Slashdot Mirror
7 Hackers Who Got Legit Jobs From Their Misdeeds
adeelarshad82 writes "Just like in Stephen Glass' fabricated feature where a lonely teenage hacker gets hired by a major software company, the 21 year old PlayStation 3 hacker, George "Geohot" Hotz, was offered a job at Facebook. Ironically Hotz wasn't the first school-aged hacker to be rewarded for his cyber-crime rather than a prison sentence. Turns out there are others who have managed (with one exception) to avoid jail time, and instead found themselves gainfully employed by some of Silicon Valley's most exclusive circles."
GeoHot != Criminal
Fail.
Geohot was not a criminal. He did something Sony didn't like, bottom line.
Come most you should remember the "Free Kevin Mitnick" campaign. He is the original hacker/cracker turned "consultant".
Ironically Hotz wasn't the first school-aged hacker to be rewarded for his cyber-crime rather than a prison sentence.
Wouldn't call this irony. The whole ex-hacker/burgler/forger/etc turned ultra-well paid employee working for the "good guys"[tm] is an old cliche.
Hell, in some lines of work, doing a little jail time (or at least almost doing some) to earn some rep might just be part of the plan.
Geohot didn't do anything illegal, so why is he a 'criminal'? How is restoring the Linux functionality that Sony originally sold, and then disabled though updates, a 'misdeed'?
This wasn't the case of some phone-phreaker or wardriver getting hired. Hotz was an actual skilled hacker, with some pretty serious reverse-engineering and programming abilities. He wasn't just some asshole who figured out a password or slightly modified some virus code.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
When an article wrongly bases itself on the premise that hardware hacker, IE Hotz, equals security hacker, IE Lulzsec, you have to scratch your head and wonder. When that article is from a 'reputable' computer publication, you have to wonder if they have a clue or not, or are just trolling for hits. Either way, PC mag just went down in my eyes to a level just above supermarket tabloids.
Geohotz performed no misdeeds. He simply unlocked some hardware and showed the world how to do the same. If that's a misdeed, we're all in sad shape. We may all be able to create Free software, but a chip fabrication plant is a little tougher to do in your spare time.
I saw this done back in the 1970s. Someone stole time on the university mainframe, then got hired by the computing services dept. to fix the hole they used. This is newsworthy how?
Seriously, many of us have done stupid things when we were younger. In todays incarceration culture many kids are going to prison to hang out with violent criminals for pulling the same stunts. We as a society need to more carefully consider the reasons for which we take away someone's freedoms.
Exactly. It's not like he was hacking into Sony websites and stealing credit card numbers. He was just tinkering with his own bought-and-paid-for equipment at home to make it more functional. A true hacker in the traditional and honorable sense rather than a criminal, as much as Sony tried to paint him as one.
I love how these "hackers" only one maybe two of which truely are. Are being lauded for what they have done. Personally if the world knows they did it, then they aren't very good. And I love how these days finding a flaw in a social network site constitutes a hack.
Long live the days of the unknown, unsung hacker... for he is truely the one to ph33r.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
For every "geoHot" out there there are 40,000 of them getting ass raped in prison. Remember kids, "street cred" is romantic, but doing it anonymously and covering your ass and tracks protects you from the unwanted sodomy of the legal system. Be paranoid. IF you want that lifestyle you have to be paranoid and assume that anyone you know will rat on you. Look at Adrian Lame-o he happily ratted on anyone and everyone to save his own ass. your "buddies" will do it to you if they get the chance.
A friendly reminder from an "old hat". Kids today have the skillz but they utterly suck at hiding.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
CNN's coverage described George as a hacker who "Cost Sony 20 Million Dollars by hacking into the PlayStation Network. He also published instructions for how to do it online."
Sigh...
This! So very much this!
-- More Smoke! The mirrors aren't working!!!
> Ironically Hotz wasn't the first school-aged hacker to be rewarded for his cyber-crime rather than a prison sentence.
Let me put some oil on CmdrTaco's misery... http://www.google.com/trends?q=slashdot
hach.... revenge for all AC's... :D
Isn't that also true for most Politicians (getting legit jobs through misdeeds).
