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Hacking Neighbor Pleads Guilty On Death Threats and Porn

Posted by timothy on from the wanna-go-for-a-ride-neighbor? dept.

wiredmikey writes "Another good reason to make sure your wireless is secured! 'Barry Vincent Ardolf of Blaine, Minnesota pleaded guilty to hacking into his neighbor's wireless Internet system and posing as the neighbor to make threats to kill the Vice President of the United States. Just two days into his federal trial in St. Paul, Ardolf stopped the trial to plead guilty. According to the US Department of Justice, in his plea agreement, Ardolf, 45 years-old, was indicted on June 23, 2010, admitted that in February of 2009, he hacked into his neighbor's wireless Internet connection and created multiple Yahoo.com email accounts in his neighbor's name." Ardolf's guilty plea included child porn possession, as well as the death threats.

18 of 284 comments (clear)

  1. My neighbor's IP by asher09 · · Score: 5, Funny

    First post! ...(from my neighbor's IP address; so mod him down, not me)

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    Some were yelling one thing, some another. Most of them had no idea what was going on or why they were there. Acts19:32
    1. Re:My neighbor's IP by Eudial · · Score: 4, Funny

      Stupid Flanders!

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      GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
    2. Re:My neighbor's IP by MachDelta · · Score: 5, Informative

      He sent threats and child porn (etc) to his neighbours co-workers. His neighbours hired an "investigator" who then discovered buddy was jacking their wireless.

      Basically someone looked at their router logs.

  2. What's not to like? by seebs · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Death threats against the vice president, breaking into his neighbor's wireless... But no, he didn't stop there. Child porn.

    I wonder if some company that has a wireless security technology hired this guy to make their product look necessary.

    --
    My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
    1. Re:What's not to like? by andolyne · · Score: 5, Informative

      when you read TFA, it actually just sounds like he was screwing around and the child porn was more like "this'll get the dude in trouble" rather than "I have a private collection because i'm a pedo".

      Either way, the dude was really stupid and deserves to get jail time for it.

      edit: changed the word "article" to TFA cause that's the way it's done here ;)

    2. Re:What's not to like? by MoonBuggy · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The article is rather sparse on details, but what interests me is that Ardolf didn't succeed in his "this'll get the dude in trouble" plan; what led the police to believe that the access point had been 'hacked'? What security was used, for that matter? Were there logs?

      The guilty plea certainly makes it seem like this is a case where computer fraud was handled correctly by the system, and since the courts often seem to make the mistake that 'IP address == person' it'd be good to see how they went about distinguishing the actual criminal from the victim here.

    3. Re:What's not to like? by Capsaicin · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Unsecured doesn't imply incompetent - there are people who happily leave a public WiFi connection to the net which is securely isolated from their internal network.

      In fact, if you intend doing anything online which might raise the ire of authorities, "securing" your WiFi is actually quite foolish. What you are effectively doing is removing a reasonable doubt that activity over the connection is your activity.

      --
      Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
    4. Re:What's not to like? by Barny · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Browser history, cache, etc.

      They would have gotten the guy who owns the net connections PC and gone to town, found it clean of any corroborating evidence and then gone looking for neighbours who might have been using it (since it would have been a regular thing over time). Cross reference which neighbours don't have their own net connections with a motive (who had a grudge against him).

      Easier to narrow down the field of who would do it by motive, of course once it was established it was a frame up.

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      ...
      /me sighs
    5. Re:What's not to like? by icebike · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The article is rather sparse on details, but what interests me is that Ardolf didn't succeed in his "this'll get the dude in trouble" plan; what led the police to believe that the access point had been 'hacked'? What security was used, for that matter? Were there logs?

      Chances are it was wide open, no security. The guy does not sound bright enough to have even hacked WEP, let alone anything stronger.

      With that fact in hand, and finding no evidence that the neighbor had any knowledge or ill intent, your circle of suspects is limited to what you can measure with a standard hard ware store carpenters tape measure.

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      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    6. Re:What's not to like? by icebike · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Luckily, I tracked this down and secure further the network, but without proper tools, what can a normal user do against these smart asses?

      Read Slash Dot occasionally and notice that WEP is insecure.
      http://lmgtfy.com/?q=WEP+insecure+site%3Aslashdot.org

      Move away from WEP (its been known for 5 years to be easily hacked).

