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Brian West Update
Concerned Onlooker writes: "Remember the story about how Brian West reported a security leak to a client of a competing hosting service and then was promptly arrested by the FBI? Well, as usual there's more to the story, as shown in this release that I got today from Sheldon Sperling of the U.S. Dept. of Justice. Sorry about the Word-generated HTML. It's just nice to follow up on what outraged many of us at the time...." West has pled guilty to a misdemeanor offense.
some posts act like this guy is innocent.... IMHO, he shouldn't be punished for the penetration or browsing, cause he reported it to the company.... but, he apparently deliberately lied to the company about some stuff, and attempted to steal some of their intellectual property for his own personal gain.... sorry, this guy seems a bit shady, and it seems to me he got what he earned for himself....
..that we shouldn't automatically believe the story of every hacker/cracker/defendant who claims that he's being prosecuted for being a "good citizen". Every single prosecution of someone for some sort of "computer crime" isn't cause for us to plead for more donations to the EFF.
This isn't to say that we shouldn't support the EFF.
Most every criminal defendent comes up with some story as to why his acts weren't really illegal, or if illegal, should have been legal. We, as a community, listened to Brian West's story or made up one of our own and decided that this was yet another travesty of justice.
The bottom line in this case is that West was a crook (or at least admitted to being one). Our lesson to learn is that we shouldn't jump to conclusions.
144l. ph34r my 133t l3g4l 5k1lz!
This guy stole. It's sorta like if you saw a Wells Fargo truck with the back door open, took a couple of money bags, then told the driver, "Hey, you're back door is open."
I think you'd be arrested too.
you reap what you sow
Answers
A: He boasted about it to the Newspaper editor and several other people (read the info on his case on the web - its in newspaper accounts)
B: they didnt have to - the guys a fool - he left the evidence on his computers and bragged to the people he hacked - who notified the local police who called the FBI
C: Naah - this is what he did wrong - he committed a crime and got caught and charged - why bother keeping definding the little shit ?
The argument over intellectual property is so much crap - they were on a secured password protected section of a server he had no legal access to and also i will point out one belonging to a competitor of his - and he stole them thus commiting theft.
The FBI has jurisdiction on this and the other reason they were called in one suspects is that the brain dead i mean defendant boasted about hacking into a local banks systems (a lie it seems but he saids it on the record in an interview with the nespaper and it was thus reported) and if that bank had Federal Investment Deposit Insurance (FIDC) then any crime committed against it becomes a federal crime and the FBI investigates.
Now are we done defending this guy ? hes a hacker - full stop.
I refuse to argue with Anonymous Cowards - if you want a discussion get an account....
This case is quite clear cut that Brian West had done something stupid and wrong. He deserves what he gets.
But, there are cases are not always as clear cut as that. In this case, we can identify his criminal intention from his download of password list then use it to exploit other parts of the system.
What if the confidential / proprietary info is left in a completely unencrypted/protected state. A few months ago, when my friend was looking up info for a robot toy from a very high profile website, the ColdFusion server encountered some internal errors and dumped out its own scripts and even the **administive password**. My earlybird friend cached the page and showed up later on today.... The intention seems to be benign enough, but the material evidence seems to be the same.
That's why, when ridiculous convictions really occur, we still need the community, we still need EFF. In some cases, we are the only people who understand what we are thinking...
Who here wrote a scathing letter to the editor or someone else regarding this incident when it first came out?
I should see more hands that!
For those that did raise their hand, did you write them an apology for your uncalled for comments? Go on, raise your hand.
I didn't think so.....
Go not unto/. for advice, for you will be told both yea and nay (but have nothing to do with the question)