Honestly, I'm dying to know. What crime did Geohot commit?
The only issue with George Hotz being in this list is he's never committed a misdeed. He's removed limitations on hardware he owns, placed by the manufacturer and shown others how to do the same. He hasn't broken the DMCA. He is a hacker in the truest sense of the word. He's never been caught doing anything illegal, most likely because he hasn't done anything illegal. He'd be in jail for breaking the DMCA.
How can what he's done be a misdeed? He was placed under an injunction to not show anyone else how to do what he's done, essentially a gag order. The only reason he agreed to this is he didn't have the money to fight sony in court. Sony is the one guilty of misdeeds in this case.
Don't kid yourself. It's the size of the regexp AND how you use it that counts.
What about the ones who aren't known about, the ones that would've been hired by the US Government (ie: NSA, FBI, CIA, etc), providing they are US citizens..?!
Michael
http://s1.sfgame.us/index.php?rec=58163
He arguably violated the DMCA. Breaking unjust laws does not stop you from being called a criminal. Not having ever been convicted also does not make you any less of a criminal.
Check out my lame java blog at www.javachopshop.com
The next time I find myself unemployed, starving, and desperate for a job, I should write a worm or virus instead of futilely trying to finish that game engine I've been trying to finish since the dawn of time. And then the job offers will roll in.
Or is this only applicable if you're a teenager?
"Ironically Hotz wasn't the first school-aged hacker to be rewarded for his cyber-crime rather than a prison sentence." Unless Sony is the author of this summary, GeoHotz is not a criminal.
I hope it's not just me, but I'm sick of seeing this trend of "list" articles on the web in the Cracked Magazine style. I cannot put my finger on it, but it comes off as litter to me. It's a cheap way to grab attention and generate page views by leading the reader through a slide show of bulleted items.
I'd expect the general media to erroneously call Hotz (and others) criminals, but Slashdot should be knowledgeable enough to know he/they never committed a crime. Are Slashdot articles not subject to editor approval?
All it takes is one individual misusing a word or spreading incorrect grammar, and if that individual happens to be popular or admired by his or her peers (for reasons entirely unrelated to grammar), soon the entire town does it. When an entire town does it, there's no going back.
My favorite example of recent times is the astonishingly invalid phrase "needs X'ed", as in "my computer needs reinstalled", or "my car needs washed". This level of butchering doesn't just appear out of nowhere, nor does it arise through "grassroots" language evolution. It takes a person of special standing to light the fire under the collective ass of aspiring destroyers of grammar. You can bet they won't repeat what they hear from just any loser off the street. The individual who started this (and make no mistake, at the bottom of such a blatant misuse of language must be exactly one individual) was clearly admired by his peers for some reason, and it sure wasn't for his use of grammar (which obviously his admirers didn't study much either). It sounds like something out of a toddler's mouth: "Mommy, I need changed". But here it is, a radical change in the English language disgusting enough to leave you speechless, and it's here to stay. Here's a hint on how to use it: the dropping of "to be" only applies to the specific verb "need". Apparently it doesn't apply to any other verb, for example "like": "my dog likes pampered" is invalid to the same group of people (as it should be), however "my dog needs pampered" is -- cough -- "valid".
Ironically Hotz wasn't the first school-aged hacker to be rewarded for his cyber-crime rather than a prison sentence.
Yes, but this time is was done on the internet which, as the USPTO will tell you, makes it novel and original - worthy of praise as if it had never been done before!
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
This is the kind of yellow journalism I would not expect from a well established periodical like PCMag. I am severly disappointed. Many of these people are not "hackers" In the way that the article is describing them, and the writer is painted a very untrue picture of what is happening.
The premise may still hold but you need to research people that actually were black/gray hat hackers. Not a jailbrake app developer, or some one that altered a device of thier own that they payed for with thier own money. Those aren't black hat hacking at all, and it's not illegal. Developing jail broken applications, are as held by the supreme court... perfectly legal, and is NOT tantamount to writing virus code as this article states.
Flawed Logic Arguements and poor conjecture create a false picture. Would have been better off citing Kevin Mitnick or many others that really did break laws, and do corperate damage.
