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Student Hacker Faces 10 Years in Prison For Spyware That Hit 16,000 Computers (vice.com)
An anonymous reader quotes Motherboard:
A 21-year-old from Virginia plead guilty on Friday to writing and selling custom spyware designed to monitor a victim's keystrokes. Zachary Shames, from Great Falls, Virginia, wrote a keylogger, malware designed to record every keystroke on a computer, and sold it to more than 3,000 people who infected more than 16,000 victims with it, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Shames, who appears to be a student at James Madison University, developed the first version of the spyware while he was still a high school student in 2013, "and continued to modify and market the illegal product from his college dorm room," according to the feds... While the feds only vaguely referred to it as "some malicious keylogger software," it appears the spyware was actually called "Limitless Keylogger Pro," according to evidence found by a security researcher who asked to remain anonymous... According to what appears to be Shames Linkedin page, he was an intern for the defense contractor Northrop Grumman from May 2015 until August 2016.
The Department of Justice announced that he'll be sentenced on June 16, and faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.
Shames, who appears to be a student at James Madison University, developed the first version of the spyware while he was still a high school student in 2013, "and continued to modify and market the illegal product from his college dorm room," according to the feds... While the feds only vaguely referred to it as "some malicious keylogger software," it appears the spyware was actually called "Limitless Keylogger Pro," according to evidence found by a security researcher who asked to remain anonymous... According to what appears to be Shames Linkedin page, he was an intern for the defense contractor Northrop Grumman from May 2015 until August 2016.
The Department of Justice announced that he'll be sentenced on June 16, and faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.
Heavy-handed over-reaction. 10 years?! Unless this was self-spreading malware, the issue here is that kid a) talked to feds b) couldn't afford decent lawyer.
Write an input debugger with logging instead.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
First
Is also selling a keylogger in Windows 10 and nothing happens to them?
I'm curious what aspect of this was illegal. The keylogging itself isn't illegal. If someone buys and installs keylogger software on devices they own, that's not illegal. If someone installs software of that kind on someone else's device, without the owner's permission, then the person who did the installation broke the law. Not the author of the software.
Both articles are vague in that regard, but one states,
intentionally cause damage without authorization
,
Which may mean the software had the capability to erase files or do something harmful besides capturing data.
Unless the software actively multiplied and installed itself without permission somehow, it would seem to me that the customers are (in some specific cases) the guilty parties.
Better known as 318230.
They are going to use existing laws to apply due process, so your post is a waste.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Not quite. Writing and publishing software is free speech. It's using it on an unauthorized system that is the real crime. It's sad that you have the basics mixed up.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1229573443/das-keyboard-5q-the-cloud-connected-keyboard
What's on MY computer is not the business of any private person unless I have
given them permission. This little shithead abetted invading the privacy of thousands of people.
If you find out someone recorded video of you undressing in your bedroom, are you going to go after the camera manufacturer?
"BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
I view hacking tools like I view guns. They can be used for legitimate purposes and shouldn't be banned. Guns are for self defense, hunting, and sports. Hacking tools can be used for legitimate surveillance and security testing. However, actively selling hacking tools on forums frequented by criminals is like setting up a firearms store to sell guns to people who can't pass a federal background check. Context is key here.
How is that all that different from web sites that monitor every mouse movement, key stroke, and web site that you visit?
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
10 years for bad-evil-scary hacking, that is alleged to have affected 16,000 people, but nothing for the CEOs who burned down the economy and that were putting nearly 135,000 families per quarter out of their homes in 2002.
Nope, no sig
Yep. You think if a gun manufacturer marketed their product as "perfect for bank robberies and drive-bys", they wouldn't be held liable? Context - and intent - are absolutely key...
Prosecutors have a lot of flexibility in what crimes to charge people with. Thank you for stating the obvious, that existing laws are being used. However, prosecutors and courts have a lot of flexibility in how they apply those laws.
> If you find out someone recorded video of you undressing in your bedroom, are you going to go after the camera manufacturer?
If the manufacturer of "smoke alarm hidden camera" advertises on voyeur porn sites, with ads that say "She'll never notice this camera hidden in her bedroom!", then yes that would be a legitimate suit.
If you find out someone recorded video of you undressing in your bedroom, are you going to go after the camera manufacturer?
If the camera manufacturer advertised the cameras as "perfect for secretly recording people undressing" I sure would. And I'd win a bunch of money from it.
Hypocrisy is a virtue.
He has just written a software. He shouldn't be punished for the actions of his clients. 10 years will ruin his life. They should instead go after the people who infected the computers. Law enforcement is crap. You know how fucked up the system is when a 21 year old is punished for programming whereas a much bigger criminal is elected as the President.
