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Krebs Hacker Unmasked, Hit Ars and Wired's Honan
altjira writes "Brian Krebs, hot on the tail of the hacker who DDOS his site and SWATted his home, followed up on a tip, found the dox, called and then outed his hacker. Turns out it may have been the same guy who hit Wired's Mat Honan and Ars Technica."
The attacker is ... a 20 year old guy who apparently has too much time on his hands, and was surprisingly careless with his personal information for someone exploiting the personal information of others.
Given the propensity of the American police responding to that sort of call to shoot first and possibly get round to asking questions a bit later on, SWATting somebody should be charged as attempted murder
Most crimes are solved because the criminal is careless or stupid or both.
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
. . . and offer him a job.
Pentagon: "Do you also do SCADA stuff . . . ?"
Pentagon: "And windows? Good help is hard to find these days. And would you mind driving Miss Daisy . . . ?"
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
As we can see here, the most important hacking tool is social engineering. He did not get the name by technical skills. Not by running telnet and traceroute, but by following a tip.
Could have been the DDOS person himself for all we know.
So I would not say he was 'hot on the tail'.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
This story is still in progress, but it's clear that this "Phobia" punk is intelligent enough in ways that really don't matter much and too stupid in ways that actually do matter. His father should have figured out what the son was doing a while ago, as his son is in the crime scene, stealing or helping to steal and use credit cards, SSNs, etc., breaking into private people's accounts and messing with them, paying for DDOS attacks against websites and sending SWAT teams to people's homes, so that somebody could actually get shot. This is all a punk move, what this idiot needs is about 3 years of labour camp, so that he'd at least repay some of the damage and 10 minutes of flogging on monthly basis, so that what could not be peacefully inserted into his brain would be painfully inserted into his back.
You can't handle the truth.
B&E and other more "minor" felonies should be dealt with with labor camps.
I think you're behind the times a bit, except they've improved the formula such that those you would kill offhand are instead kept as taxpayer subsidized labour as well, to reduce costs for American corporations.
The stupidest part might have been deleting the YouTube videos once he was caught. Now when the police see it, they will charge him with destruction of evidence and obstruction of justice.
Man, it's hard to read the Kerbs post. Not because of what's he's saying, but the fact that the kid is engaging with him. First rule of fight club is you don't talk about fight club. When the cops come knocking on his door that kid is going to squeal.
Any chance of reposting the article in English?
The practice of SWATting needs to stop immediately. SWAT raids are very tense for all parties involved and they can go wrong in a hurry. One of these days an innocent person is going to end up dead because of this practice. The prosecutors need to go after this guy, get him the maximum sentence for all of his many crimes, and broadcast his prison rapes so that no one ever thinks of doing something like this again.
The Mysterious Death of Shannon Larratt and Encryption/Privacy/Deep-Dark-Web/
http://hpaste.org/raw/84300
http://pastebin.com/6yR0FTfp
Garlon was the brother of King Pellam. He killed Sir Herlews le Berbeus and later Sir Perin de Montbeliard. A life of crime is easily contemplated when one has slain two men of honor, and possesses a cloak of invisibility.
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
The dumbest thing was to talk but also to involve cops with the SWAT thing. If he just kept to online stealing and harassment this wouldn't be as bad as the SWAT thing, now the cops have a personal issue as well with him. The way he just blurted everything out showed how really 'smart' he is.
You can't handle the truth.
Right now he is the prime suspect, but you need proof he committed the crime.
Just a thought... If I was going to commit these crimes I would consider having a seemingly careless 20 year old fall guy around...
Common Sense (+1)
I have regrets about mean stuff I did as a young man, but I'm glad I can say I never did anything like erase someone's photos of their daughter being born or get SWAT called on someone else. Not because I wasn't a spoiled, spiteful little chode would have done something like that, simply because I was too impatient and stupid to figure out how to cause much trouble online. I guess that's something.
The scary part is I don't know what my parents could have done to prevent that. I have no idea how to keep my son from doing stupid shit like this.
This is all a punk move, what this idiot needs is about 3 years of labour camp, so that he'd at least repay some of the damage and 10 minutes of flogging on monthly basis, so that what could not be peacefully inserted into his brain would be painfully inserted into his back.
What he actually needs is an education and a job.
The scary part is I don't know what my parents could have done to prevent that. I have no idea how to keep my son from doing stupid shit like this.
- but I think I know what can be done (I don't know that it will guarantee success, but I think it would limit the probability of this type of behaviour).
Something to do. Something to do that is rewarding, something to do that is useful in some way, that teaches the kid, that gives him the satisfaction of seeing the results of his work.
Something productive to do that would channel the kid's energy.
I think the society went in the wrong direction in many ways, from the way the kids are treated with 'kid gloves' (really, everybody should be allowed to take a chance and dive into the Hudson river and swim in raw sewage, or maybe something less extreme but productive, like working at an earlier age) to the way the education system seems to inspire confidence instead of knowledge.
Basically I think you have to help the kid to find a productive way to occupy himself, maybe learning about tech stuff, building computers and robots from scratch, maybe it is sports, after all that's what Americans value most it seems. Maybe it is starting his or her own little business from early on and learning about the real world that way.
