How the FBI tracked down the Twitter hackers | Hacker News Reader

How the FBI tracked down the Twitter hackers

zdnet.com

27 pointsohjeez18 comments

Very alienating how they disclose names even before their guilt is proven in court.

Also, I read they're considered adults because the crime was so serious. Come on. Just send the BTC back and that's it. This shit is a proof-of-concept and we should be thankful nobody started world war 3 on Twitter.

There's zero harm, just improved security at Twitter.

Send back the BTC with interest or no?

Twitter should cover that as a bug bounty.

I think this is a solid idea.

It's not much for Twitter, and they can see exactly who needs to be remunerated for how much.

They willingly impersonated multiple people and tried to scam people based on that. That is not zero harm. Are you really saying that someone that executes a spearphishing attack on a company then uses that to take over accounts within that companies services and then uses that to try to scam people should just get a slap on the wrist?

There are at least two or three levels of this where any reasonable person would have thought "This is getting really fucking criminal"

This was likely a net benefit to US citizens. Much better that this kid exposed these security holes. Imagine how bad it would be if a nation state did this close to the election.

Spearphishing is a real problem and tech companies have no answer. An annual employee training program isn't going to solve the problem. Simply making it illegal isn't going to solve the problem.

> Much better that this kid exposed these security holes.

That's why we have responsible disclosure. It does not make it okay to exploit security holes for profit.

> Spearphishing is a real problem and tech companies have no answer.

That does not make it okay to exploit it.

>That's why we have responsible disclosure. It does not make it okay to exploit security holes for profit.

I'm not aware of any bug-bounty or responsible disclosure method that allows spear-phishing as the attack requires impersonation/fraud. Is there one?

Responsible disclosure does not equal bug bounty. Just because you found a security hole does not mean you are entitled to a payout.

The responsible way to do this would be to prove the access to twitters security team and not exploit it for personal gain. You can even just post it publicly, just don't try to scam people and profit based on the exploit.

Do you think that just because there isn't a bug bounty for a specific exploit that gives you a free pass to exploit it for personal gain?

Those kids should get a prestigious cybersecurity job instead of going to jail. They didn't harm anybody even though they had the power to do that.

Didn't they defraud people around the world of over $100,000? That seems like harm to me

They could just pay back the exact amount, and that's it.

If people were stupid enough to fall for that then I put the fault on them.

As a thought exercise, I'd encourage you to try and have more empathy for those who are less capable.

I went through a somewhat similar experience with my grandparents. Although the scam they fell for was a bit less obvious, it's a hard situation to go through and realize that your loved ones have declined to such an extent cognitively

I am sorry! You are right! I automatically assumed everyone with cryptocurrency understood the risks and benefits, but if this is to become mainstream we need to educate people. I am sorry for making such assumptions about people.

Please forgive my ignorance!

Didn't two of them just pay the third to give them access and helped "market" his services? I don't see why that should land them anything.

Considering they were using Coinbase, with linked email addresses and drivers licenses, I'm going to say they should rather be banned from any role involving opsec.

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