from the if-he-wasn't-guilty,-why-would-they-arrest-him? dept.
TorrentFreak is reporting that Pirate Bay founder Gottfrid Svartholm has been found guilty of hacking crimes by a Danish court.
After being arrested in his Cambodian apartment in September 2012 it took two years before Gottfrid Svartholm went on trial in Denmark.
The Swede and his 21-year-old co-defendant stood accused of hacking computer mainframes operated by US IT giant CSC. It developed into the largest case of its kind ever seen in the Scandinavian country.
The prosecution insisted that Gottfrid and his Danish accomplice, both experts in computer security, had launched hacker attacks against CSC back in April 2012 and maintained access to those systems until August that same year.
The defense claimed it was a case of mistaken identity and that others had carried out the crimes, remotely accessing Gottfrid’s computer after comprising its security.
All three judges and four of six jurors returned guilty verdicts. Two jurors voted to acquit after concluding that the remote access defense could not be ruled out.
Following his extradition from Sweden, Gottfrid has spent 11 months behind bars in Denmark. His Danish accomplice, who refused to give evidence to the police and maintained silence right up until his trial in September, has spent 17 months in jail.
(Score: 2) by zugedneb on Friday October 31 2014, @01:09AM
wanted to write something about enforcing some software "warranty" or "fitness for purpose", and an politically mandated exodus to mathematically proven/verifiable libraries and languages, but meh...
"The prosecution insisted that Gottfrid and his Danish accomplice, both experts in computer security..."
This statement makes it sound as if there were more to it than just patience and stamina for picking apart shitty software and looking for flaws...
yeah, cost blah blah consumer base blah more cost blah also even more cost blah blah feasibility blah profit margin blah blah etc... (blah)
old saying: "a troll is a window into the soul of humanity" + also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Friday October 31 2014, @01:18PM
This is total fear of hackers being allowed free reign. And shooting the messenger. What I find telling is that these 2 "hackers" had already been jailed for 11 months and 17 months respectively, before they received a trial. I wonder how much of this unfair treatment was inspired by their association with the Pirate Bay?
What about CSC? I suspect they did the usual thing many big organizations do, neglect security. It's laughable sometimes how bad the neglect is. Like, using "password" for the password, or not even setting a password. Organizations ought to be told that they can't lean on the law to prop up their inadequate security. They shouldn't get to leave the front door wide open, with an "open house" sign in the yard, and then if entered, get to call it a breach and whistle and have the police jump up and go ape searching for and arresting intruders. I've heard of cases in which the organization tried to claim that accessing their public website was an intrusion.
One time many years ago when I was using a school's dial up service to connect, somehow the system logged me into another person's account. I wasn't trying to hack in, this was just a glitch in the system. Think it happens when someone forgets to logout before disconnecting, or gets disconnected. I simply logged out whoever it was, hung up and tried to connect again to my account. And kept quiet about it. Doubtful anyone else even knew about that incident.