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2600 Asks: Is Mafiaboy Real?
A couple of people sent the 2600 story that's currently running about mafiaboy, the alleged brains behind the spate of recent large-scale DoS [?] attacks. 2600 has an interesting claim - that they went on IRC as mafiaboy, and that the security expert who claims to have found mafiaboy was snowed by what they told him over IRC - snowed by lies.
This security expert is simply a fraud. I know this because he was a regular in #depression and I've talked to him many many times. His ex gf was a regular there, and she killed herself by jumping out of her window because he was screwing around with some other girl that night. But thats not my point, my point is... Anyone could claim they found who did it, and he's just an example of this. He isn't a Shumormrofhrfdjdieh (however you spell that guys name who "caught" mitnick, heh), he's just a normal person on IRC who thinks "traceroute" is a secret tool (and im serious, I wish I kept the irc logs.. but then again, as 2600 was trying to prove, what do irc logs show?)
taking someones virginity and ditching them in 3 days is hardly a normal romantic breakup, especially when the person kills herself
Several years back, I had the pleasure of working for the ISP mafiaboy used to use as a provider. Then he managed to steal our RADIUS password file ( mind you security was very lax at the time ). He had shown us that he was cluefull to a certain degree however he was mostly blinded by his ego. I am not surprised that he could be the one who was responsible for the DDoS a couple of months back. Nor would I be surprised if he tried to take credit for it. He was liked that. During the incident, we had taken it up with his parents, who seemed not to care too much about it. His father said that he had discpined the boy but we found out that Mafiaboy was still up to no good. So in light of all this, I do believe that the RCMP did get their man and that Mafiaboy was stupid enough to get caught. On a side note, I did not read 2600's post to the world. "Keeping anonymous to protect the ... innocent ?"
His homepage is http://www.ender.com/~icee/.
He dated a girl who later committed suicide, partly due to his idiocy.
He used to hang out on EFNet #depression.
I'm guessing that icee's real name has been in the media reports. (Haven't paid particular attention...) Check to see if that real name matches to the phone numbers given in the IRC logs.
Yeah, someone posing as someone else could've given out that other person's phone, but why risk blowing your cover like that?
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Yeah, and next we'll be tossing 8 year olds in jail. They should just grow up and be responsible for themselves! Just like that. All by themselves! If anything we've heard about this case is true, it sounds like the kids father is a lot more screwed up than he is. The kid should be punished, but not the way they seem to want to punish hackers these days. i.e. Lock 'em up and throw away the key. This is a kid. He deserves a chance to change. He isn't a violent criminal with no conscience. He's a kid that pulled a stupid prank. Yeah, it was a prank that caused a lot of commotion and probably caused some sites to lose some money, but I doubt the damage was anywhere near what they claim it was. They always blow hacking damages all out of proportion, usually be several orders of magnitude. Then they can never back up their claims. The kid should probably (at most) spend a month in juvie. Then they need to make sure he is taken care of. Sounds like his dad might not be around to do it.
I don't have a problem with people being held responsible for their actions, but there needs to be some perspective on things. Destroying a kids life because he made a stupid error in judgement is not the answer.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
Bowie, why did you shove this in a comment under a completely unrelated story? That's just bizarre, and perhaps unappropriate.
Enough people like propaganda that I'm sure Malda would be willing to make it a Slashdot story.
I like Propaganda, btw, and I might buy a T-shirt, but 100:1 seems kind of high. Dunno. How many shirts does copyleft push?
--Lenny
logan
heh, make what you will of this, but here's a /wi mafiaboy from efnet at about 1:15am 4/20 edt. me, i'm going to sleep.
ÚÄ Ä Ä Ä ÄÄÚÄÄÄÄ Ä Ä Ä ÄÄ ÄÄ Ä
[mafiaboy.] (7777777@HSE-Toronto-ppp95609.sympatico.ca) [Canada ]
[ircname..] AODiSO-iCOiSO-HERITAGE-RTS-KNiFE-CADMiUM
[channels.] #irc.core.com #kznetworks #syndicate99
[server...] irc.nethead.com ([207.246.129.125] DOWN WITH PANTS)
ÀÄ ÄÄ Ä ÄÄÄÙÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Ä ÄÄÄ
Legend has it that the really good crackers never say anything and are never known to the world. I don't know if thats really true or not (how could you verify it, really?), but everyone else brags a lot.
