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this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2023
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The story is more interesting than the title suggests! This guy was arrested for hacking two telecom companies, got released under investigation, then immediately hacked Nvidia before being put under house arrest. After that, he was relocated to a hotel (due to being doxxed) where all he had to work with was a Fire TV stick, which he promptly then used to hack Rockstar.
All in all, he's believed to have stolen $14 million+. By the way... he's 18, autistic, and enrolled in a special education school.
Fuckin' bravo. I mean, don't do that, but on a purely technical level - nice.
Well, between getting doxxed and annihilating any chance he had at getting a lenient sentencing, the more sensible decision would have probably been to sit on his hands and bide time for a couple months lol.
Given he's autistic, that's probably actually impossible for him to do.
Well in that case I guess he's been cursed by fate in an uncaring world 🤷
But at least we can punish him. Eh?
That'll teach him for being congenitally neurodivergent.
He didn't just steal content. He then tried to blackmail the company to not release the content he stole.
Also, while you might be able to justify piracy of a released product in various ways (the common argument is that the would be pirate wouldn't have paid for the product anyway and digital goods don't have any cost to the developer from pirating them). But when the product hasn't been released yet, then it has a much bigger cost because the pirated copy is the only option available and thus it can eat into actual sales. The inability to go through with their planned launch (something big publishers will spend millions hyping) and the release of an unfinished product can absolutely have financial damages. It's hard to recover from a bad launch.
And that's without getting into the fact that hackers like this don't usually stop at just leaking video games or the likes. They'll also often steal people's personal information. It's a lot easier to see the moral issues when it's your information being stolen.
There's no ethical use of ransomware.
deploying Godwin's Law
Oh yeah? What about ransomware-ing NAZI's and Hitler?
Is that immoral?
Probably, since you'd have time travel, but not just shoot the bastards.
You'd also need to bring lots of computers with you and first convince the nazis to use them
Time's a circle, you shoot then out the window on the next pass.
The fact he used a FireTV stick to hack Rockstar is pretty impressive lol
I’m guessing those things run Linux. So you would just need a shell.
Though I’m guessing term of his house arrest didn’t allow him to have a keyboard. That part has me curious.
They run Android, so not really standard Linux, but yeah.
Install an Android app that lets you ssh into something, bingo bango, you have a full Linux terminal
It says he used cloud services so probably only needed a web browser
Rock, fire, stick... there's a theme
Prior to reading your comment, I considered myself to be a skilled software developer.
Da fuck....
Waiting for the movie btw 🍿.
Rain Man 2
Exploit boogaloo
It always warms my heart when a single person is able to outsmart large multi-million/billion dollar tech companies like Nvidia and Rockstar. Really shows how piss poor these companies security can be.
I would definitely look to hire that kid with a high wage just to make sure he doesn't hacke me again, if I were one of the companies he hacked into. Companies should really think about trying to hire these hackers because then the threats against them might go down ever so slightly.
Counterpoint: he got caught. Whatever his offensive capabilities are, his security posture is evidently lacking. Recruiting a glass cannon like that might not work out if you're looking for help with security hardening.
Counter-counterpoint: he could work as a pentester, where his sole purpose is to just break into things.
Leave the policy making and actual hardening to someone else.
Then comes the issue of a rogue pentester selling his clients zerodays into black market for crypto. Don't know if the myth of being hired by government agencies is true.
I understand your thought, but some people just want to watch the world burn and you definitely don't want to bring that sort inside.
This guy seems to be driven, capable and lacking the common sense to know when to stop.
Its kind of inevitable, you know that meme about the overlap between the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists? Well the same is true for secure working practices and the dumbest/laziest employees. Any system too secure will also be enough of a pain in the ass that some people will start doing stupid shit that nullifies that security.
I want this guy's energy. Nothing could stop him!
If you’re autistic, the outside world is horrifying to you and technology is the only thing you care about, so that’s what you’ll eat, drink and breathe all the time. It’s not really about the energy, it’s about the environment and your ability or inability to tolerate certain aspects of it.
Jesus Christ, this man is a criminal Tony Starks
With the right education he could be the genius we need. Instead of prison he needs a decent mentor.
seriously, lets put this kid to good use.
Fucking legend
wild
Seems like a person I like and would love to smoke a joint with, lol
This has to be a movie plot..
Heh Kid's handle better be dr0id or some shit: "give me an android terminal and I'll hack the world"
that kid's my hero
Uhhhh so when’s that movie coming out? I’d watch the fuck outta that!
This is a bit of a crossover ep between the movie Hackers and the DS9 ep where Julian basically got introduced to a group of obviously coded autistic anarchists.
He bought the fire stick from the shop right next to the hotel... how the heck did he get Linux on it? Or are they selling those bootleg fire sticks?
He used a rented server to hack Rockstar, the FireStick was merely a means to connect to it.
The Fed will offer this guy a job. He's got a future.
Uh, have you ever seen a federal job application requirements?
#1: not a felon
That's only for the plebs that apply through the normal means, not for savants whose skill balances the risk - they can put a few agents to track what this dude is doing, but its much harder to find another guy eith this much skill whos also not a felon.
Also this is all speculation ie I pulled it out of my ass but doesn't it sound plausible?
It doesn't sound like he's been convicted of a crime yet...
I feel guilty now because I bought a new monitor because my old screen space wasn't cutting it.