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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.
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.
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.
Yes, my first thought was "most of these people are hackers in the old sense of the word," but when being cleaver, inventive and creative is lumped in with "and, oh yeah, a guy who committed wire fraud to steal a car", then it just makes everybody who uses a computer for more than word processing seem like a potential threat to national security. Computers are the chemistry sets of the 21st century, I suppose.
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.
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
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
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
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.
I work at a Danish multi-national corporation. It has English as its official language, but most of the top-level bosses are Danes. I've noticed that people here are using some peculiar English phrases, and I'm guessing they're based on grammatical misconceptions from one of the bosses which have then spread throughout the organisation. For example, at our company, we don't "reply" to e-mails; we "revert" to them. I haven't seen this particular error anywhere else.
According to a high school teacher of mine, odd dialects among the upper class, like speaking with a lisp or through your nose, were historically often the result of a speech impediment with one of the royals, which was copied by those below him.
It also reminds me of the American president who made people pronounce "nuclear" "nukular".
Here's a hint on how to use it: the dropping of "to be" only applies to the specific verb "need".
It's probably a mix of "It needs to be changed" and "It needs a change".