The "Phobia" guy could have been using his 'mad skills' for something productive, maybe building tools and websites for some small amounts of money for people who'd pay or audit security, etc., instead he does this. Of-course he was probably never really properly taught a lesson* in his life, but that's about to change.
(* - what can you tell a guy with 2 black eyes? Nothing. He's been told twice already.)
You can't handle the truth.
I agree about a job, but I personallywouldn't hire him before he got his flogging and 3 years of paying back the money he stole, but maybe you would.
You can't handle the truth.
How is any of this possible?
How does Krebs reach, let alone convince that boot.tw operator to give him a copy of their operations database and tell him other details?
How does the boot.tw operator know any of these other details?
I'll accept the anonymous tipster.
Why would, so called, Phobia take Krebs' call? Why would he confess to this stuff? Why would his father engage in the call rather than putting an end to it? Why would his father admit and partially deny Phobia's actions?
Why would ANY of this transpire?
It makes me question Krebs' credibility.
It's all so absolutely fantastic, I feel like I'm watching a hacker movie. The implausibility of it all makes me want to vomit. Yet krebs supposedly does this all the time.
I, too, take health advice from standup comics.
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
I'd rather take advice from Carlin than from Bloomberg even though I don't actually drink sugar water.
You can't handle the truth.
Is it destruction of evidence if the company that actually manages the data doesn't actually delete it?
This is all a punk move, what this idiot needs is about 3 years of labour camp, so that he'd at least repay some of the damage and 10 minutes of flogging on monthly basis, so that what could not be peacefully inserted into his brain would be painfully inserted into his back.
I agree, but if he gets caught a bunch of people on Slashdot will cry a stream of tears if he gets any jail time.
I doubt this was the first thing he did wrong. I bet it escalated from somewhere.
In order to keep him from getting to this point, you employ the same simple rules of parenting employed on everyone else who isn't a constant fuck-up:
1. Scold him harshly.
2. If that doesn't work, or if the infraction is grave enough, beat the shit out of him.
3. Repeat as needed.
Worked for me. I had wooden spoons snapped over my ass and got to taste the belt buckle once or twice. There's a reason why the old-school punishments lasted so long.
Krebs Hacker Unmasked, Hit Ars and Wired's Honan
It looks almost like someone had an attack of aphasia half way through writing that headline. Using a transitive verb (which could also be mistaken for a noun), especially a short one like "Hit", next to another short, and unusual word (Ars) makes for tricky parsing.
Not only that, but:
Turns out it may have been the same guy
So it's okay, only the headline is potentially libelous.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
So, this is not another Shwartz? No Goverment conspiracy? No gold standard? You moved to country with free health care and started taking drugs?
If it were me, I'd be talking to the FBI, since this probably falls under a) wire fraud, and b) interstate commerce.
mark "my 'social media' are email lists"
yes, that will certainly teach him how to be honest and decent.
inflict pain on him.
if that teaches him anything is to be more careful of being caught in the future.
*you* might understand what he did was wrong and that he shouldn't be doing it, but he is not of an age where the corelation 'if something hurts i shouldn't be doing it' works anymore.
you're either joking or out of touch.
yes, that will certainly teach him how to be honest and decent.
- no, he will learn that actions have consequences, that's all.
Actions ... consequences.
see? If he derives the wrong lessons from his actions and he doesn't connect that the consequences are due to his actions and after he is out of prison and is no longer flogged he still continues to do the same, then he will get caught again or maybe he'll get killed.
Do you know what's happening in Cyprus right now? The banks loaned the money the Greek government and the Greek government blew the money on various government programs and subsidies. The Greeks have nothing to repay their bonds with and the Cypriot banks have no way to get back the billions that they gave the Greeks.
There are people that the bankers owe money to now that are not the kind of people one wants to owe money to. I don't think the Cypriot bankers and politicians quite realise all of the negative consequences of what they have done.
You see, if somebody taught those bankers and politicians the simple connection between actions and consequences at a much earlier age, they might not have gotten into this mess and then most of them would live through their entire natural live spans. As things are today, it's not at all clear that many of them will.
You can't handle the truth.
It doesn't work anymore thanks to the child abuse laws.
New Economic Perspectives
he isn't dead yet.
There is an old saying --- People don't drop tears until they see blood.
New Economic Perspectives
Hope the little bitch enjoys receiving anal sex. Because he's about to get a lot of it in jail.
photos of their daughter being born
Hardcore stuff!
He stole NO money.
- wrong, he did, read TFA. He is part of the network that steals and deals credit cards.
He steals money, why would anybody want to hire him unless they are a government propped bank? Maybe he has a future in current version of government propped banking or politics, but normal people will look at him and his approach and won't want to have anything to do with him.
He also stole private information of people, so how can he be even trusted to deal with customers, with anything?
He endangered lives of people by calling SWAT teams on them, I don't know how difficult it is to understand - this is not a fucking game, he could have caused real damage this way, to actual health and lives of people. I don't see any redeeming qualities in him yet, for me to see it he has to be punished and he has to learn something as well, and punishment is part of that learning process. As I said: actions ... consequences.
