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The Wi-Fi Hacking Neighbor From Hell
Hugh Pickens writes "Barry Ardolf, a Minnesota hacker prosecutors described as a 'depraved criminal,' has been handed an 18-year prison term for unleashing a vendetta of cyberterror that turned his neighbors' lives into a living nightmare. Ardolf hacked into his next-door neighbors' Wi-Fi network and used it to try and frame them for child pornography, sexual harassment, various kinds of professional misconduct, and to send threatening e-mail to politicians, including Vice President Joe Biden. The bizarre tale began in 2009 when Matt and Bethany Kostolnik moved into the house next door to Ardolf. On their first day at their new home, the Kostolnik's then-4-year-old son wandered near Ardolf's house. While carrying him back next door, Ardolf allegedly kissed the boy on the lips. 'We've just moved next door to a pedophile,' Mrs. Kostolnik told her husband. The couple reported Ardolf to the police, angering their creepy new neighbor (PDF). 'I decided to "get even" by launching computer attacks against him,' said Ardolf, who downloaded Wi-Fi hacking software and spent two weeks cracking the Kostolnik's WEP encryption. Then he used their own Wi-Fi network to create a fake MySpace page for the husband, where he posted a picture of a pubescent girl having sex with two young boys. Ardolf turned down a 2-year plea agreement last year to charges related to the Biden e-mail. After that, the authorities piled on more charges, including identity theft and two kiddie-porn accusations carrying lifetime sex-offender registration requirements."
turned into byzantine obsession is a sign of a person who will do nothing but bring grief to anyone who ever touches his or her life
if you ever meet this type, back off slowly smiling, then run like hell
their feeling of disempowerment and helplessness (self-learned) and the eternal fight against that (fruitlessly projected outwards) is all they know, it defines their entire existence
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Ummm, WEP requires enough IVs to crack, either through sniffing the network and capturing IVs (slowly) or by using a replay attack against the router in order to massively speed up the IV collection process.
WPA on the otherhand can be performed offline once the 4 way handshake as been captured.... (Which can be optained by waiting for a valid client to connect or by de-authing the clients and then capturing the handshake once they reconnect)
You mean besides the confession (already mentioned by another reply to you), and besides the fact that when he was emailing his victim's coworkers and bosses with message claiming to be a pedophile he accidentally left some of his ISP's software running, so his laptop was sending login information to Comcast using his own name and Comcast account number? Besides the search warrant that turned up a journal where he detailed his plan to "utterly destroy his life"? Besides the manuals on hacking WEP where he had scribbled his victim's wifi network name? Besides the fact that on his computer was the child pornography he planted on his victim? Along with a note in his journal "PLANT CHILD PORN". Besides the pile of stolen mail under his bed? Besides the unsent letter he had prepared where he had printed off his victim's last tax return, and attached a note that their life belongs to him, and he will end it? Yeah, basically sounds like a setup, could have been anybody!
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
It doesn't matter. If I obtain some heroin and plant it on you to frame you, I am still guilty of a drug offense.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
He's obviously passive-aggressive and has serious problems but the mom was out of line to make the critical "pedophile" allegation to police based upon the single isolated incident. She inadvertently set in motion what Steven Pinker calls a "doomsday machine" mechanism in the brain of the accused, whereupon he tossed caution to the winds and became hell-bent upon destroying his neighbors.
This "amok" behavior is a common behavior found in all societies where a man feels he has lost status, has no power and seeks revenge for his mistreatment.
I think the mother got what she deserved and the convicted got worse than he deserved. But neither party is innocent here.