George Hotz - Benevolent tinkerer
Peter Hajas - Benevolent tinkerer
Johnny Chung Lee - Benevolent tinkerer
Jeff Moss - Benevolent
Jeff Putnam - Created destructive Facebook virus - Black hat
Ashley Towns - Created harmless prank virus - Benevolent
Michael Mooney - Created spamming twitter worm - Black hat
Kevin Poulsen - Rigged a competition to give himself a car - Could be considered a black hat
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
What's criminal is defrauding people by taking away functionality they purchased.
Hackers created the ability to post on the internet...how you may ask? They INVENTED the internet, it wasn't christian conservatives, business tycoons, government officials.....it was hackers...worthless, criminal, degenerate people who deserve to be in jail because they possess a level of intelligence you will never have. If you feel like they impede on your safety understand you are in their territory, they know the net better than you ever will, they understand the technology that runs the servers because they wrote it. You are in their house..not the other way around. They have access to everything in virtual space, Lulsec has proven that in absolute. The laws created to "govern" the internet was written by business men, politicians...people who couldn't set up an email for themselves yet they try and dictate behavior of nerds who actually run the system. If you put your baby in the middle of a 6 lane highway during rush hour and it gets run over there in no one else to blame but you, it is an obvious danger, the situation shows no sign of security. If you put all your personal and financial info into a system that is obviously open to certain people there is no one else to blame but you, there is nothing about the internet that is safe or secure, not even the government systems are safe from people who are more intelligent that the people who "secure" said systems. This is a war of intellect...and hackers will always win
Sony perpetrated a bait and switch scam with regards to their Other OS feature of the PS3. They advertised it, some people bought it with the ability to use that feature, and then they removed it during firmware updates. That is also arguably illegal. But being a large corporation makes it difficult for anyone to take you to court and prove you're a criminal, and individual actors within the company are not personally liable for the acts they perform. Accountability is a joke with companies.
I haven't see any carder ( a special type of hacker ) on the list. China , Russia , former soviet bloc and Vietnam are more advanced in terms of laws regarding cybercrime as carders are offered a real job.
Have not taken any profit except the last one. That is why they are gone scott-free.
That is why you won't find a single credit card / bank hacker in the TFA. The law regarding cybercrime are much different in 3rd world countries, as those people are bringing in much $ for the economy, similar to how 419 plans works for the economy of Nigeria.
Twitter: @dainsanefh
Geohot hasn't committed any crime. He hasn't even been accused of one. Sony sued him (i.e, a civil trial, not a criminal one) for publishing information that allowed people to modify their own PS3 consoles. It's highly doubtful he broke any law by publishing the information, and the parties eventually settled out of court.
It's kind of worrying that people think there's anything illegal about what these hackers do, just because multinational corporations try to scare them with dubious lawsuits. Does something automatically become illegal or immoral because a large corporation doesn't like what you do?
So then I guess the following people are all criminals and we certainly shouldn't respect them.
1. George Washington - committed treason. And it's still treason and criminal no matter how unjust the law.
2. Abraham Lincoln - he abrogated the constitution during the civil war.
3. Any black slaves that ran away - they should have just 'stayed' I guess.
4. Alic Paul - and those other suffragists. Cause they should have asked more meekly for freedom and equality.
5. Rosa Parks - she was such a criminal sitting at the front of the bus. I guess all those in the civil rights movement should have been more meek. Cause we know that would have worked.
[Hint: There is a reason to obey the law. And is does not always apply. There would be no modern civilization if no-one had broken the law, no industrial revolution and no Slashdot to post on. I think sometimes that the reasoning part of the cerebral cortex is switched off in some people when they blindly go on about always obeying the law. If the law is enough of an ass, it is the obeying of it that is repulsive and the word criminal in that context is meaningless.]
[Hint 2: Read the declaration of independence:
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another...requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
Our Founding fathers stated that when you decide to 'break the law' then it's necessary to explain why and explain that it is justified. If you don't accept this you really cannot be an American - you might as well go back to Britain.]
It's higly doubtful he broke any of the criminal provisions of the DMCA. Sony only sued him; they didn't file any criminal charges.
