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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
It's about time we start punishing malware authors more harshly and hopefully reduce penalties for less damaging offenses like piracy. The damage done by malware like that can be tremendous, and it's authors really do deserve severe penalties.
Bach wrote symphonies at 5 but we don't call him a "student composer" because his successes weren't limited to that.
Someone who sells 3,000 copies of home-brewed malware shouldn't be treated with kid gloves either.
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.
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.
Fuck him, he deserves to be punished.
All you dipshits who are pontificating are 1) not attorneys 2) not judges and most importantly of all,
you DO NOT speak for the victims. So your opinions are irrelevant.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1229573443/das-keyboard-5q-the-cloud-connected-keyboard
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
> 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.
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."
Oh, wait..
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.
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.
What you are then doing is prosecuting someone for *speech* and political reasons. Not for any actual action that was taken.
FUCK THIS CUNTTRY.
Hope Trump wrecks it.
That's why I voted for him!
yep. Fuck this kid.
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/