      WPA2 is where you want to be.
      I had a laptop with a mini-pci network adapter built in that was old enough that it didn't support anything but WEP. 8 bucks got me a replacement card from Amazon, which did WPA2.

      Computers are easy to upgrade. Some stuff is harder.

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      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    7. Re:What's not to like? by Hatta · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The guilty plea certainly makes it seem like this is a case where computer fraud was handled correctly by the system

      Don't be so quick. Many innocent people plead guilty because they've been poorly advised by a public defender. A plea of guilty doesn't mean the person was guilty. It means that a deal was offered and the suspect had no faith in his defense at trial.

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      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    8. Re:What's not to like? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      This guy has a history of problems with neighbors. This isnt his first run in with the law
      See: http://www.startribune.com/local/99435264.html
      and
      http://www.startribune.com/local/north/96012389.html

    9. Re:What's not to like? by nbauman · · Score: 5, Informative

      Minneapolis Star Tribune http://www.startribune.com/ had several stories, which you can find by searching for "Ardolf". Good stories, although not too technical.

      The victim, Matt Kostolnik, worked in a law firm, and Ardolf sent messages to the firm. The law firm hired an investigator to figure out what was going on. The investigator tracked Kostolnik's wireless traffic, and fingered Ardolf. Then they sent the cops with a search warrant to Ardolf's house, which produced even more incriminating evidence.

      Ardolf turned down a plea bargain on the identity theft charges alone, so they added the child porn charges and went to trial. When he saw the evidence against him, he gave up and pled guilty.

      I can remember a handful of cases like this where the victim got out of it because they managed to catch the real criminal. (Wasn't there one recently in England?) I wonder how many cases there were where the innocent victim got convicted.

    10. Re:What's not to like? by Capsaicin · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The geek's notions of "reasonable doubt" will most likely land him in the slammer.

      IAAL.

      But do note, I'm not saying that simply leaving your connection unsecured will keep you out of the slammer. I'm saying that securing your connection will give us (lawyers) one less handle to work with.

      --
      Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
  3. In all fairness... by DWMorse · · Score: 5, Funny

    In all fairness, I live in Minnesota. I can vouch that there's just not much else to do around here in the winter.

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    There's a spot in User Info for World of Warcraft account names? Really?
  4. This article has a lot of details... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The neighbors suspected the guy right away. Fortunately, the investigators listened to the [innocent] neighbors and started looking at the real bad guy.

    http://www.startribune.com/local/north/112080854.html?elr=KArks:DCiUHc3E7_V_nDaycUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUoD3aPc:_2yc:a_ncyD_MDCiU

  5. Re:Derangement by Hatta · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What I don't get is why so many folks let themselves uniquely be turned into raving lunatics about politics - especially given how important the issues are to them.

    Because the law is fucking insane. For instance, we live in a country where it's considered an appropriate and measured response to throw someone in prison, and confiscate their home, for growing a plant that's some people disapprove of. How do you deal with that rationally?

    If you have a mission, and that mission is important - you need to focus. Turning explosive (figuratively, or literally when you mix in religion) might seem a good way to get attention on something that is overlooked - but if you pay any attention to how political events turn out, it rarely has a positive net effect.

    The problem is, nothing really has a positive effect. It's been a steady slide down towards authoritarian corporatism for all of my 30 years in this country. Every last tiny shred of hope has been crushed out of me. There is no chance for change besides another American Revolution. Unfortunately, I don't see it coming in my lifetime. All I can do is keep my head down and try not to get caught up in the machine. If anything, I'm surprised we haven't seen more people flip out. The situation definitely calls for it.

    --
    Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
  6. The case went to trial - and he folded. by westlake · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Don't be so quick. Many innocent people plead guilty because they've been poorly advised by a public defender. A plea of guilty doesn't mean the person was guilty. It means that a deal was offered and the suspect had no faith in his defense at trial.

    Where does it say he had a public defender?

    He'd refused a more favorable plea deal last summer, insisting on fighting the government's case against him. But after two days of trial -- including Thursday's testimony from expert witnesses who showed the elaborate means Ardolf used to harass and smear neighbors who'd once called the police on him -- he stopped denying what he had done.
    "The reality of it became apparent to him that this was going to happen and he didn't want to perpetuate his own distress or the pain for the victims," Ardolf's lawyer, Seamus Mahoney, said Friday.     Vengeful neighbor in Blaine pleads to Biden threat, hacking

    Seamus Mahoney is a criminal defense attorney with a state-wide practice in Minnnesota.