Slashdot Mirror
eBay Founder Pleads For Leniency For the PayPal 14
DavidGilbert99 writes "The founder of eBay, the parent company of PayPal, Pierre Omidyar has called on U.S. prosecutors to have mercy on the 14 members of Anonymous who are appearing in court this week facing up to 15 years in jail and a $500,000 fine for their part in a DDoS attack against PayPal in 2010. Despite thousands of Anons taking part, and most of the damage being done by two major botnets, the 14 are set to bear all the responsibility if U.S. prosecutors have their way."
Make them pay, pal !!
Why?
They broke the law, and they did it in such a way as to cause financial damage to the company they were targeting,
This isn't a harmless prank or victim-less crime: they cost people time and money.
There was a very simple way for them to avoid jail time: refrain from launching DDoS attacks. They chose not to avail themselves of it.
Fuck them.
I knew there was a reason I took it up the ass from Omidyar for VC cash. He is a gentle and kind lover.
Scientist-developed malware prototype covertly jumps air gaps using inaudible sound
-
Malware communicates at a distance of 65 feet using built-in mics and speakers.
by Dan Goodin - Dec 2, 2013 7:29 pm UTC
http://arstechnica.com/author/dan-goodin
https://twitter.com/dangoodin001
"Dan is the IT Security Editor at Ars Technica, which he joined in 2012 after working for The Register, the Associated Press, Bloomberg News, and other publications."
http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/12/scientist-developed-malware-covertly-jumps-air-gaps-using-inaudible-sound/
-
Topology of a covert mesh network that connects air-gapped computers to the Internet:
http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/acoustical-mesh-network.jpg
http://www.jocm.us/index.php?m=content&c=index&a=show&catid=124&id=600
-
"Computer scientists have proposed a malware prototype that uses inaudible audio signals to communicate, a capability that allows the malware to covertly transmit keystrokes and other sensitive data even when infected machines have no network connection.
The proof-of-concept software-or malicious trojans that adopt the same high-frequency communication methods-could prove especially adept in penetrating highly sensitive environments that routinely place an "air gap" between computers and the outside world. Using nothing more than the built-in microphones and speakers of standard computers, the researchers were able to transmit passwords and other small amounts of data from distances of almost 65 feet. The software can transfer data at much greater distances by employing an acoustical mesh network made up of attacker-controlled devices that repeat the audio signals.
The researchers, from Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing, and Ergonomics[1], recently disclosed their findings in a paper published in the Journal of Communications[2]. It came a few weeks after a security researcher said his computers were infected with a mysterious piece of malware that used high-frequency transmissions to jump air gaps[3]. The new research neither confirms nor disproves Dragos Ruiu's claims of the so-called badBIOS infections, but it does show that high-frequency networking is easily within the grasp of today's malware."
[1] http://www.fkie.fraunhofer.de/en.html
[2] http://www.jocm.us/index.php?m=content&c=index&a=show&catid=124&id=600
[3] http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/10/meet-badbios-the-mysterious-mac-and-pc-malware-that-jumps-airgaps/
""In our article, we describe how the complete concept of air gaps can be considered obsolete as commonly available laptops can communicate over their internal speakers and microphones and even form a covert acoustical mesh network," one of the authors, Michael Hanspach, wrote in an e-mail. "Over this covert network, information can travel over multiple hops of infected nodes, connecting completely isolated computing systems and networks (e.g. the internet) to each other. We also propose some countermeasures against participation in a covert network."
The researchers developed several ways to use inaudible sounds to transmit data between two Lenovo T400 laptops using only their built-in microphones and speakers. The most effective technique
Its odd how online activism is treated much differently than that which occurs in meatspace. Many protests occur in real life where access to buildings or simply roads are blocked yet the treatment of the two types protestors is very different.
it's sort of like how union leaders used to get put in jail (or killed) for organizing strikes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pullman_Strike
Right now what they did does seem illegal hooliganism, as does most civil disobedience. Sometimes society adapts to see things differently. For now this is still hooliganism. I think they need to show a compelling good coming out of this if they expect a different response. The question is, what good would that be?
