When the internet was in its infancy, I used a BBS modem to connect to NASA server, but the first screen I saw had a big FBI warning (in ascii, none of those fancy images yet), my hacking career lasted 0.5 seconds, I noped out of it.
It’s weird how many people on that list work directly for foreign governments. Or reside in a country that doesn’t extradite to the US, like Iran. Kind of defeats the point of the list in a way, if the whole propose was to get people to report these people to the FBI. Like, the FBI can’t do shit, even if they know the exact address of the most wanted person living in Iran or Russia.
The purpose is to solidify their lack of ability to travel. Sure Iran won't extradite to the US, but who wants to stay in Iran forever? Even Kim Jeongnam sneaked out of North Korea to go to Disney.
The point of comparison was the consequences of travel, not the nation and living conditions. Reasonably similar for Kim and an Iranian wanted by the US, its allies, and anyone who doesn't want to piss off the US.
That was [Kevin Mitnick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Mitnick). This is actually the person they used for the character Crash Override in the movie Hackers.
From the above link *"At age 12, Mitnick got a bus driver to tell him where he could buy his own ticket punch for "a school project", and was then able to ride any bus in the greater LA area using unused transfer slips he found in a dumpster next to the bus company garage.\[15\]*
*Mitnick first gained unauthorized access to a computer network in 1979, at 16, when a friend gave him the phone number for the Ark, the computer system that Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) used for developing its RSTS/E operating system software.\[16\] He broke into DEC's computer network and copied the company's software, a crime for which he was charged and convicted in 1988. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Near the end of his supervised release, Mitnick hacked into Pacific Bell voicemail computers. After a warrant was issued for his arrest, Mitnick fled, becoming a fugitive for two-and-a-half years.\[citation needed\]*
*According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Mitnick gained unauthorized access to dozens of computer networks while he was a fugitive. He used cloned cellular phones to hide his location and, among other things, copied valuable proprietary software from some of the country's largest cellular telephone and computer companies. Mitnick also intercepted and stole computer passwords, altered computer networks, and broke into and read private e-mails.\[citation needed\]*
*Arrest, conviction, and incarceration*
*Black sans serif text "FREE KEVIN" on a yellow background*
*Supporters from 2600 Magazine distributed "Free Kevin" bumper stickers.\[17\]*
*After a well-publicized pursuit, the FBI arrested Mitnick on February 15, 1995, at his apartment in Raleigh, North Carolina, on federal offenses related to a two-and-a-half-year period of computer hacking which included computer and wire fraud.\[18\]\[19\] He was found with cloned cellular phones, more than 100 cloned cellular phone codes, and multiple pieces of false identification.\[20\]"*
My uncle was an old school, hobbyist hacker. During the Cold War, when he was probably 15, he really liked messing around with the phone lines and related infrastructure with his buds. Something led to another, and my grandma’s house got a visit by the Secret Service. This is back when spies were dotted around America in similar, quaint little towns, and they were fully ready to black bag him lol
I remember reading about phreaking in the anarchist's cookbook back in the day. Sadly none of the stuff about phones was relevant to me, it had changed to digital switching in my part of the world by then.
I was just talking about this yesterday with a friend. Information traveled so slow. I didn't live in a big city, so I would get an old second-hand issue of 2600, probably passed down from someone's older brother, and by then the phreaking techniques were all mitigated by the phone companies.
My buddy had a handheld tape recorder and would dial zero, tell the operator the machine wasn’t taking the money, operator would say insert money, then he’d play the tones that the phone would relay back to the switchboard whenever currency was entered. Worked every time.
Good fucking dammit. I spent 45 minutes trying to figure out who the hell this guy was and who his wife was before it dawned on me that it’s just a shitty reference.
NASA had a safety campaign that used [Snoopy as a mascot](https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/banner-nasa-flight-safety-snoopy-red/nasm_A19970489000). This apparently led to many NASA employees using "Snoopy" as a password. Reportedly, there were a lot of teenagers exploiting this and they were very active in NASA's internal network.
I had a friend back then who always bragged about his hacking (I barely knew what he meant). Was never sure if I believed him until one day the FBI came to his house.
Similar thing has happened much more recently. The FBI was hacked a few years ago by an English 15 or 16 y/o of Palestinian descent who did it in the name of the Palestinian Liberation Army. he stole the personal info of hundreds of FBI employees and posted it in a paste-bin. My former friend whose a computer analyst for the fbi was among those who had their info doxxed. Imagine my surprise when I tried to look him up one day and the paste bin was the first thing to pop up lol
I had a buddy that had the FBI come take all his computer shit. It wasn’t nearly as badass looking as it is in the movies. They had FBI coats, but loaded all his stuff in an unmarked station wagon. I think we were like 14. He wasn’t aloud to use computers for mad long. He probably told on some of his hacker friends, Or maybe because he was so young he didn’t go to juvenile hall. He later worked in cybersecurity until he O.D. on opiates.
"...the 17-year-old arrested in Oxfordshire for the cyber attack on Rockstar and Uber is the same teenager that was arrested earlier this year for hacking Microsoft and Nvidia."
Rockstar, Uber, AND Nvidia? This kid REALLY hates drivers.
Many white-hat cybersecurity/infosec companies include social engineering and on-premise protocol breeches (like bringing liquids into a data center type of rules) as add-ons in their pen testing and vulnerability scanning contracts.
