Slashdot Mirror
AOL Security Compromised by Teenager
Freaky_Friday wrote with a link to an InfoWorld article about a teenage kid accessing customer information at AOL. The alleged criminal trespass began late last year, and extended up through early April. According to the article, the guy used some 'off-the-shelf' hacking software he downloaded online to gain access to, and then transmit information from, AOL's systems. "The complaint states that Nieves admitted to investigators that he committed the alleged acts because AOL took away his accounts. 'I accessed their internal accounts and their network and used it to try to get my accounts back,' the defendant is quoted as saying in the complaint. He also admitted to posting photos of his exploits in a photo Web site, according to the complaint ... If the defendant was honest about his motivation in his reported confession, it's safe to assume that he wasn't interested in stealing data for financial gain, [Managing director of technology at FTI Consulting Mark] Rasch said. Still, it'll be interesting to find out what steps AOL is taking if customer data was in fact compromised, he said."
If only it worked that way...
In high school I was 'banned' (really they revoked my account... problem is they left the Administrator account without a password on the local system -- idiots) from using the schools computers because I had ssh'd into my home system and was fiddling around. Obviously because there was a command line involved, I was 'hacking.'
Yeah, great, that's really helpful. I bet the kid used something closely related to 10-year-old tools that drew hands in AOL chatrooms flicking the room off. I'll bet AOL hasn't improved their security since 1997 either. Thanks for the insight.