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Thread: Lock this Yankee Hacker up!

  1. #121
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    Arrow

    [W O W

    It's really unbelievable how many, many people think they are above the law or they are invinsible.

    If the younger generation knew now what we know they would make wiser choices. I know if hindsight were foresight. I think they should make him work for them while he does his time and offer him a job when he gets out. That way they can keep an eye on him and put his wonderful skills to good use.

    Colleen L Hayes Badge #6915

  2. #122
    Isolating a worm's code and modifying its behavior requires some skill, more than the typical script kiddie Ken Rohrer described at the Techie Night Out at his church. I've had some experience with hacking myself (nothing illegal), and am certainly familiar with the various aspects of the culture.

    Some things about this case bother me. This kid faces a maximum of ten years in prison, yet rape (without a weapon) is looking at four years maximum (typical). While his variant did reach some circulation, it was just a variant. He wasn't the original author of the worm, whose version(s) did far more damage, and Parson's version only had a small piece of the attack. But "somebody has to go to prison" and go to prison he should (but not for ten years). I just hope it doesn't detract from finding the original authors. (As a side note, they may have been found... Filipino hackers, but I could be confusing that with another incident.)

    Anyway, I think it would help if people didn't think of the workings of computers as voodoo so much. To a lot, hacking is tantamount to witchcraft in Salem, and they comprehend it about as much. I knew somebody back in high school who created an (obviously) false email address impersonating the school police officer in order to intimidate another student (a friend of mine). I gathered as much information as I could about the emails and then hopped on a telnet prompt. It was a simple matter of picking a random server and logging on anonymously on port 25 (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol). There I specified the return address of a message to be this "officer's" supposed email address, made a fake header, wrote a message parodying the original perpetrator's email to my friend and then added a couple of paragraphs detailing the nature of the federal offense involved in impersonating somebody else, and signed, "Not Officer ____, or you." Then I sent it to her normal email address. Needless to say, she never tried something like that again, and in fact, completely changed her email address. (I didn't impersonate anybody, nor did I bypass any security measures on any servers, so I was safe legally.) Funny, she never knew it was me, and later had a crush on me. Heh. But the point is: it's not hard to do or learn about, there are very useful things that can be done with it, and if you take the time to educate yourself about it, it's not nearly so scary. Just this past month, I traced a hacker back to a Salt Lake City ISP. He sent a file with a virus in it to somebody at an email server that scanned for the virus, and sent it back to the return address, saying, "this file has been infected." Here's the thing, though, he had made MY address the return address. Nothing tricky, just a little clever. Too bad for him he didn't bother to fake his headers.

    I hope this Parson kid learns his lesson that his skills would be better put to use on the other side of this battle, but I also hope people won't be too vindictive or angry over his dumb choices.

  3. #123
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    hopefully this kid will get guidance to do some good in this world. This is what I feel was a BIG contributing factor to his downfall...no guidance.

    A lot of times these bored kids will do stuff like this just to see if they can. After that it is just an addiction to see if they can top their last hack. Too many parents out there do not take an active role into what their children are doing on the internet. They just assume everybody out there is a good guy, and really..."how much trouble could my kid get into on the net." YIKES! More trouble than they realize. I am sure that is what this kids parents have realized now.

  4. #124
    Michael Harris is offline Lifetime Professional Management Member

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    Greg, et al,

    I am in the middle of Ken Follett's Whiteout right now. One of the characters makes a comment that the only way to become good at computer security is to be a good hacker first. I fear that this might be truer than we would like to believe.

    Hackers do so much harm to everyone that we need to punish them severely.

  5. #125
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    Lock this Yankee Hacker up!

    Very True, Michael. I think there is A LOT of truth in that.

  6. #126
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    With the speed at which technology is growing and the age that we begin teaching out children about it gets younger and younger this kind of thing is going to become more and more common place. To paraphrase one of my favorite sayings "mankinds technology always exceeds it's humanity." It's always a question of when "not" to use your knowledge.

  7. #127
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    Again the question arises in my mind - with all of the technology out there that can easily give us virtually impenetrable security, why aren't folks using it?

    I blame alot of the problem on Bill Gates' neverending Microsoft and its bullying the marketplace into using only MS programs. Using alternate software can be so much better, if people only knew.

    Not to detract from the seriousness of the crime in any way; but the fact remains that it's much easier to avoid being burnt than to put out the fires and clean up the mess after being set afire.

    It could be so much easier, with the proper amount of thought and use of diversified [yet compatible] software.

    [Heavy sigh]

    /Jan

  8. #128

    what not to

    Very sad story his is. With just one look you know he was shunned and shut out, not welcomed by his peers. I know it sounds like so much psychobabble. But in this babble remains a point. As a former PI who is reembarking on this journey I would like to say one of the things that assisted me in the past was some basic understanding of some basic human behavioral patterns. Unfortunately for this manchild with little or no direction towards positive behavioral patterns and how to use his talents he more than likely used them for his personal gain alone. His revenge will certainly be short lived and he will more than likely be given plenty of time to think about it. I would also have to agree Bill Gates missed a person with talent. I doubt that Mr Gates sees it that way. Mostly I feel sorry for all involved including this manchilds family. He definitely should be prosecuted. Let the punishment fit the crime.

  9. #129
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    I think it is good to give him 10 years and a $250,000. fine. You want to set an example of what happens to criminals then hit them hard the first time and let them know laws are made for a reason. Parson asked for it when he broke the law.

  10. #130
    John G - is offline Retired Forum Moderator

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    I'm sorry to see this individual was from Minnesota. I know this thread is old, but this "gentleman" I hope has been made an example of what should happen to individuals who cause this type of disruption. I also hope he's so not enjoying his stay at the "Greybar Hotel." (Sorry to be so vindictive, but these persons **** me off.)

  11. #131
    Ashley Mayne--'s Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Johnny Ginsberg
    I'm sorry to see this individual was from Minnesota. I know this thread is old, but this "gentleman" I hope has been made an example of what should happen to individuals who cause this type of disruption. I also hope he's so not enjoying his stay at the "Greybar Hotel." (Sorry to be so vindictive, but these persons **** me off.)

    Hey, I agree with you Johnny. It really makes you wonder what goes through these fools heads.
    Greybar Hotel? Hahaha. These people also **** me off.

  12. #132
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    all i can say is HOLY COW..!....he should have used his knowledge for the good...but being young and naive....look where that gets ya...!

  13. #133
    John G - is offline Retired Forum Moderator

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    Did anybody bother to publish an update? I found out he was sentenced to 18 months in prison and a community service obligation of 225 with 75 hours done each year. And this was back in 2004 or 2005. He got the easy break since he was 18 years of age, had a history of mental illness, and was unsupervised by his parents. I won't assess if this was a fair sentence in my book or not, since that's for the general community to decide. I just thought I would let you all know what I found out.

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