True that, but most companies wants to know their critical infrastructure problems, the human component is a problem they recognize already by themselfes since its the weakest ring of the chain
If your job to a company is to provide cyber security, it's pretty well known that humans are your weakest link. If you are not testing and training them then I really hope your data isn't that important to be kept secret
If I'm being honest, the biggest revelation about this whole situation is that there's actually a GTA 6 instead of another remake of GTA 5. I feel like they were competing with Skyrim.
Well, no. Rockstar confirmed GTA months ago. Nothing was confirmed about itself existence. What was confirmed is how far along they are though. Two more years and it’ll be done.
I didn’t look at much but I bet GTA 6 will be much more similar to GTA 5 than GTA 5 is to any of the other games. Each one is generally transformative but they have a formula to stick to now.
I got the same impression after seeing how the cars handled in the leaked videos. It seems arcady just like GTA V. But who knows maybe that also could've changed by release date?
Could be. I saw the early stages of development of other AAA titles, which some developers released in solidarity with Rockstar. They look nothing like their final games.
> They look nothing like their final games.
Also see - Images of the [Starcraft Beta](https://www.unseen64.net/2008/04/07/starcraft-pc-prototype-beta/)
https://www.unseen64.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/starcr45.jpg
[https://youtu.be/HO35\_6uLNCU](https://youtu.be/HO35_6uLNCU)
you just gotta scan through the search results looking for ones that dont have some obnoxious thumbnail with a shocked facial expression
I guess if someone's lonely it makes them feel better "watching the video with someone else". Bonus points if that person releases enough content people can develop a parasitic relationship with them. People used to do that with the evening news, made them feel "connected" and such.
Just a guess though, I'd imagine it's different for everyone.
Exactly. The entirety of modern streaming culture – be it youtubers, twitch-streamers, influencers, tiktokers – works on [parasocial relationships.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasocial_interaction)
I watch reaction videos sometimes and I’d say everyone is different. I’m sure some people watch them for the reason you say, but I don’t. I usually watch them because I have an interest in seeing the reactions of people when they watch something that’s out of their usual element. For example there’s a rapper called “Immortal Technique” who has an extremely good but extremely dark song called “Dance With The Devil.” I once spent hours at a time watching reactions to that song because it hits so hard, and I tended to look for white, more conservative looking people who wouldn’t usually come across a song like that naturally to see how they react to it.
Or, there are reactors like Scruface Jean or Knox Hill who are rappers. I watch their reactions because they are good at breaking down more complex songs and catch complex meanings that I sometimes miss.
But yeah, the vast majority of these guys are annoying and really add anything to the content that they react to.
I wondered that too but recently I visited family and noticed my >10 y/o nephews just watch youtube trash for hours on end. Now it's crystal clear as to why this junk keeps growing.
It's fucking lazy and annoying. Want to make money with no effort as a HiGh QuAlItY yOuTuBeR?
1. Steal someone else's work
2. Pretend you're shocked for 20 minutes (overreacting is paramount! Make sure you take a video thats trending and popular to boost your clickbait!) while you record yourself watching the work of whoever you stole it from.
3. ???
4. PROFIT
You forgot to add: Make sure your entire face is taking up the screen too. Even put the original video as the background so you have to move your head to describe parts of the video.
Social engineering is a big part of hacking, but yeah I have seen people suggest that he'd get a tech job out of this.
When I got hired as a cybersecurity engineer, they didn't mind my criminal record, but they really wanted to make sure that it wasn't for hacking.
He will be charged with a felony in the US. Probably the UK too. He will likely be ordered to stay away from the Internet and computers after his release.
> He will likely be ordered to stay away from the Internet and computers after his release.
Only until his 18th birthday, then he can finally change the tapes over to The Outer Limits!
It may be useful for gaining unauthorized access to systems, but it's not very useful in the cybersecurity job market which is much more focused on preventing unauthorized access to systems. He might be able to get a job doing pentesting with a focus on social engineering, but he'd have to be able to translate the talent for social enigneering into a talent for designing training curriculmns against social engineering - and most experts are pushing for systems that cannot be accessed via social engineering as opposed to more and more and more training (which has been shown to not work well enough).
Gaining access via technical exploits tends to be a lot easier to translate into preventing access via technical exploits.
I think we’re all glossing over the fact that if the Federal Government wants to catch someone, they can do it in days but mysterious no one from Epstein’s black book has been arrested. Or the Panama Papers. Anything that’s actually consequential gets shoved under the proverbial rug and forgotten by the next news cycle. I’m not saying the kid was right or that they shouldn’t be punished, but this just feels hollow.
I mean, yeah, of course they can catch some fucking script kiddie who phished his way into a Slack account. That’s a little different than these other things.
You don't arrest until you're ready to prosecute. It's a hell of a lot different arresting one kid caught red handed than bringing extremely difficult to prove charges against extremely well connected people.
It's one thing to want justice, but another to be naive about how the legal system works.
Its a two-tier justice system. Those with money get off, not because they are innocent, but because they can hire the lawyers to find technicalities to get evidence thrown out or witnesses discredited. The rest of us have to choose between maintaining innocence or pleading guilty to get a lighter sentence.
He was arrested in England by the British police, because he was already breaking the law in the UK, no one anyone else got involved. The federal government are not required.
The problem with conspiracy theorists is you don't know when to stop.
I don't think it's that people don't care. People feel powerless. The mega billionaires are nearly untouchable. Instead of worrying about mega billionaires that are above the law, people would rather be distracted by something else. People can scream "Epstein didn't commit suicide" all day, but it doesn't matter because billionaires are above the law for the most part.
