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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.
"...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.
The assets in question were not "protected" by passwords, they were stored on publicly accessible and easily guessable URLs. I mean, if by protected by password they mean anyone without the password could take common camera file names and type in an easily guessable URL without the password then well ya.
So Chinese college students are reading Obama's unclassified emails and these guys are busted for hacking ebay photos. :-D
If you read the indictment, they did not just create the code, they actually used it themselves and showed others how to use it by demonstrating it. Now of course comes much greater consequences, their customer base is also in the firing line and they will all be turned over for a reduced sentence. This could lead to a whole bunch of crimes being exposed.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
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?
you get more time for hacking a corporation then you do for manslaughter.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
These assholes did things they had no moral right to do. They deserve to be punished because they actually committed intrusions, which is
behavior that is fundamentally different from merely exposing a security flaw.
To those of you who are spouting off the bullshit "moral relativism" arguments about how the NSA or Obama or some other government entity does things which are wrong "therefore anyone else who does similar stuff should not be punished" : Your thought processes are deeply in need of repair and your personal moral code is as well. A decent human being doesn't look for excuses which will justify or excuse bad behavior ; a decent human being does what is right because it is the right thing to do and avoids doing what is wrong simply because it is wrong, even if no one is watching.
So it only goes that they receive a fate worse than death. Place them under house arrest and block all network access except to 4chan -- which they shall be forced to moderate. To ensure they actively moderate, they will wear a shock collar around their neck which will administer increasingly painful jolts to prod them into action
Olives. Have you got anything else?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
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.
Here manslaughter is a Class 2 Felony. That means 4 years minimum sentence (or 3 years minimum if there are mitigating circumstances), 10 year maximum (12.5 if there are aggravating circumstances). This is presuming first time offence, and only one count. A repeat offence can bring it up to as much as 35 years.
So no, doesn't look higher to me. Remember there's a difference between maximum and minimum. When a sentence is "up to" that means "the absolute maximum a court may sentence for a given offence." Usually, there's a fair bit of range in a sentence since the idea is a judge will consider the factors of the individual case.