Someone one asked Alfred Hitchcock what the ultimate crime was. His response: "The one we haven't heard about yet."
Seems apropos.
Someone on IRC lying about their identity? It defies belief. I'd write more, but this 19yr old 36DD nympho I met online wants to meet me "alone and unarmed". I'm so excited!
--Shoeboy
I did the same thing for a year, actually. Except I wasnt Fry Clerk at McDonalds. I was the Network Manager for the Chem department's visualization lab.
Oh, and by the way, you're welcome. I'm glad you enjoy my work.
Bowie J. Poag
Project Founder, PROPAGANDA For Linux (http://metalab.unc.edu/propaganda)
Bowie J. Poag
I love how icee says that he's a 20 year old, sitting around, eating pizza. Then a bit further down the chat log, he starts in with this long diatribe about how back in the day, when he was "in the scene," things were different, and there was respect, and a bunch of other holier than thou stuff. Wow, those 20 years made him pretty wise, huh? I'm 21 now, and was following the hacking scene for a bit as a teenager, and it wasn't much different. Except people were using DOS instead of Win98. Big deal.
It cracks me up to see how much bragging some of these dumbasses do.
This really tells us absolutely nothing but NPR was just reporting that the father of the kid has been arrested too. Apparently on an unrelated charge: the phone was bugged because of mafia_boy and during the surveillance they heard the father planning an assault on a "business colleague"!
> Looks a bit like 'resume enhancement' for some has-been/never-was at some company..
.com.owners, .com.consumers, .com.shareholders, and venture capitalists of the world. It's OK, folks. We have the highwayman in custody. You can spend your money safely now.
More importantly, resume enhancement for some politician / law enforcement officer, who has just sent out a strong We Will Protect Your Money (TM) message to the
Any time you have a crime (or even a prank) that causes hysteria, The Man will gladly imprison anyone he can pin the blame on, guilty or no. This has been true from long before the Lindberg kidnapping right up to the latest child-care "reconstructed memory" witch trials.
In this case, they'll happily string up a Kipt Scriddie, so long as the media covers it well.
If^H^H When it happens again, well, there's always another Kipt Scriddie found easily enough. Sure beats having to find the brains that make it possible.
--
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Uhh...
DHCP servers keep logs. Easily. Web servers keep logs. Many firewalls keep logs.
IT's sort of like doing a manual phone trace.. but one CAN, with cooperation from admins along the way, find out *exactly* where packets are coming from.
And the guy bragged about it too... to top it off.
I fail to see how they can trace this type of DDoS back to a single individual. With all the firewalls, DHCP's and other addressing schemes, good luck finding him. I think that it's all made up for the media, and to put businesses and people at ease, thinking that "if you screw the Internet you can get caught."
well, I found this picture on his website. (I found it pretty quickly), and that should answer any questions as to his over all lameness...
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
Poor sucker, his home phone number is now posted
all over the net.
Anyone try calling him yet?
;)
-EH
The nickname being used was mafiaboy, not [mafiaboy]. The brackets are convention used to notate private messages sent from the client user to someone else. Similarly, enclosing the nick in asterisks is used to notate private messages received from another user. And enclosing the nick in equal signs is used to notate DCC chat messages received from another user.
From the log:
>>> icee [icee@dragon.ender.com] requested DCC CHAT from mafiaboy
If the nick were [mafiaboy] this line would read:
>>> icee [icee@dragon.ender.com] requested DCC CHAT from [mafiaboy]
Got it? Good.
Isn't this wired tapping "illegal search and seisure" and the arrest based on "Prior restraint?" This type of arrest is Barbaric.
No. The wiretap was in place because the boy was a suspect. The RCMP would have had a warrant, signed by some judge or another, allowing them to put the wiretap in place.