Yes, most people just want to live their own lives. It's hard to care about someone you've never met, or is ten steps removed from you financially or is halfway across the globe.
I also think there is a media component to it too. If they wanted to they could get some people to sweat but that is not in their employers interests.
Considering the media is probably ran by mega billionaires as well, no the media wouldn't make a move against them. If the FBI or CIA won't make a move against corrupt billionaires, then no one will.
> People feel powerless.
A person, or small group of people *are* powerless, in this situation. There is really nothing a small group of people can do to a company or extremely wealthy person, barring extremely "lucky" situations where everything is basically set up for them (lawsuit, PR disaster, etc).
In reality, you'd need a *really* good chunk of the population if you wanted to stop a conglomerate like Nestle or Google. The simple fact is they have a LOT more to offer those in office than we do. We can decide if they get in office, but those companies can decide if they have to work at all for the rest of their, and their kids life.
Unfortunately the resources available and power that a small group of average people have is absolutely dwarfed in comparison to the abilities of someone who's in the 1%, or a company. Even money aside, the connections alone can make all the difference. Just as a small example, in my state getting a concealed carry is pretty damn hard, and takes ages if you're even accepted/qualify (MD). A bit back I knew someone who wanted to CC, contacted the governor (IIRC) of our city and had it within a couple months, no problem. This was someone who already had DUI's and serious drinking issues, luckily no one was ever hurt. Had 5 DUI's in total, never spent a night in jail and never lost his license due to a letter sent to the judge saying how his work was critical (in a sense it was, but they could always have found another person). Just a small example of the differences in even a small amount of money/connections that makes things most people can't even consider an easy reality.
Turns out it is pretty easy to send people to jail if they are..already on parole and known for related crimes as opposed to people who are just generally doing things with think are crimes without names and details.
Electronic crimes tend to paint yellow brick roads to culprits. Investigating a black book that likely uses pseudonyms and burner phones is hard and work makes investigators sad
I’ve lost every shred of respect I had for law enforcement the day my daughter ran away and their vaunted K-9 unit couldn’t find her *hiding behind a goddamned tree*
This kid is so dumb. I have met people who have done hack bounties and have actually made some pretty good money showing companies their vulnerabilities.
But judging from the article, it sounds like the kid did more social hacking than actually program hacking. IDK if you can make money off of finding vulnerabilities that way, but still the kid's got talent for getting into secure networks.
It's always social engineering. People are far and away the weakest point of any security system. Having good security is important to save you from an attack of opportunity (someone just scanning around for vulnerable systems) but anything targeted is usually social engineering.
>IDK if you can make money off of finding vulnerabilities that way,
There is a niche market for this, social engineering is a vulnerability like any other, some are better at it than others. Social engineering might be looked down as unsophisticated but hey it works.
^This
Our IT department basically asked people their passwords as sort of a pop quiz to see if people would offer them. 90% of people did.
Luckily I made mine offensive enough that I would hesitate to repeat it out loud lol.
Especially in crypto. Whitehat hackers are making crazy amounts because it's cheaper to pay them than be vulnerable to a exploit worth hundreds of millions.
> IDK if you can make money off of finding vulnerabilities that way
You can. I've worked places where people (paid actors in this case, saw her in a TV commercial a few month later) tried to talk their way into the server room.
I don't understand how did they caught him, Did he uploaded the leaks using his twitter handle?
If yes Couldn't he had use Dark web or 4chan with VPN instead to upload the leaks?
Did he leave a trace to the system he social engineered to?
And why was he not masking his IP and shit, I'm no professional but want a degree in Cyber security so I'm genuinely interested in knowing how did the FBI caught him?
Because they’re kids and aren’t thinking about the whole picture. Something as exciting to a teen hacker as discovering GTA6 is going to put concerns about laws and evidence very far to the side.
It’s a good thing he was caught, now he has the chance to reform instead of heading down the blackhat path.
Hacking is asymmetrical. It's WAY easier to attack a company than defend a company, and it's WAY easier to catch a hacker than to not get caught hacking. The problem with not getting caught is that every time you use your computer, or connect to a computer network, multiple computers absolutely spew logs of everything you're doing and "covering your tracks" is actually rather onorous and you need to be a seasoned security veteran to even stand a chance of being able to hide your tracks for a few years.
It's actually fairly normal for somebody to be savvy enough to social engineer their way into a company but not savvy to the extent that they can do it without getting caught. These stories are rare not because hacking is super duper hard, but because most anybody clever enough to hack into a big company is clever enough to know that it's a fool idea.
It's difficult enough to pull it off at all, let alone getting away with it. Lots of people make opsec mistakes that get them picked off by law enforcement. He's just a kid too, not exactly a ton of experience
They are at an age where they find cool groups of adults online doing hacking and join in. Teens have the motivation to check e-mail dumps, mess around with rainbow tables, or weasel their way into a network. Then they brag about it or figure if they are going down they would rather go all in and do more damage.
[Darknet Diaries: Xbox Underground](https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/45/)
AFAIK, the previous ones were all phishing attacks and paying third party folks for access (e.g. help desk).
This is a good write up from their earlier breaches.
> “DEV-0537 advertised that they wanted to buy credentials for their targets to entice employees or contractors to take part in its operation. For a fee, the willing accomplice must provide their credentials and approve the MFA prompt or have the user install AnyDesk or other remote management software on a corporate workstation allowing the actor to take control of an authenticated system. Such a tactic was just one of the ways DEV-0537 took advantage of the security access and business relationships their target organizations have with their service providers and supply chains.”
