Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/08/01/tampa-teen-arrested-over-twitt.html
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Humans: the greatest flaw in any security plan since the stone age.
Social engineering is by far the most common type of “hacking” done. It doesn’t require in depth knowledge of systems, but an understanding that people are generally trusting of others and eager to be helpful. Twitter and others should take note of this fact and implement a simple “two-factor” system for identifying staff to each other, given that most of them will never interact face to face. A simple physical token system that provides an authentication number works fine (my company uses the same type of system… no user gets their password reset until they have physically proven through the token that they are who they say they are).
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That photo of him just screams I’M AN EVIL GENIUS!!! at me.
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We need a more accurate version of Swordfish where instead of chattering away at keyboards in front of a wall of screens with custom-made Scr33n Sav0rz™, it’s just Hugh Jackman on the phone, pretending to have lost his password.
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Er… should they have released the mug shot of a minor? I mean, the guy is an asshole. But an asshole minor…
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I was wondering the same. Further down in the linked article they also name him.
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How much money should they have made with this power? Short Tesla stock, release some Musk quote like “we’re out of money in 3 months”, profit. What could you do with Obama’s voice?
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That would almost cover the first few months of legal defense if it were possible to pay with the stolen gains.
IMO, no.
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It’s Florida. They barely even outlaw murder there.
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They would have been caught even faster if they tried that inside trading stuff.
Madoff pleaded guilty and got 150 years for a $65B ponzi scheme, so $100k would be 2 hours of prison. I’m sure the authorities let this kid out already.
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To all y’all asking about him being named and pictured, he is being tried as an adult.
and, yeah, something, something, this is Florida…
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Hacking Twitter shouldn’t be a crime. It should be a sport.
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Also the greatest flaw in any form of government.
@mcsnee “It’s Florida. They barely even outlaw murder there.”
One would think, but here in Florida they outlaw murder…if the victim is white. Beyond that though? Yeah, keep in mind that we’re the state that has a retired deputy who may have been a serial killer…
As for this kid? While I’m not fond of crimes that take advantage of the overly credulous, the kid is seventeen and managed to get into all those accounts. That is one hell of a way to start building a computer security resume for the future…even if it was just spearfishing his way in. Corporate execs won’t understand the difference between that and 1337 hacking skills after all.
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Seems to me that was entirely on purpose.
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Also the greatest flaw in any corporate environment.
But I repeat myself…
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That Blue Steel tag is fantastic.
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I suppose we could best sum it up as “people suck”?
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