Killing people is way over the line.
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Or hey, put the two ideas, above, together, and simply go kill them all (tabloidists) in their homes!
Whoa, dude. Killing people is way over the line.
softly, with his song.
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Or hey, put the two ideas, above, together, and simply go kill them all (tabloidists) in their homes!
Whoa, dude. Killing people is way over the line.
softly, with his song.
I see that my reference to the Roberta Flack song was too tangential to come across. Ah well, I was trying too hard to be clever...
So, no, I do not advocate murdering tabloid "journalists". Despising them, yes. They get sued for libel often, and deservedly so, judging from their track record of losses in such cases.
Here in LA, they cause traffic accidents by careering across multiple lanes to pursue a car going the opposite direction – just to get a photo. Their behavior led to some of the provisi
Look on the bright side (Score:2)
Maybe he'll get laid because of this!
UK Tabloids are a national shame (Score:2)
It would be 'in the public interest' for these schmucks to get a taste of their own. But that wouldnt stop the mass arrests.
Is "doxxed" just another word for Googling a name? (Score:2)
The downside of "information wants to be free" (Score:2)
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Are you dense? Legitimate news sources protected his name. It's the tabloids that went after him.
Liberals respect privacy, by the way. You're thinking of the far right that respects money over human rights.
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It acts like it more often than not.
Re: F*ck the Pressitutes (Score:1, Insightful)
I apologize ahead of time if you're just being sarcastic ... whoosh on me. But, liberals most certainly do NOT respect privacy. They would love nothing less than to post running lists of personal info for legal gun owners, advocates of traditional marriage, pro-lifers and creationists in teaching positions, engineering and/or with PhDs.
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Well said. The Groaniad is like totally full of stuff like that.
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For some twisted reason the most powerful man in Btitain is an Australian pornographer.
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Your logic is so sound, how could anyone argue?
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In kuzb's defense. Nazi is that guys "I don't have a valid argument" response. Happens a lot.
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> Liberals respect privacy, by the way.
Like when Gawker had a Hulk Hogan sex tape, that kind of privacy?
Neither liberals nor conservatives give a shit about privacy. We've had unopposed Democrats in Congress, and currently have unopposed Republicans. No one passed any fucking privacy laws. No one is going to.
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Of course if your point is that progressives and SJWs and Antifa are not liberal then you're correct. I would agree with that. Progressivism is antithetical to liberalism.
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1. Not everything that a centrist sees as unpalatable gets blamed on the left, we point a lot of fingers at the right too, and then have fucktards like yourself bleating out "Far right" and "Far left", depending on which vantage point said fucktard has. Not realizing they're the one's being radical and shouting at a centrist.
2. Go look up the "Appeal to defini
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Are progressives for freedom of speech? Or are they turning into Red Guard fanatics spewing vile on anyone that doesn't toe the party line?
Communism is antithetical to liberalism, to the respect of the individual and individual freedoms.
Re:F*ck the Pressitutes (Score:4, Funny)
Yes he is. He used the present indicative second person singular of a verb meaning to extract by rinsing or soaking instead of the plural of a noun meaning a parasitic animal which paradoxically has some medical uses.
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Indeed, that's correct. Unless you is Popeye, or a C programmer.
Re:F*ck the Pressitutes (Score:4, Insightful)
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Stop equating media with news. News is a subset of the media, but then again so are the Simpsons.
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Re:F*ck the Pressitutes (Score:5, Insightful)
Think this might go a bit beyond progressive/conservative ideology.
Might have more to do with Britain's complete and utter lack of respect of personal privacy. Sorry Brit's you let it happen after the IRA attacks, camera's everywhere, and now the idea of an expectation of privacy is a myth in your country.
Re: F*ck the Pressitutes (Score:1)
"One nation under CCTV" - Banksy
Yeah, Brits think that "private" means porn.
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Re: F*ck the Pressitutes (Score:3, Informative)
Is mass media all owned and narrative controlled by the same two or three elite oligarchs really "a free press?" The answer is that no, it is something else entirely.
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Re:F*ck the Pressitutes (Score:4, Insightful)
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Absolutely. We don't need yet another reason to talk shit about CS majors and programming in general.
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for all you know his mom has cancer and he's staying home to help with her medical care, you insensitive clod!
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Yes, I don't know.
It doesn't matter. Small minds discuss people.
Discuss the event. Any event. The infection event: IoT is shit/not shit. The morality event: Vigilante hero or illegal haxor criminal. The exposure event: Shitty journalism is blah blah blah.
Who gives a fuck about whether Some Guy is living with his mom, unless he's being proposed or considered somehow, making his viability the event.