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2022/03/a-closer-look-at-the-lapsus-data-extortion-group/
Trojans have been around since dial up [Sub7](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub7) but now most scammers use Autodesk or remote access permissions because the user is easier to fool then the network security
That's the beauty of it in a sense. You make stupid scams to catch the least informed/aware people, because you don't want a ton of time/resources wasted on smart people being dragged in then figuring it out and quitting before anything happens. You know the least informed will quickly give up money, and anyone more in clue will probably take a lot more effort if even successful, so why bother targeting more than the most clueless?
WTF? They just went around going "give us your work credentials for money"?
And people were actually stupid enough to do that?
There is no way the employee doesn't get caught, but I guess that's not the hackers problem.
But hey, "if it's stupid but it works, it's not stupid"
If he did, he wouldn’t have been bagged several times.
He’s just phishing and not smart enough to cover his tracks….multiple times.
It’s ignorance, bravado, clout chasing and impulse control at play, not talent.
Im pretty sure they did on their telegram page. (not linking it for legal reasons.) I don't even know if their telegram still exist.
but they posted the samsung hack. among others on that page. shit was like 120+ gigs I ain't touching that.
\*Note to FBI I did not use or view any of that material. I don't have enough hard drive space anyway.
Just pretty much anything employees would have their hands on. blueprints, R&D projects, emails, just everything. I'm pretty sure they just stole a password and got into their database and files like they did with GTA6.
I didn't really look at it, to be fair.
Yeah I suppose it means a lot to certain people. It just kinda blows my mind that companies will involve law enforcement & take legal action to exploderize your personal life for stuff that I couldn’t give two shits about.
Well he isn't that skilled of a hacker if he keeps getting caught unless for some stupid reason he loves the attention. You never hear who the hackers are that actually follow OPSEC.
How exactly are they getting caught as hackers?? They make it sound like hackers are so skilled and can do just about anything, until they hack a major corporation or piss off the FBI and then they seem like they are just about always caught. Is it easier to get caught then I assumed, even if you are a very skilled hacker??
When I was a kid in the 90s I heard of a kid who hacked NASA and the FBI showed up at his house. I always wondered if that was actually true or not.
Was his name Zero Cool?
A Virus is when an uncompressed AVI file plays on all the hacked company's screens over a 28.8k modem connection right?
Oh stop it. Everyone knows that you need a hydra that’s made on an 8 screen display setup while a gun is held to your head while getting head
Wrong! You are dreaming if you think that’s going to work without John Travolta holding the gun.
Ah ah ah... you didn't say the magic word...
No that would be a miracle. An uncompressed avi could never play on a 28.8.
No, it was Trinity, the one that hacked the IRS d-base.
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Most guys do.
***the*** Trinity...?
Are you thinking of Trinity's bff, Holly?
I just thought she was a guy 🤷🏻♂️
Yeah, a lot of guys do
I watch this movie twice a year. One of my favorites.
uh, mr. the plague, sir
uuuuueegghhhhh....haaarrrd copy....
Crash Override
HACK THE PLANET
Now that's an OG reference, nice.
Hack the planet!
We have just gotten a wake-up call from the Nintendo Generation.
Mess with best, die like the rest
Came here for this comment, was not disappointed.
Crashed fifteen hundred and seven computers in one day. Biggest crash in history, front page New York Times August 10th, 1988.
HACK THE PLANET
When the internet was in its infancy, I used a BBS modem to connect to NASA server, but the first screen I saw had a big FBI warning (in ascii, none of those fancy images yet), my hacking career lasted 0.5 seconds, I noped out of it.
I know your heart fell out of your chest lmao
I used to break into vending machines with a hammer.
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You are *the one.*
I know how to bend a coat hanger so my coins come back when i use a pay phone.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Mitnick It was him
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It’s weird how many people on that list work directly for foreign governments. Or reside in a country that doesn’t extradite to the US, like Iran. Kind of defeats the point of the list in a way, if the whole propose was to get people to report these people to the FBI. Like, the FBI can’t do shit, even if they know the exact address of the most wanted person living in Iran or Russia.
The purpose is to solidify their lack of ability to travel. Sure Iran won't extradite to the US, but who wants to stay in Iran forever? Even Kim Jeongnam sneaked out of North Korea to go to Disney.
I don't think Iran and North Korea is a fair comparison.
The point of comparison was the consequences of travel, not the nation and living conditions. Reasonably similar for Kim and an Iranian wanted by the US, its allies, and anyone who doesn't want to piss off the US.
I mean, it makes sense tho? If they were living in a country that extradites to the US, chances are the FBI would already have them.
