• chaorace@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      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.

      Fuckin’ bravo. I mean, don’t do that, but on a purely technical level - nice.

        • chaorace@lemmy.sdf.org
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          1 year ago

          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.

        • CoderKat@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          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.

      • KIM_JONG_JUICEBOX@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        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.

        • Gadg8eer@lemmy.zip
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          1 year ago

          Yeah, the theme is “Don’t underestimate Neanderthals, they’re pretty much the granddaddy of Homo sapiens”. Or in short, “primitive, not unintelligent”.

    • StarkillerX42@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Prior to reading your comment, I considered myself to be a skilled software developer.

    • Dizzy Devil Ducky@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      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.

      • chaorace@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago

        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.

        • d3Xt3r@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          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.

          • rar@discuss.online
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            1 year ago

            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.

            • Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              1 year ago

              I know nothing about anything but I definitely believe the government would do it. If anyone has the power to keep the hackers acting nice it’s the government. Especially if they write your paychecks.

      • Mountaineer@aussie.zone
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        1 year ago

        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.

        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.

      • CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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.

        • tweeks@feddit.nl
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          1 year ago

          For others like me interested in the exact example; it’s about the difficulty of designing a trash can that smart bears cannot open and dumb tourists still can. You cannot create something too secure if you still want dumb people to use it as well, due to the overlap.

          The quote is not really saying dumb people will break / nullify security, like I read in the above comment, but more that they just will not be able to operate it.

      • cubedsteaks@lemmy.today
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        1 year ago

        Companies should really think about trying to hire these hackers because then the threats against them might go down ever so slightly

        some companies do.

      • Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        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.

    • Pat12@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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 schoo

      wild

    • Petter1@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Seems like a person I like and would love to smoke a joint with, lol

    • mycroft@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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.

      Heh Kid’s handle better be dr0id or some shit: “give me an android terminal and I’ll hack the world”

    • cubedsteaks@lemmy.today
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      1 year ago

      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.

      that kid’s my hero

    • whofearsthenight@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      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.

    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      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?

      • LiveLM@lemmy.zip
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        1 year ago

        He used a rented server to hack Rockstar, the FireStick was merely a means to connect to it.

        • Tangent5280@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          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?

    • sokz@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      I feel guilty now because I bought a new monitor because my old screen space wasn’t cutting it.