Any evidence of any crime found in a legitimate investigation is permissable. This is why someone pulled over for speeding can be busted for, say, possession of a narcotic.
------
If a tree falls on an anonymous coward yelling 'first post' in the forest, does anybody hear?
No, Woodlark, but our (I'm Canadian) Charter of Rights and Freedoms grants us as much.
Section 2: Everyone has the right to the following fundamental freedoms:
(a) freedom of conscience and religion;
(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion, and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
(c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and
(d) freedom of association.
If you will recall, there is currently a case which is awaiting trial in the Supreme Court of Canada regarding posession of child pornography. The defendant has been let off by both the BC Supreme Court and the BC Court of Appeal. Both Courts have said that the laws against posessing child pornography are in fact a violation of the Charter right to freedom of expression.
As to which kinds of pornography are stopped by Canada Customs, it's generally homosexual literature... They can't stop it any longer, though, thanks to a recent SCC decision which again referred to Section 2(b).
Also, in answer to the AC who is a parent to the comment you replied to: I was talking about Canada, actually. Once you have given the police reasonable cause to investigate/question you, you are subject to prosecution on evidence found.
------
If a tree falls on an anonymous coward yelling 'first post' in the forest, does anybody hear?
Cheryl had something valuable, something icee wanted. It is obvious that if the story really played out the way it seems to have, she was a notch on his belt and a sexual experience to store away for the future. Of course she shouldn't have committed suicide, but should he have done this to her? Although, from some cultural perspectives that would allow her to hold on to her honor. No, and just because he hasn't been punished for his crime (which may not fall into the realm of law) doesn't mean he shouldn't have to suffer for it.
This guy pretended to care about her to get something from her, and then dropped her when he got it. It isn't helpful to anyone to allow a creature like this to go on in the world, unmarked and unscathed feeling no remorse for his actions.
Actually, the most disturbing thing about this story, to me, is how close it is to the famous opera, Madame Butterfly it's almost the exact same story. I liked it much better when it was just an opera.
I wish she hadn't killed herself, because that makes the nasty effects of one bad experience permanent. If she had survived it, she might've had a bright future. So, I would like to let anyone who has been used that it will get better and you can survive it. If you survive long enough, you may even get even, or have a chance to forget the thing because it becomes irrelevant. But this does not give people the right to use other people, it would be a really stupid world that allowed a guy like this to get away with no sanctions.
If I had been her, I wouldn't have committed suicide, I'd have followed the road of Hell and chosen vengeance over honor... ... ...
All the creatures will die, And all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai. (Jubai, 1605)
Call the phone number say, "Is icee there? This is mafiaboy."
- I like pudding.
It's a recursive prank! ;)
Hmmm, maybe 2600 is being secretly sponsored by a certificate authority ...
I am quite civilized, and I should be brought a beer immediately. -- Bruce Sterling
Just kidding.
I am quite civilized, and I should be brought a beer immediately. -- Bruce Sterling
as you can see from the IRC logs below, we dropped a few clues that the person was in a country with snow and at one point "accidentally" spoke French to imply the province of Quebec. We were amazed when the blame actually landed on someone from Montreal.
The snow reference referrs to the following block of text:
=icee= but WHY do it?
[mafiaboy] snowday
[mafiaboy] haha
And the French referred to a single use of the word "Oui", late in the chat log. Now, the first use of the word "Canada", appears way at the top and comes not from 2600 (mafiaboy), but from *icee*.. again, before 2600 mentions snow or french:
*icee* oh, did you listen to our radio stuff up there in Canada, too?
That's it. The rest of the conversation is harmless, and this portion would be harmless except for the statement that 2600 made implying that these comments helped lead researchers to Canada. Give me a break.
I've got no idea who *icee* is, and 2600's claims that mafiaboy is fake or at least not the right guy are fine with me, but this conversation makes 2600 look less like they have a clue than the FBI who at least are talking about routing logs and web logs and real data. At least I got a laugh out of this:
=icee= okay, we need to solve this trust problem, and prove you are who you say you are..