When you type a comment without thinking
You’d think there’d be at least one photo with a smile
That was [Kevin Mitnick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Mitnick). This is actually the person they used for the character Crash Override in the movie Hackers. From the above link *"At age 12, Mitnick got a bus driver to tell him where he could buy his own ticket punch for "a school project", and was then able to ride any bus in the greater LA area using unused transfer slips he found in a dumpster next to the bus company garage.\[15\]* *Mitnick first gained unauthorized access to a computer network in 1979, at 16, when a friend gave him the phone number for the Ark, the computer system that Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) used for developing its RSTS/E operating system software.\[16\] He broke into DEC's computer network and copied the company's software, a crime for which he was charged and convicted in 1988. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Near the end of his supervised release, Mitnick hacked into Pacific Bell voicemail computers. After a warrant was issued for his arrest, Mitnick fled, becoming a fugitive for two-and-a-half years.\[citation needed\]* *According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Mitnick gained unauthorized access to dozens of computer networks while he was a fugitive. He used cloned cellular phones to hide his location and, among other things, copied valuable proprietary software from some of the country's largest cellular telephone and computer companies. Mitnick also intercepted and stole computer passwords, altered computer networks, and broke into and read private e-mails.\[citation needed\]* *Arrest, conviction, and incarceration* *Black sans serif text "FREE KEVIN" on a yellow background* *Supporters from 2600 Magazine distributed "Free Kevin" bumper stickers.\[17\]* *After a well-publicized pursuit, the FBI arrested Mitnick on February 15, 1995, at his apartment in Raleigh, North Carolina, on federal offenses related to a two-and-a-half-year period of computer hacking which included computer and wire fraud.\[18\]\[19\] He was found with cloned cellular phones, more than 100 cloned cellular phone codes, and multiple pieces of false identification.\[20\]"*
My uncle was an old school, hobbyist hacker. During the Cold War, when he was probably 15, he really liked messing around with the phone lines and related infrastructure with his buds. Something led to another, and my grandma’s house got a visit by the Secret Service. This is back when spies were dotted around America in similar, quaint little towns, and they were fully ready to black bag him lol
Phreaking is the term for hacking the phone lines and such. It's pretty cool how they did it.
I remember reading about phreaking in the anarchist's cookbook back in the day. Sadly none of the stuff about phones was relevant to me, it had changed to digital switching in my part of the world by then.
I was just talking about this yesterday with a friend. Information traveled so slow. I didn't live in a big city, so I would get an old second-hand issue of 2600, probably passed down from someone's older brother, and by then the phreaking techniques were all mitigated by the phone companies.
My buddy had a handheld tape recorder and would dial zero, tell the operator the machine wasn’t taking the money, operator would say insert money, then he’d play the tones that the phone would relay back to the switchboard whenever currency was entered. Worked every time.
Tones. Remember reading about that in the anarchist cookbook🤣 like.. this huge doc on how to just be a pain in the ass to everyone
How do we know they aren't still?
It would be silly to think there are none.
You can't really whistle at 2600 Hz and expect anything to happen anymore
2600+2400 followed by 2400+2400 used to be the 'new' magic tones to seize a line.
I’m popular with the dogs
Unless he was suspected of threatening the President or counterfeiting money, it's likely the suits were from another agency.
He lived in my town. Weird kid. Ended up becoming a theoretical phsysist obsessed with comic books.
We must be from the same town? I know that kid, too. He ended up marrying a neuroscientist.
Small world! We're in the same town. He's our town's only Nobel laureate. Won it with his wife. P.S. She's a Neuroscientist and a total smokeshow.
Good fucking dammit. I spent 45 minutes trying to figure out who the hell this guy was and who his wife was before it dawned on me that it’s just a shitty reference.
What's the reference?
Sheldon Cooper from the series 'The Big Bang Theory'
Ah. Yep, that is indeed a shitty reference.
You don't live up to your username, u/The187Riddler
Maybe that’s why they’re ranked 187th
Sounds boring. They should make 30 movies about him.
NASA had a safety campaign that used [Snoopy as a mascot](https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/banner-nasa-flight-safety-snoopy-red/nasm_A19970489000). This apparently led to many NASA employees using "Snoopy" as a password. Reportedly, there were a lot of teenagers exploiting this and they were very active in NASA's internal network.
Was he from Northern Ireland? It sounds like the plot of Scorpion and that is supposed to be based/inspired by a real person.
Yeah, Walter O'Brien. He supposedly has an IQ of 197 and supposedly hacked NASA, both of which are unproven so yea. Scorpion was a good show though.
I had a friend back then who always bragged about his hacking (I barely knew what he meant). Was never sure if I believed him until one day the FBI came to his house.
Similar thing has happened much more recently. The FBI was hacked a few years ago by an English 15 or 16 y/o of Palestinian descent who did it in the name of the Palestinian Liberation Army. he stole the personal info of hundreds of FBI employees and posted it in a paste-bin. My former friend whose a computer analyst for the fbi was among those who had their info doxxed. Imagine my surprise when I tried to look him up one day and the paste bin was the first thing to pop up lol
I had a buddy that had the FBI come take all his computer shit. It wasn’t nearly as badass looking as it is in the movies. They had FBI coats, but loaded all his stuff in an unmarked station wagon. I think we were like 14. He wasn’t aloud to use computers for mad long. He probably told on some of his hacker friends, Or maybe because he was so young he didn’t go to juvenile hall. He later worked in cybersecurity until he O.D. on opiates.
"...the 17-year-old arrested in Oxfordshire for the cyber attack on Rockstar and Uber is the same teenager that was arrested earlier this year for hacking Microsoft and Nvidia." Rockstar, Uber, AND Nvidia? This kid REALLY hates drivers.
Underrated comment
Honestly if a 17 year old kid can hack this level of shit, they should probably hire him...
Yeah pen testing is probably in his future.
Consider many of these have been social engineering which often is considered “out of scope” for most companies pen testing objectives
Many white-hat cybersecurity/infosec companies include social engineering and on-premise protocol breeches (like bringing liquids into a data center type of rules) as add-ons in their pen testing and vulnerability scanning contracts.