If you dont commit the crime why is he doing the time?
Surely a stern talk and a 100 hours of community service would be a saner approach? He didn't do anything other than sell a tool, and while it's dubious where and who he sold it, he hasn't actually committed a crime yet, and it's not like a keylogger doesn't have legitimate purposes, nor is it illegal to possess one. Fucking over some kid for the rest of his life, in an environment where he's almost certain to repeat an offence, and turning him into a perpetual lifelong drain on the public, is not the answer - for either us or him. Yet another demonstration of my country's collective idocacy...
"Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
Legally it sure is... why else would politicians and lawyers be so good at it?
Oh, wait..
Damage done by guns can be tremendous, it's the manufacturers that really do deserve severe penalties.
Learn to love Alaska
Second degree murder is set to 10 years minimum in many states, and frequently plea bargains result in the minimum sentence.
If you helped your gang boss murder someone, and then agree to testify against him, that's a 10 years sentence.
A keylogger is NOT murder.
Damage done by guns can be tremendous, it's the manufacturers that really do deserve severe penalties.
Since in the US guns are used far more often by law abiding citizens to protect themselves and others than they are used by criminals, do we then give gun makers rewards? Fair is fair, right?
Example: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...
Example: http://www.khou.com/news/local...
And those were just the examples that hit the news (most never do) in the last couple weeks that popped up at the top of Google results. There were many more.
We need a national program to treat the mass-hoplophobia that seems to be spreading at an alarming rate. You appear to be exhibiting some of the symptoms. Perhaps you should get yourself checked.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
From on or about August 2013 through on or about March 17,2015, in the Eastern District of Virginia and elsewhere, the defendant, ZACHARY LEE SHAMES, knowingly and intentionally aided and abetted the commission of computer intrusions, in violation of 18U.S.C. ÂÂ 1030(a)(5)(A) and 2. In particular, attimes listed above, in the Eastern District of Virginia andelsewhere, SHAMES designed, marketed and sold certain malicious keylogger software, knowing that the software was going tobeused to knowingly cause the transmission ofa program, information, code, or command, and as a result of such conduct, intentionally cause damage without authorization to 10 or more protected computers during any one year period.
(All in violation of Title 18,United States Code, Section 1030(a)(5)(A) and 2)
https://regmedia.co.uk/2017/01...
So what he plead guilty to was developing the software and then knowingly selling it people who would be breaking the law. If he had marketed it toward the general public instead of marketing to crackers it would of not been a problem. For example I can sell and train people in lock picking all I want, however if someone comes up to me and says they want to break into a house with type X lock and want training and tools and I sell it to them then I am in trouble.
The government's definition of a defensive use requires either party to discharge a firearm. Under that definition, there are very few defensive uses of firearms. If you don't like that definition, talk to the Republicans. They have held all 3 branches multiple times since those rules were written, and could change them if they wished.
Learn to love Alaska
What you are then doing is prosecuting someone for *speech* and political reasons. Not for any actual action that was taken.
What's on MY computer is not the business of any private person unless I have given them permission. This little shithead abetted invading the privacy of thousands of people.
If you find out someone recorded video of you undressing in your bedroom, are you going to go after the camera manufacturer?
If the camera manufacturer was creating, marketing and selling the camera for the express purpose of secretly recording people undressing in their bedroom then you bet your fucking arse I would be going after the manufacturer in addition to the person that did it.
FUCK THIS CUNTTRY.
Hope Trump wrecks it.
That's why I voted for him!
yep. Fuck this kid.
Under that definition, there are very few defensive uses of firearms.
Even under that unrealistic and deliberately deceiving metric the GP is still correct according to the FBI's own stats.
REally? 10 years for a kiddy script?
Get him a lawyer and sell it to the Government for let's say, $ 25 Million Dollars.
I know there is other key loggers out there. I mean, they had key loggers in the days of MS-DOS.
** The issue? Well, which troll is going to patent it and sell it?
Merely looking at pixels can get you 20 years.
he's only being sentenced to 5.4 hours/victim.. which isn't fair to the victims.
Personally, I'd like him to be sentenced to:
- 2 years jail.
- probation, where he must spend the remaining 70080hours (8years*365days*24hours) doing community service.
He can use his skills teaching basic computer usage to senior citizens, preschoolers, etc.
- no "personal access" to computers outside his community service work, until every last hour is worked off.
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I must be missing somthing. His software is illegal, but this is legal? https://pctattletale.com/