Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Monday June 25 2018, @09:27AM   Printer-friendly
from the enjoy-your-vacation dept.

The Bitcoin Baron, a self-proclaimed vigilante responsible for DDoS attacks on civic networks in Madison, Wisc., San Marcos, Texas, and other sites in 2015, has been collared in Phoenix and sentenced to serve 20 months in prison.

The conviction and sentencing is only for the former attack, in which Randall Charles Tucker, who was 20 at the time, disabled the City of Madison’s website for six days, crippled the 911 emergency communication system and degraded the emergency service dispatch system. He went on to boast about the attacks on social media, according to the court documents, and on Skype chats in his gaming community.

The attack’s motivation is unclear, but it came shortly after a fatal shooting of a 19-year-old unarmed black man by a Madison police officer sparked outrage. Police brutality soon became a recurring theme for Tucker.

[...] The hacker pleaded guilty in April of last year to one count of intentional damage to a protected computer, in Madison.

In addition to the jail time, U.S. District Judge Douglas L. Rayes of the District of Arizona also ordered Tucker to pay $69,331.56 in restitution.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday June 26 2018, @02:07PM (4 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 26 2018, @02:07PM (#698757) Journal

    I'm beginning to understand why we cannot see eye to eye on what constitutes brutality.

    No, you aren't.

    You flippantly discount extortion equating it with protesting.

    No, I didn't. Words have meaning. "Protest" doesn't mean "absence of extortion". It means such things as:

    a statement or action expressing disapproval of or objection to something.

    Extortion can indeed be an action expressing such. I think that was the case with this story.

    Why do you identify only with criminals? Did you do some time?

    Because I don't want my society to devolve to the point where freedom-loving people become the criminals.

    Personally, I think this guy is a piece of shit.

    I agree. I don't agree that we should abandon our laws and freedoms merely because there are pieces of shit in our societies.

    He had better hope he was wrong in his broad painting of law enforcement for his own sake.

    He's not. We all know that in too many cases they're just another gang, particularly in prisons. Maybe he'll end up somewhere where they take their job seriously, but odds are good that he won't.

    You ignore the scores of innocent bystander victims who could not reach 911 services during this scumbag's "protest." Your only concern lies with his treatment at the hands of his fellow convicts that you want to conflate with guard responsibility as though it were being directed by guards.

    It is directed by the guards. The general population will figure out real fast who isn't protected, assuming the guards don't tell everyone in the first place. And once again, I find your cognitive dissonance interesting. You complain of the people harmed by Mr. Baron, but not of the people harmed by prison guards every day. Well, guess what happens when laws can be broken whenever it's convenient. You get a tyranny of thugs who are above those laws.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26 2018, @06:28PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26 2018, @06:28PM (#698889)

    a statement or action expressing disapproval of or objection to something.

    Extortion can indeed be an action expressing such. I think that was the case with this story.

    Yeah, I think we're done here. If you cannot discern that extortion (for personal enrichment) is not protest, we have no common ground.

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday June 26 2018, @10:34PM (2 children)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 26 2018, @10:34PM (#698994) Journal

      Yeah, I think we're done here. If you cannot discern that extortion (for personal enrichment) is not protest, we have no common ground.

      Sorry, the discernment problem is not on my end. Words have meaning. It's not my problem that you can't wrap your head around what "protest" means. I gave you the definition, described how acts of extortion can fit in, and you're still blathering. The same problem goes on with all the other things we've talked about. You're talking not thinking. What more should I do here?

      Fortunately, stupidity is extremely varied. Sure, you have a bunch of fellow idiots who believe the same things you do. But you all are countered by other idiots with different beliefs going in different screwy directions. It's noise in the end. I think we can continue to protect our democracies of the world from you, should we desire it. Ending police brutality (in a legal way rather than a disrupt 911 way) is a big step to making that future possible.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 27 2018, @12:51AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 27 2018, @12:51AM (#699052)

        When you chose your name, you misspelled callow.

        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday June 27 2018, @02:42AM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday June 27 2018, @02:42AM (#699083) Journal
          Sounds like you got nothing to say. Too bad it took you so long to figure that out.


          Third, repeatedly and boastfully milks the irony of what's going to happen to a guy who allegedly protested police brutality in prison due to criminal actions of prison guards. Somehow that prison guard brutality (sorry, allowing proxy inmates to brutalize someone on your behalf is still your brutality) is going to persuade Mr. Baron that police brutality is not a big thing? That's absurd.

          At this point, I think the thread is officially over. The nutso side is reduced to hurling empty insults and I've said my piece. May you, AC, learn through good fortune rather than bad the utter folly of your present beliefs.