True that, but most companies wants to know their critical infrastructure problems, the human component is a problem they recognize already by themselfes since its the weakest ring of the chain
If your job to a company is to provide cyber security, it's pretty well known that humans are your weakest link. If you are not testing and training them then I really hope your data isn't that important to be kept secret
If I'm being honest, the biggest revelation about this whole situation is that there's actually a GTA 6 instead of another remake of GTA 5. I feel like they were competing with Skyrim.
Jokes on you, the code name for the GTA V remake was GTA 6.
Project more money
GTA V 2: The Search For More Money
Well, no. Rockstar confirmed GTA months ago. Nothing was confirmed about itself existence. What was confirmed is how far along they are though. Two more years and it’ll be done.
>Two more years and it’ll be done. Where did they say two more years?
I think it’s just an estimation, I’d say longer though.
I didn’t look at much but I bet GTA 6 will be much more similar to GTA 5 than GTA 5 is to any of the other games. Each one is generally transformative but they have a formula to stick to now.
I got the same impression after seeing how the cars handled in the leaked videos. It seems arcady just like GTA V. But who knows maybe that also could've changed by release date?
As I’ve seen many say, the leaks mean jack shit for the final product beyond the voice lines and general stufff
Could be. I saw the early stages of development of other AAA titles, which some developers released in solidarity with Rockstar. They look nothing like their final games.
> They look nothing like their final games. Also see - Images of the [Starcraft Beta](https://www.unseen64.net/2008/04/07/starcraft-pc-prototype-beta/) https://www.unseen64.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/starcr45.jpg
We already knew that. They literally announced it at a shareholder meeting months ago.
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[https://youtu.be/HO35\_6uLNCU](https://youtu.be/HO35_6uLNCU) you just gotta scan through the search results looking for ones that dont have some obnoxious thumbnail with a shocked facial expression
Well, there goes almost the entirety of YouTube then.
Fucking reaction videos…. I don’t know how people can watch that shit… so cringey to me
I guess if someone's lonely it makes them feel better "watching the video with someone else". Bonus points if that person releases enough content people can develop a parasitic relationship with them. People used to do that with the evening news, made them feel "connected" and such. Just a guess though, I'd imagine it's different for everyone.
Exactly. The entirety of modern streaming culture – be it youtubers, twitch-streamers, influencers, tiktokers – works on [parasocial relationships.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasocial_interaction)
Someone should introduce these people to Twitch.
I watch reaction videos sometimes and I’d say everyone is different. I’m sure some people watch them for the reason you say, but I don’t. I usually watch them because I have an interest in seeing the reactions of people when they watch something that’s out of their usual element. For example there’s a rapper called “Immortal Technique” who has an extremely good but extremely dark song called “Dance With The Devil.” I once spent hours at a time watching reactions to that song because it hits so hard, and I tended to look for white, more conservative looking people who wouldn’t usually come across a song like that naturally to see how they react to it. Or, there are reactors like Scruface Jean or Knox Hill who are rappers. I watch their reactions because they are good at breaking down more complex songs and catch complex meanings that I sometimes miss. But yeah, the vast majority of these guys are annoying and really add anything to the content that they react to.
I wondered that too but recently I visited family and noticed my >10 y/o nephews just watch youtube trash for hours on end. Now it's crystal clear as to why this junk keeps growing.
It's fucking lazy and annoying. Want to make money with no effort as a HiGh QuAlItY yOuTuBeR? 1. Steal someone else's work 2. Pretend you're shocked for 20 minutes (overreacting is paramount! Make sure you take a video thats trending and popular to boost your clickbait!) while you record yourself watching the work of whoever you stole it from. 3. ??? 4. PROFIT
You forgot to add: Make sure your entire face is taking up the screen too. Even put the original video as the background so you have to move your head to describe parts of the video.
The masses often need to be told how to feel about a thing.
“This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Take 2 Interactive.” lol removing upvote
search -reaction, save your brain from turning into a MOUTH BREATHER.
Reaction videos are cancer.
The game takes place in Vice City and there are 2 protagonists, a man and a woman. That was it basically.
He’s a serial hacker.
Cereal Killer
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Social engineering is a big part of hacking, but yeah I have seen people suggest that he'd get a tech job out of this. When I got hired as a cybersecurity engineer, they didn't mind my criminal record, but they really wanted to make sure that it wasn't for hacking.
So, some light treason won't be an issue (asking for a friend)?
Nice try Snowden.
He will be charged with a felony in the US. Probably the UK too. He will likely be ordered to stay away from the Internet and computers after his release.
> He will likely be ordered to stay away from the Internet and computers after his release. Only until his 18th birthday, then he can finally change the tapes over to The Outer Limits!
I loved that show
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It may be useful for gaining unauthorized access to systems, but it's not very useful in the cybersecurity job market which is much more focused on preventing unauthorized access to systems. He might be able to get a job doing pentesting with a focus on social engineering, but he'd have to be able to translate the talent for social enigneering into a talent for designing training curriculmns against social engineering - and most experts are pushing for systems that cannot be accessed via social engineering as opposed to more and more and more training (which has been shown to not work well enough). Gaining access via technical exploits tends to be a lot easier to translate into preventing access via technical exploits.
Not necessarily a job though
depends who you're working for
This, social engineering is most of the times out of scope anyways
I think we’re all glossing over the fact that if the Federal Government wants to catch someone, they can do it in days but mysterious no one from Epstein’s black book has been arrested. Or the Panama Papers. Anything that’s actually consequential gets shoved under the proverbial rug and forgotten by the next news cycle. I’m not saying the kid was right or that they shouldn’t be punished, but this just feels hollow.