[mafiaboy] 3090
[mafiaboy] good enough?
Yeah. Good enough. :-P
Canadian? Everyone knows the real mafiaboy is italian. Damn you oppressive government, leave our teenagers alone.
When Michael Lyle, chief technical officer of Internet-security firm Recourse Technologies Inc., first accused Mafiaboy of the attacks,(just a couple weeks after they happened) he based it on chat-room talk. People were very skeptical then, and I recall someone making similiar claims - that they had impersonated the DoS perpetrator in chat rooms.
It appears the RCMP don't have much more. Maybe the arrest was just so they could search his computer for evidence, because from what's been reported in the press, there isn't any real hard evidence against him.
Don't forget that Friday is Hawaiian shirt day.
Has anything ever happened regarding the Internet that 2600 wasn't _completely sure_ was a conspiracy?
Yeah, right! 'Cause nobody ever lies on IRC.
The story also mentiones the same conspiracy theory:
I guess we'll never know...?
Hi!
Well, if 2600's mafiaboy isn't the real mafiaboy, then how do we know that they were talking to the real icee?
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
Other posters have commented that this seems a bit paranoid, what with the evidence and all. 2600 is claiming that the FBI doesn't have the real Mafiaboy.
Well, I claim that they're not the real 2600! We've been paying attention to a fake! Through subtle manipulation over an extended period of time, "2600" has usurped the rightful entity behind the name!
The true 2600 is, and always has been, here
-Denor
And his dad's too. I turns out that while they were after this canadian teenager, they discovered while wiretapping his house, that his 45-years-old dad was planning with a hitman to assault or scare the hell out of one of his business associates.
So, be careful, you never know when the police is coming to get your son =)
What a strange (and offtopic, I admit) coincidence.
"All the things one has forgotten scream for help in dreams". Elias Canetti
that 2600 might actually be responsible for the arrest of that teenager in montreal? am i the only person this was suggested to by their writing? i mean, ok, they go on IRC and pose as someone from quebec. then someone from quebec gets arrested. maybe i missed something in 2600's write-up, but it seems to me they ought to be paying the kid's lawyer fees.
i'm hoping someone proves me wrong on this...
I don't give a fuck about icee, mafiaboy, 2600 or any of this, but your comments I had to respond to. You're calling this guy a predator because of a failed romantic relationship. Grow up. Relationships fail in the real world with just as much regularity as they do on IRC. Nobody's a predator - I've had my heart broken in almost exactly the manner you describe above, and I've broken at least one heart, as has almost every adult alive. I'm a stronger, more complete person because of it - all of it. I've never been "preyed" on or "preyed" on anyone else.
It's rare that you're presented with a knob whose only two positions are Make History and Flee Your Glorious Destiny.
> *icee* oh, did you listen to our radio stuff up there in Canada, too?
>That's it. The rest of the conversation is harmless, and this portion would be harmless except for the statement that 2600
>made implying that these comments helped lead researchers to Canada. Give me a break.
You weren't following the script closely enough! Here's the bits relevant to the Canada revelation.
[mafiaboy] i know you're not a fed. you're with Recourse Technologies in sunny palo alto
...
2600 cleverly plants the radio clue which crafty *icee* picks up on.*icee* oh, did you listen to our radio stuff up there in Canada, too?
[mafiaboy] you were on the radio too???
*icee* i think they're the only people i talked to who called it sunny palo alto
According th Reuters there are all sorts of ICQ, Usenet and IRC logs that connect Mafiaboy with the crime.
PS: Read the articles linked to the above article and judge for yourself if Mafiaboy is the real culprit or not.
Je ne sait pas pourquoi tout le mond parle de 'mafiaboy'? Il ne pas un 'mafiaboy', il est un 'mafia-garcon'!
Have you ever being in Montreal? I spent 2 years there. Very nice downtown, it's called the "Old City" etc. On the other hand I think Canada has one of the highest rates of suicide among teenagers. Some of them commit suicide quitely and some become "Mafia-Garcons".
On the other hand, I don't believe this story has any merit and BTW. why would a serious person cracking into some servers try to remove all his/her trails just to leave huge foot-steps all over IRC channels?