You can't handle the truth.
He wasn't careless, he just wants some good exploits on his resume. Ex-hackers get good jobs because they've got verifiable street cred.
He can jump into a Chinese or North Korean embassy and seek political asylum, claiming political persecution like Aaron Swartz.
Holy crap, I actually agree with you about something. Doesn't happen often . . .
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
Told me by a required reporter (ER nurse and mother of a hell child): 'Use a wooden spoon on the bottom of their feet. Don't break bones and there is no way to tell. They will be reminded with every step they take.'
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Russian mafiosos get rich via government connections, they get fucked via government connections.
This is just Act1, Scene 2 of the Euro follies. It's going to get worse.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Certainly there are a number of those, but it's not just 'mafiosos', actually a very large number of companies that operate in Russia keep headquarters and money in Cyprus because of how uncertain and difficult the political situation is in Russia. Many thought that they are playing it safe by not keeping money in Russia, enough people lose their shirt in Russia to the government officials, who when they just want to steal a business would raid it and take over, part of that is called a 'mask show', when SWAT like forces show up (special forces maybe) and shut down a business and just take everything, arrest everybody and then the next day the business may reopen with new owners already.
As you can imagine this type of property violation is a very sensitive issue for people who run all sorts of businesses. Of-course there are also large Russian businesses, like banks that even have some branches or a subsidiary in Cyprus. All of that is shut down. Actually about 10 to 20 billion USD are inaccessible by large Russian banks right now and can you imagine what this does to payments on business deals?
Even just salaries, those are payments on business deals. What if you run a business in Russia and at the end of the month you move money out of Cyprus to Russia to pay salaries, rent, etc.? Now do you see a potential problem of a very large size if it's 10-20billion dollars locked that are not money that is just sitting there, it's moving back and forward all the time, basically normal bank account activities.
There are obviously just generally people's accounts that are locked, nobody can access funds. You want to make a rent payment or to buy groceries? Can't do it with your bank card or credit card!
But yes, there is some money there belongs to Putin and some of his friends and large size business people, who are mostly seen as legitimate, but some of them will not actually stop at anything if they want revenge, that's what I am talking about. Not the kind of mafia that you see in the movies, not this clan stuff. No, I am talking about the 'legitimate' mafia that runs the country. Large bankers, large energy and raw material exporters, politicians, Putin himself... you don't even want to be on Putin's shit list AFAIC, not unless you are impervious to polonium 210. And of-course most people are not impervious to beating and gun wounds.
You can't handle the truth.
It's a mess, and it's going to get worse. The Euro is a fucking disaster.
Who is Putin going to have killed? Seriously, it's not like someone stole from him. He put money into a broken institution and it is gone.
What I don't understand is what would have possessed the bankers to buy Greek bonds in the first place. Sure they offered nice returns.
Greece in bankrupt. Anything short of kicking them out of the Euro is just kicking the can down the road. Their are further traps behind that.
The Euros politicians don't have the balls to deal with their mess. Same as the USA. The Euro states are even more fucked. They owe as much as the USA, have moribund economies, can't raise their taxes and expect to increase revenue and don't have control of their currency.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Putin will get his money back, so will the biggest account holders. The bankers and the politicians of Cyprus are probably not stupid enough to cause some of these people lose their money. A likely scenario: Russia extends a large line of credit to Cyprus and in exchange Gazprom gets the rights to drill for gas in the country and Russian bankers are 'asked' to manage the restructuring of the failed Cyprus banks. That's one possibility, this includes a new Russian military base on Cyprus.
This would be a kick in the balls to the EU.
Another possibility is the EU finds a way to kick the can down the road and extend more credit to Cyprus, the lower amount accounts (0-20K) are spared, anything above it loses 10-15% of money and the banks are opened with capital controls, so that nobody can pull out more than say 5% of their money per month from a bank (and people WILL be pulling money out), but the largest account holders will have exemptions, otherwise again, there will be actual physical damage to a number of people.
Another possibility is: Cyprus fails to open the banks, the banking system there collapses, and it goes into some form of bankruptcy court and I don't know what that means to the small account holders, but the middle are probably wiped out (between 100K and 500K are wiped out) and the bottom get their '100K insurance' somehow from EU and a few people on the top get all of their money back, otherwise again, you think it's silly, but there will be actual corpses found in the sea there.
You can't handle the truth.
I don't doubt there will be a corpse or two. Most likely in Russia (the ones who made the decision to keep money in Cyprus).
Under 100K will get their insurance, everybody else (including Putin) will get a haircut of 15-20%.
Putin will learn that his money is safer in Russia then overseas, where he doesn't own the cops. The people who are deciding how this works out aren't scared of Putin. Want to see Putin go all white? Tell him the Rothschilds are pissed and 'want their money right the fuck now!' He'll shake while he cuts the check.
Cyprus is still in NATO, this won't change that.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Well, Berezovsky is dead now. He brought Putin to power and taught him whatever he needed to know, including all about the money handling. Not that this is related, just a timely coincidence.
You can't handle the truth.