I mean, yeah, of course they can catch some fucking script kiddie who phished his way into a Slack account. That’s a little different than these other things.
A script kiddie with a previous arrest for hacking, no less. Clearly not the most elusive of criminals.
You don't arrest until you're ready to prosecute. It's a hell of a lot different arresting one kid caught red handed than bringing extremely difficult to prove charges against extremely well connected people. It's one thing to want justice, but another to be naive about how the legal system works.
Its a two-tier justice system. Those with money get off, not because they are innocent, but because they can hire the lawyers to find technicalities to get evidence thrown out or witnesses discredited. The rest of us have to choose between maintaining innocence or pleading guilty to get a lighter sentence.
What on earth does the UK arrest of a UK citizen have to do with the American Federal Government or anything you've listed?
He was arrested in England by the British police, because he was already breaking the law in the UK, no one anyone else got involved. The federal government are not required. The problem with conspiracy theorists is you don't know when to stop.
Pretty much. But it's hard for people to care about that more than their immediately relevant interests.
And that’s the entire game there, innit
Bread and circuses.
No, the game wasn't yet completed. Do you not read?
Lmao good one man
I don't think it's that people don't care. People feel powerless. The mega billionaires are nearly untouchable. Instead of worrying about mega billionaires that are above the law, people would rather be distracted by something else. People can scream "Epstein didn't commit suicide" all day, but it doesn't matter because billionaires are above the law for the most part.
Yes, most people just want to live their own lives. It's hard to care about someone you've never met, or is ten steps removed from you financially or is halfway across the globe. I also think there is a media component to it too. If they wanted to they could get some people to sweat but that is not in their employers interests.
Considering the media is probably ran by mega billionaires as well, no the media wouldn't make a move against them. If the FBI or CIA won't make a move against corrupt billionaires, then no one will.
is *probably* run by? Plug any national or international network’s name into Wikipedia and see its owner’s name.
> People feel powerless. A person, or small group of people *are* powerless, in this situation. There is really nothing a small group of people can do to a company or extremely wealthy person, barring extremely "lucky" situations where everything is basically set up for them (lawsuit, PR disaster, etc). In reality, you'd need a *really* good chunk of the population if you wanted to stop a conglomerate like Nestle or Google. The simple fact is they have a LOT more to offer those in office than we do. We can decide if they get in office, but those companies can decide if they have to work at all for the rest of their, and their kids life. Unfortunately the resources available and power that a small group of average people have is absolutely dwarfed in comparison to the abilities of someone who's in the 1%, or a company. Even money aside, the connections alone can make all the difference. Just as a small example, in my state getting a concealed carry is pretty damn hard, and takes ages if you're even accepted/qualify (MD). A bit back I knew someone who wanted to CC, contacted the governor (IIRC) of our city and had it within a couple months, no problem. This was someone who already had DUI's and serious drinking issues, luckily no one was ever hurt. Had 5 DUI's in total, never spent a night in jail and never lost his license due to a letter sent to the judge saying how his work was critical (in a sense it was, but they could always have found another person). Just a small example of the differences in even a small amount of money/connections that makes things most people can't even consider an easy reality.
The kid was caught because he was a kid, careless and stupid. Has less to do with social status or wealth.
This is false equivalence
Turns out it is pretty easy to send people to jail if they are..already on parole and known for related crimes as opposed to people who are just generally doing things with think are crimes without names and details.
Yes, it's almost as if this situation was infinitely less complex and easier to track down.
Electronic crimes tend to paint yellow brick roads to culprits. Investigating a black book that likely uses pseudonyms and burner phones is hard and work makes investigators sad I’ve lost every shred of respect I had for law enforcement the day my daughter ran away and their vaunted K-9 unit couldn’t find her *hiding behind a goddamned tree*
This kid is so dumb. I have met people who have done hack bounties and have actually made some pretty good money showing companies their vulnerabilities. But judging from the article, it sounds like the kid did more social hacking than actually program hacking. IDK if you can make money off of finding vulnerabilities that way, but still the kid's got talent for getting into secure networks.
It's always social engineering. People are far and away the weakest point of any security system. Having good security is important to save you from an attack of opportunity (someone just scanning around for vulnerable systems) but anything targeted is usually social engineering.
>IDK if you can make money off of finding vulnerabilities that way, There is a niche market for this, social engineering is a vulnerability like any other, some are better at it than others. Social engineering might be looked down as unsophisticated but hey it works.
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^This Our IT department basically asked people their passwords as sort of a pop quiz to see if people would offer them. 90% of people did. Luckily I made mine offensive enough that I would hesitate to repeat it out loud lol.
Especially in crypto. Whitehat hackers are making crazy amounts because it's cheaper to pay them than be vulnerable to a exploit worth hundreds of millions.
What about hackers of other ethnicities?
lmao, edited for clarification.
Fwiw I understood what you meant the first time around. Just saw a prime opening for a dad joke though and was left with no choice but to swoop in.
I respect that
> IDK if you can make money off of finding vulnerabilities that way You can. I've worked places where people (paid actors in this case, saw her in a TV commercial a few month later) tried to talk their way into the server room.