... Seriously? First: it's a hell of a lot smarter to keep someone who's proven he can hack just about anything BUSY. Ish. Or something. Idle hands, and all that. Second: would anyone *really* not be willing to bet that being saddled with a nine-to-five corporate job is the next thing to a living hell for most hackers? Honestly. Somehow, I get the sense that the article's written by someone who lives and dies for the corporate grind. o_O
Oh, come now jjo. Geohot was a terrozin little terrorizor now wasn't he, a terrorist
The words you are looking for are unethical, unjust, "not right." I think "criminal" would refer more to breaking laws, committing crimes: An action or omission that constitutes an offense that may be prosecuted by the state and is punishable by law. We use it hyperbolically or analogously when we really, really don't like something ("that's a crime!") but that doesn't make it technically correct...
Well lets face it hacking has become just like singing... if you sing well then people want you to continue to sing. Now if you hack and people see you hack something they like then they want you to keep hacking but it would be more anti hacking then hacking for them. Its just becoming famous. So in the long run if your going to do something on a computer wrong then just make sure everyone else can see it so that way you can get paid more!
Well, the grandparent may just have wished to point out that Geohot was technically breaking the law, even if it was justified.
I highly doubt Geohot did even that, though. I haven't seen any evidence of it.
...and we certainly shouldn't respect them.
Don't put words into my mouth. I have no problem with what GeoHot or whatever his name is did. I thought that was made clear by me referring to the law in question as unjust. Don't let that stop you from flaming on though.
Check out my lame java blog at www.javachopshop.com
Is this the kind of punishment you want to subject a young budding hacker?
This article is idiotic.
Now, Hajas’ profile says he is an intern at Apple—the typical entry path for every developer there.
What? Yeah, every Apple developer was an intern first...
Johnny Chung Lee is more of a modder than a hacker (which some would argue is just a matter of shades of grey).
What sort of shade of grey is there for an HCI researcher ripping open a Wii controller??
I guess the problem with the article is more fundamental than that... hackers and modders are fairly equivalent, the problem is NEITHER OF THEM has to imply anything illegal. Sigh.
How so? What he did was basically to allow interoperability.
I find it hard to believe that Sony ever came close to demonstrating that GeoHot violated the DMCA ... they just managed to intimidate him enough to make him stop doing what he was doing and promise never to do it again.
I'm not at all convinced what he did was wrong, or anywhere near illegal.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Hackers using their skills to get jobs is old news. My university had an unspoken policy of hiring students who broke into the servers as admins (with job one being "fix the hole you used"). Hell, isn't this the plot of Sneakers? :)
WTF IS THIS? Why is Mr. Hotz equated with crackers? He reinstated a feature in a product SOLD to him from a company that actually used that feature as a selling point. And FWIW? Is Mr. Hotz sentenced in a criminal trial? Sod off moron and go check your bloody facts before ever writing a piece again
The law of most civilized nations explicitly state the opposite. You are INNOCENT UNTIL RULED GUILTY IN A COURT OF LAW.
This is certainly the law in the US , and it is also part of the European convention of human rights.
Thus at least legally speaking, you are very much not a criminal if you've never been convicted for anything.
Yes, if you're making money selling razor blades for your shiny shiny razor, and somebody else makes competing razor blades that can also use your razor, and sells them cheaper (in this case, gives them away free), then you won't make as much money. That's not called "crime", it's called "competition", and if your business model can't cope with competition, that's called "capitalism", or as Schumpeter put it, "Creative Destruction".
And Sony's PS3 revenue stream model is also at risk if Microsoft comes out with a cool game for the X-Box, and potential customers buy it instead of your game, or if Ubuntu Linux starts shipping with Free really cool games like "apt-get" and "Zombie Target Practice!"
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Geohot didn't do anything illegal, so why is he a 'criminal'?
Well, that's this whole debate that I'm sure plenty of other people will argue with you.
How is restoring the Linux functionality that Sony originally sold, and then disabled though updates, a 'misdeed'?
George didn't have anything to do with that part of it, that was done by other teams. Then George built on their work, and retrieved and published the private keyfiles. The reason the other groups didn't do it first, is because their goal was just to restore the functions, not to crack it completely.
fraud, a definition