And neither do we posters. Everybody submitting anonymously. Or wait, im a member too. I think. Help me, Moss?!
And the prosecutors are probably out to send a message to all the potential hangers-on, that what they're doing is going to result in serious consequences.
That way they have to think what will happen if they get caught, and it won't be a slap on the wrist.
Which doesn't mean I think that what Anonymous was doing in this wasn't based on a genuinely good idea, I'm just expressing the intentions of the Justice Department.
This makes perfect sense. If an angry mob smashes up some shops fronts, but police only catch 14 people you wouldn't charge them with the total damage of the entire mob, as well as the cost of upgrading security to protect against an angry mob in the future. You would charge each individual according to the damage they actually did. In this case a single person using LOIC doesn't really do any significant damage at all. You could charge them a 1/1000 of the cost of overtime for personal to deal with the attack, and the extra bandwidth they caused the company, but its madness to hold them responsible for the damage done by the entire swarm. In a cynical POV, this is also an excellent way for PayPall to remove themselves as a target when the PayPal14 are found guility.
But it won't work that way. It's never really worked that way. Making things more illegal doesn't really put more hindrance on what people do compared to just being illegal, else we'd have the whole crack thing wrapped up by now.
"Tough on crime" is a moronic stance that doesn't address why people actually engage in crimes. A hint: very few people breaking the law are thinking rationally about consequences when they do.
n/t
We need to stop this stupid 4chan-born vigilanitism of this millennial generation. Time to set an example.
I read "The Perfect Store" about eBay and Pierre seems like a really cool guy. Too bad us eBay sellers ended up having to endure Meg Whitman.
And if they get an unjust sentence, like Brown or Hammond did, then Paypal, and Ebay should probably expect a massive retaliation from Anonymous.
I'm just sayin.
because if they all end up with 15 year sentences, people might start asking why we're such a sensitive target thats so dangerous to attack. it might draw more attention to our business practices and confidential information. our own employees might become sympathetic, nay, might start 'leaking' information on how we skirt banking regulations and use our market dominance to arbitrarily freeze funds or hold 30% of transactions for 90 days, or how we refuse to pay bug bounties and lock out entire countries without explanation.
so if we could just stop over-reacting to this silly hacktivism and just go about our business that would be swell.
Good people go to bed earlier.
The objective here isn't to punish anyone proportionally to the crimes they committed. The whole point of online activists having the book thrown at them is to deter future activists.
The corporations already feel like meatspace activists have too many rights, so it is imperative to set a precedent that online activism will be dealt with harshly.
There is a right way and a wrong way to go about things. Stealing money from peoples' paypal accounts is not the right way.
These people deserve to be made an example of.
Then the 14 would only have to pay a small fine and admit no wrongdoing. Really, what they should have done was form their own bank if they wanted to steal money. I mean, look at Paypal, and they aren't even a bank!
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
I have no problem with throwing the book at these folks should they be found guilty. I doubt that these IP addresses corresponded to computers that were the personal property of the defendants.
My problem is that the government seems to fail to apply justice equally: when corporations screw the consumers, why aren't they busting up rocks?
troubled OS. Now '*BSD Sux0rs'. This
before I'll go to jail? What If I just show up on paypap.com some day and get dragged into something like this?
... a position which is frightfully naive. Of course making things more illegal is a deterrent. It used to be totally legal to drive with your kids in the back of your truck on the open freeway. It's now more illegal (at least in California) and you don't see (very many) people driving on the freeway with kids in the back of their truck.
All officially recognized crimes are punished with the intent of deterring future crime, and you live in a time and place which ranks as among the most peaceful and civilized periods in all of known history. To suggest that this concept does not work betrays a stunning lack of understanding and respect for all the work put in by the millions of people who worked to establish and maintain the system that provides such domestic peace and tranquility.