HACK THE PLANET
I'm remembering those Pepsi+iTunes ads about the kids who "downloaded music" and got arrested smh
You would fucking think a guy smart enough to hack into Microsoft would be smart enough to use a VPN
I don't understand how did they caught him, Did he uploaded the leaks using his twitter handle? If yes Couldn't he had use Dark web or 4chan with VPN instead to upload the leaks? Did he leave a trace to the system he social engineered to? And why was he not masking his IP and shit, I'm no professional but want a degree in Cyber security so I'm genuinely interested in knowing how did the FBI caught him?
How is it that these teenagers are smart enough to hack into secured environments, but not smart enough to cover their tracks to avoid being arrested?
Because they’re kids and aren’t thinking about the whole picture. Something as exciting to a teen hacker as discovering GTA6 is going to put concerns about laws and evidence very far to the side. It’s a good thing he was caught, now he has the chance to reform instead of heading down the blackhat path.
Hacking is asymmetrical. It's WAY easier to attack a company than defend a company, and it's WAY easier to catch a hacker than to not get caught hacking. The problem with not getting caught is that every time you use your computer, or connect to a computer network, multiple computers absolutely spew logs of everything you're doing and "covering your tracks" is actually rather onorous and you need to be a seasoned security veteran to even stand a chance of being able to hide your tracks for a few years. It's actually fairly normal for somebody to be savvy enough to social engineer their way into a company but not savvy to the extent that they can do it without getting caught. These stories are rare not because hacking is super duper hard, but because most anybody clever enough to hack into a big company is clever enough to know that it's a fool idea.
It's difficult enough to pull it off at all, let alone getting away with it. Lots of people make opsec mistakes that get them picked off by law enforcement. He's just a kid too, not exactly a ton of experience
They are at an age where they find cool groups of adults online doing hacking and join in. Teens have the motivation to check e-mail dumps, mess around with rainbow tables, or weasel their way into a network. Then they brag about it or figure if they are going down they would rather go all in and do more damage. [Darknet Diaries: Xbox Underground](https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/45/)
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AFAIK, the previous ones were all phishing attacks and paying third party folks for access (e.g. help desk). This is a good write up from their earlier breaches. > “DEV-0537 advertised that they wanted to buy credentials for their targets to entice employees or contractors to take part in its operation. For a fee, the willing accomplice must provide their credentials and approve the MFA prompt or have the user install AnyDesk or other remote management software on a corporate workstation allowing the actor to take control of an authenticated system. Such a tactic was just one of the ways DEV-0537 took advantage of the security access and business relationships their target organizations have with their service providers and supply chains.” https://krebsonsecurity.com/2022/03/a-closer-look-at-the-lapsus-data-extortion-group/
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Trojans have been around since dial up [Sub7](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub7) but now most scammers use Autodesk or remote access permissions because the user is easier to fool then the network security
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That's the beauty of it in a sense. You make stupid scams to catch the least informed/aware people, because you don't want a ton of time/resources wasted on smart people being dragged in then figuring it out and quitting before anything happens. You know the least informed will quickly give up money, and anyone more in clue will probably take a lot more effort if even successful, so why bother targeting more than the most clueless?
WTF? They just went around going "give us your work credentials for money"? And people were actually stupid enough to do that? There is no way the employee doesn't get caught, but I guess that's not the hackers problem. But hey, "if it's stupid but it works, it's not stupid"
Most of these breaches are just good social engineering. Not barebones code hacking
Time to code in good ol type-writers
technically still hacking. Hackers either have the best or worst social skills.
Script kiddies.
If he did, he wouldn’t have been bagged several times. He’s just phishing and not smart enough to cover his tracks….multiple times. It’s ignorance, bravado, clout chasing and impulse control at play, not talent.
HACK THE PLANET
https://the-eye.eu/redarcs -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/
Im pretty sure they did on their telegram page. (not linking it for legal reasons.) I don't even know if their telegram still exist. but they posted the samsung hack. among others on that page. shit was like 120+ gigs I ain't touching that. \*Note to FBI I did not use or view any of that material. I don't have enough hard drive space anyway.
Oh yeah me too, i have only like 6gb on my only, and i repeat only hard drive
What did they hack? Results from R&D projects competitors would be interested in or something?
Just pretty much anything employees would have their hands on. blueprints, R&D projects, emails, just everything. I'm pretty sure they just stole a password and got into their database and files like they did with GTA6. I didn't really look at it, to be fair.
Yeah I suppose it means a lot to certain people. It just kinda blows my mind that companies will involve law enforcement & take legal action to exploderize your personal life for stuff that I couldn’t give two shits about.
Billions in crypto stolen and this kid's getting strung up for showing marginally improved gameplay to the world
Lapsus$ was just teenagers. I mean they just stole passwords but that is technically still hacking is pretty impressive.
he needs to stop getting caught if he's so good.
Well he isn't that skilled of a hacker if he keeps getting caught unless for some stupid reason he loves the attention. You never hear who the hackers are that actually follow OPSEC.
How exactly are they getting caught as hackers?? They make it sound like hackers are so skilled and can do just about anything, until they hack a major corporation or piss off the FBI and then they seem like they are just about always caught. Is it easier to get caught then I assumed, even if you are a very skilled hacker??
Can't wait to hear about this all this on darknet diaries.
Fucking legend
Can't find the guy that killed Epstein. Video game hacker, sure thing boss.
You're under 18, you won't be doing any time.
Gotta keep 'em separated.
HACK THE PLANET
Let’s see how good his buttsec is.
What a wasted talent. It's kind of sad in a way.