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The Associated Press is reporting that Jordan Hamlett, a Louisiana private investigator and self-proclaimed benevolent "white hat" hacker, pleaded guilty on Monday to misusing Donald Trump's Social Security number in repeated attempts to access the president's federal tax information before the 2016 election. Hamlett faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine following his guilty plea in federal court.
A court document accompanying Hamlett's plea agreement says he used Trump's Social Security number and other personal information to open an online application for federal student aid on Sept. 13, 2016. After obtaining a username and password, he tried to use an Internal Revenue Service data retrieval tool to obtain Trump's tax information, the document says.
"The defendant made six separate attempts to obtain the federal tax information from IRS servers, but he was unsuccessful," says the document. It doesn't specify how much of Trump's tax information could have been retrieved with the online tool.
[..] Federal prosecutors had asked Judge James Brady to bar Hamlett's lawyer from presenting a trial defense that that he was acting as a benevolent "white hat" hacker. Brady, a senior federal judge who died Saturday at a Baton Rouge hospital, ruled last month that Hamlett couldn't testify that he had a "good purpose" in attempting to test security flaws in the website.
[... Defense attorney] Fiser said Hamlett liked to test security systems for weaknesses in his spare time and would notify system administrators if he found a system vulnerable to a security breach. Hamlett once discovered a security flaw that allowed for public access to the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office's "raw" reports on open investigations and exposed personal information about police officers.
source: Louisiana man admits misusing Trump's Social Security number
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday December 15 2017, @05:09AM (3 children)
It's an identifier, that's all, nothing more. Like a name, but more unique.
Replase SSN with "name" in the story, and there should be the same level of shock. Man tries to acquire Trump's tax information using Trump's name. If that's not a story, and not a court case, then this shouldn't be either. Unless the "hack" succeeds, of course.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday December 15 2017, @06:30AM (2 children)
Well, identifiers identify. That causes problems [aclu.org] in the US under the current system.
"Improper prying" was what this particular character tried to do.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday December 15 2017, @09:00AM (1 child)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday December 15 2017, @04:23PM
You only think you are disagreeing with me. What do you think I said in the first place? ;)