Did you actually think that spending 10 years in jail actually compensates the parents and loved ones of a murder victim? Sorry, if they're dead, no amount of punishment will ever bring them back, and until you've personally experienced the loss of a close loved one, you cannot really understand just how devastating such a loss can be.
However, even sociopaths can understand personal injury and suffering even if they lack the ability empathize in any way with their victims.
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
Omidyar says that as someone "deeply committed to government transparency, press freedoms and free expression, these issues hit close to home."
Remember that it was the permanent restriction of Wikileaks account that triggered the Anonymous attack in the first place.
Too bad us eBay sellers ended up having to endure Meg Whitman.
You think *she* was bad?? Her successor, John Donahoe is MUCH MUCH worse.. I'd sold on eBay since around 1998, and Meg's tenure was positively refreshing compared to Donahoes.. Her mantra was "eBay is just a venue", and pretty much stuck to it.. With Donahoe, its ALL about the buyers now, they can do no wrong.. He seems to convieniently forget that it is the SELLERS who pay the ever-growing fees that keep eBay running. The sellers, who stick around, now have a not-so-silent partner in their business, butting in with endless new rules and requirements, where he has NO business.. He seems to be trying to rid eBay of all small sellers, such that unless you peddle millions of $$ of cheap Chinese crap each month, eBay doesn't want you.. From about 1998 to 2008, I sold probably 2-3K/mo, as a nice sideline business.. Since 2008, I no longer sell there, and if you read the eBay forums, you'll see I sure *aint* the only one...
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
win the PR war?
Either way they are scapegoats for the same "criminal act" committed by thousands of people. Where's justice in that?
fuck em....
In the extreme example of felony murder you can be convicted of murder if you are part of a criminal conspiracy that ends in the death of the victim.
The general rule has always been that participants in a conspiracy are personally and collectively responsible any and all damages caused by the conspiracy.
It sucks to be the small fish who gets caught and fried ---
but why do you think your partners in crime recruited a minnow?
When do we start applying penalties like this to the NSA?
Criminal punishment is not shared. If 10 people are convicted of a crime, they don't each get 1/10th the sentence that a single individual would. Just because some perpetrators go unpunished, doesn't meant that the convicted are doing their time. Likewise, the money is a fine, not recompensation, so the value isn't determined by distributing restitution across all of the convicted.
Dissent will not be tolerated!
I don't use Ebay anymore for the reasons you cited--I'm not interested in enriching Power Sellers, I'd like to reward small sellers with my business.
Here's to hot beer, cold women, and Glaswegian kisses for all.
It is COMBINED 15 years between all of them. So really, about a year each, which again, is the MAXIMUM they can receive.
a 60 day hold on funds for anything sold on ebay
but elon musk has a spaceship - which is all that matters in life - elon musk's spaceship
I am not particularly fond of the extent of the punishment, but I am certainly in favor of your idea about limiting protests to areas where they do not disturbing people that are not interested in hearing them.
Get the fuck out, slave. You are unworthy to live in a free country.
Throw the book at their collective heads.
"Anonymous who are appearing in court this week facing up to 15 years in jail and a $500,000 fine for their part in a DDoS attack against PayPal in 2010"
...
When are they going after Microsoft for faciliting the DDOS attack through the use of all those compromised Microsoft Windows desktops out there on the Internet
Had thye simply killed the CEO of Paypal in cold blood like civilized men they could be out in only a few years, at worst. But instead they chose to send TCP packets to a public server, which is the second most terrible crime possible, second only to downloading copyrighted material without a license. TCP packets are famous for being used by terrorists and child molesters. I am glad something is finally being done about this.
Anarchist style group that seems to think that this is a victimless crime and keep getting more and more bold with their attacks?
That protest stuff is utter bullshait. Claiming participating in a DDOS is form of protest is like saying you're helping people lose weight by punching them when they reach for food.
In a legal system that were even remotely sane, online vandalism would be at most a civil offense, and the case would go poof the instant the damaged party declined to sue or press charges.