You can't handle the truth.
...he lives in the heart of you and me, in anyone who's every sat bleary-eyed in front of a CRT at 3-am, anyone who has subsisted on Pop-tarts, Zingers, and Mountain Dew, anyone who has been shunned by society only to find acceptance in the warmth of a x86 processor! Yes, he even lives in you, Scarecrow! Every time you lick the neon Cheet-o residue off your fingers so you won't get it lodged in your keyboard...MafiaBoy is with you...each time the BSOD causes you to flop on the ground like a Pokemon-induced seizure...MafiaBoy is there flinching too!...every time you've told a newbie to try 'this really cool command, rm -r *'...MafiaBoy was laughing right along! Don't you see, Timmy? You can't touch or see MafiaBoy, he surrounds us, invisible yet guiding us. So, when those kids tell you there ain't such thing as MafiaBoy, you tell em' what ol' MorboNixon told ya! And that, ya see, is the real meaning of MafiaBoy. Now let me tell ye how I invented the question mark...
Come to papa!
tcd004
Danny: Hosts a boring local radio program
Emmanuel: Hosts a boring local radio program
Danny: Quasi celebrity status among '70's freaks
Emmanuel: Quasi celebrity status among telephone phreaks
Danny: Periods of heavy drug usage
Emmanuel: Periods of heavy drug usage
Danny: Involved in sex scandal with another man
Emmanuel: Involved in sex scandal with another man
Danny: Last name is "Bonaduce"
Emmanuel: Friends with Phiber Optik whose first handle was "Il Duce"
Danny: Supplements income by doing desperate local talk shows whenever he can
Emmanuel: Supplements income by doing desperate talk shows whenever he can
It seems to me everytime an alleged hacker is caught the media seems to just assume they are guilty. In the newspaper I see mafiaboy described as the hacker that did the DoS attacks. Meanwhile, on the front page I see a story about an ALLEGED shooter who shot and killed two people in front of a room full of people. I guess some guy who kills two people in front of a room full of people deserves a greater presumption of innocence then some 15 year old kid who brought down a couple of web sites.
:P
The media also seems to imply that these attacks had to do with some sort of great computer skills; any person with basic computer competence could do these attacks, most of us just aren't stupid enough to actually do it
In all the mainstream Mafiaboy stories, they point to IRC logs. Where are these logs? Why aren't they linked to, if they exist? If they aren't allowed to, then why not? Shouldn't that be evidence to show the press? Or is the FBI worried that anyone viewing the logs might see holes in their case? Or do the logs not exist? Is some FBI lacky makeing fake logs now to show later?
What about Twinkies? When can I DoS a Twinkie? Will it work with fat free Twinkies? The people want to know!!!
Not a typewriter
As soon as a person is accused of an internet crime, create and publish some believeable yet absolutely fake backstory that brings the evidence into doubt
to be fair, though the govt. was asking for it. Arresting somebody based on something as unsubstantial as an irc chat was bound to backfire.
I know that when I was a kid I would have gladly claimed responsibility for some hack if it made complete strangers admire me. But I was young and stupid then. Fortunately, I'm not young anymore.
Judge Pag, the Learned, Impartial, and Very Relaxed
...that basically this whole deal is going to turn into a huge media circus to make some opportunist, -somewhere-, some beaucoup cash. It might just be me, but everytime I see some 'expert' on computer security talking to the media at large, that we're probably dealing with some half-wit who can string the words together to get he sound bite.
Looks a bit like 'resume enhancement' for some has-been/never-was at some company who'd look really good with some press attention, not investigation, n'est ce pas? Too bad that some 15 year old kid in Canada is probably going to take the fall so they can fatten their bottom line.
But I'm an old fogey who checks my electronic fences, writes my letters to congress, opts out of as much as I can, and keeps my nose clean.
In space, no one can hear you moo.
A quick quote:" Montreal police hauled the father in last week after investigators, who were monitoring his 15-year-old son via tapped telephones, overheard the father and another man make plans for the assault, police officials said"
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