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Police swoop on 'Hacker of the Year'
AcidAUS writes "The Swedish hacker, Dan Egerstad, who perpetrated the so-called hack of the year, has been arrested in a dramatic raid on his apartment, during which he was taken in for questioning and several of his computers confiscated. Egerstad broke into the global communications network used by embassies around the world in August and gained access to 1000 sensitive email accounts."
I thought he just listened in on Tor traffic.
90% of what makes a really good hack hard is STFU'ing about it.
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All he did was run a tor exit node, and observe the outgoing traffic, a known possibility when using tor. Not only is there the disclaimer "This is experimental software. Do not rely on it for strong anonymity" evertime you run tor, but this vector of potential attack is so bloody obvious that anyone not aware of would be a bloody idiot not to use additional encryption for accessing sensitive information on the other end, and rely on tor only for obfuscation of the fact that the route originates from them.
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the pen is mightier than the sword, the sword is mightier than the court, the court is mightier than the pen.
broke into the global communications network used by embassies around the world in August and gained access to 1000 sensitive email accounts
He acquired access credentials to 1000 email accounts used by embassies. He did so by becoming an exit node of the TOR anonymizing network and reading the unencrypted exit traffic. That may have been in violation of the law, but does not constitute "breaking into the global communications network used by embassies".
"Egerstad published 100 of the email accounts, including login details and passwords, on his website for anyone curious enough to have a look"
Publishing login credentials of 100 accounts isn't what I'd call without malicious intent. Okay, he was trying to force them to react, but there are better ways of doing it.
Look, I don't know if the guy actually broke any laws. It sounds like he might have, but maybe not. On the other hand, intentionally trying to fuck with the police after they arrested him is plain stupid. It doesn't buy you anything except bad will. It's not like the people interrogating him are the ones that made the decision to arrest him. You get pulled in by the police, if you're really not guilty, the only smart thing to do is cooperate. Creating that kind of bad will and then complaining that you might not get your computer equipment back for years, well what do you expect? Shit on people and expect them to shit on you back.
Dan didn't break into anything. He simply set up a Tor node and watches the traffic passing. Most likely the passwords he sniffed out were not used by Embassy officials but by criminal elements who were using Tor to avoid being caught when using stolen credentials.
Also, he notified the involved embassies weeks before publishing the material.
I not saying it was a stupid move (I think it was) but the summary makes him look like a criminal which he is most certainly not. The Swedish police does not understand IT and obviously does whatever foreign countries tell them to do since our political leaders lacks spines.
Emphasis mine. So what is he? If he's a hacker, the raid is just desserts. If he's a security consultant, and he's exposed this flaw, he's being persecuted. Frankly, I don't know what he really is, but it seems like the press is schizophrenic on this issue. It just goes to show that when it comes to technology, the mainstream press is a bit low on clarity and high on sensationalism.
If a locksmith breaks into your home by picking your locks, he is still a burglar.[knock at the door]
Police: Open this door! Thou art a felon wanted for many counts of villainy against the citizenry of this fair nation!
Dan: How now!? Am I to be jailed? What can I do but beg for the mercy of The Crown?!?!
[Dan weeps loudly]
[Viola music plays a sad song in the background]
[Dan slumps over a b0x3n]
Dan: I am ruined. Farewell, my tools of crime, for you are sure to meet a worse fate than I in our common traitorous endeavors.
[The door breaks in, an officer enters the room and grabs Dan by the shoulder with nightstick in hand]
[Fades to black]
Oh, you mean a different kind of dramatic. Sorry, sorry.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
Diplomats are often dealing with people seeking asylum for humanitarian reasons. They also deal with local and international law enforcement and sometimes the military. In any one of those cases leaked information could have gotten someone killed. This guy didn't expose the logins and passwords of MySpace accounts. Then there's the consideration that he very well may have violated several privacy/confidentiality laws as well.
I don't think you realize just how serious what this guy did is.
Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
I won't delineate all the reasons why what you said is a stupid troll.
But here's a few gems for you.
1) He became a tor node.
2) All the data he examined was on his own computers.
3) Everything on the computers belonged to him.
4) As a responsible tor node person, he examined the contents of it.
5) Refer to number 3. Also in the US, he could be found responsible for
people using his tor node to traffic in say copyrighted works or child
abuse. So he would really pretty much HAVE to inspect the contrents of
his traffic to make sure that no illegal activity was taking place.
6) What law is it you think he broke?