Photobucket Hackers Nabbed, Face Serious Charges From US Authorities

The U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement released Friday that two men, Brandon Bourret, and Athanasios Andrianakis, of Colorado Springs, Colorado and Sunnyvale, California, respectively, were arrested for their sale of software designed to breach the security of photo-sharing site Photobucket.com; their "Photofucket" app, says the linked Register report, was used "to plunder Photobucket's users' private and password-protected information, images and videos, it has been alleged ... The charge sheet against Bourret and Andrianakis details one count of conspiracy and one count of computer fraud, aid and abet – both of which carry a maximum prison sentence of five years and a fine of up to $250,000. In addition, the men stand accused of two counts of access device fraud, which carries a higher prison sentence of up to 10 years and a fine of up to a quarter of a million dollars, per count." The indictment, filed in Federal District Court in Colorado, is far easier to read than many.

Comments

When is the NSA going to be held accountable?

[Anonymous Coward]

"...their "Photofucket" app, says the linked Register report, was used "to plunder Photobucket's users' private and password-protected information, images and videos, it has been alleged .."

Sounds exactly like any one of the many NSA programs that have been pointed out over the past year after Snowden relased info.

Photobucket's punishment?

[hawguy]

How much jail time did Photobucket executives get for allowing such lax security in their app in the first place? Must be at least twice the 5 years that these two are getting. Maybe more. Right?

Re:Man talk about straight out if Sci FI

[Anonymous Coward]

As should be the case. the hacking is a malicious, intentional act, with forethought and planning. Manslaughter by definition is neither intentional nor malicious and was done without forethought. One is a crime you intentionally set out to do the other is circumstance/random/accidental.

Same amount you get for your lax home security

[Sycraft-fu]

I mean when someone breaks in to your house, you should go to jail right? After all, your home security sucks. I don't care if you think it is good, it sucks. Virtually nobody bothers with good home security.

So you should go to jail if someone breaks in... ...or maybe you should reexamine this "blame the victim" attitude so many geeks have with regards to hacking.

Re:Same amount you get for your lax home security

[mrbester]

Your home is by default private. The web is by default public. The assumption that a public page is private just because it has your name on it is risible.

Re:"Hacking" goes a little far here..

[mrbester]

Enough with this shit about "trespass". Property laws ate irrelevant. If a page is publicly available then it is public. If it isn't meant to be public then the onus is on the provider to make it private as in contrast to your house, the web is default public by design.

Re:Bigger Fish

[St.Creed]

The Chinese students were probably smart enough to do it from outside the USA's jurisdiction...

Re:No sympathy is deserved for these idiots.

[CanEHdian]

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