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Last year, a vigilante hacker broke into the servers of a company that sells spyware to everyday consumers and wiped their servers, deleting photos captured from monitored devices. A year later, the hacker has done it again.
Thursday, the hacker said he started wiping some cloud servers that belong to Retina-X Studios, a Florida-based company that sells spyware products targeted at parents and employers, but that are also used by people to spy on their partners without their consent.
[...] "None of this should be online at all," the hacker told Motherboard, claiming that he had deleted a total of 1 terabyte of data.
"Aside from the technical flaws, I really find this category of software disturbing. In the US, it's mainly targeted to parents," the hacker said, explaining his motivations for going after Retina-X. "Edward Snowden has said that privacy is what gives you the ability to share with the world who you are on your own terms, and to protect for yourself the parts of you that you're still experimenting with. I don't want to live in a world where younger generations grow up without that right."
[...] Retina-X was not the only spyware company hacked last year. Other hackers also breached FlexiSpy, an infamous provider of spyware that has actively marketed its apps to jealous lovers. At the time, the hackers promised that their two victims—FlexiSpy and Retina-X—were only the first in line, and that they would target more companies that sell similar products.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday February 21 2018, @03:43AM (11 children)
You can't really approve of breaking the law. But, I sure can't get upset over this.
Mercenary bastards are willing to spy on people for pay. The average computer user can't figure out how to do much more than click "agree" on installations. They are intimidated by anything with a CLI. But, they can pay someone for a program and support, sit back, and feel like James Bond while they watch the most intimate details of another person's life unfold. I suppose that sometimes playing James Bond might be justified. If that be so - maybe they should go get a judge to approve of a warrant for spying?
I'm sure this whole thing has an effect on people's attitudes toward government spying. "Hey, for a few bucks, I can spy on anyone - why shouldn't government?"
Hail to the Nibbler in Chief.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 21 2018, @03:49AM (8 children)
If the law is bad, then I sure as hell do approve of breaking it. No, selectively approving of certain forms of law-breaking won't lead to anarchy-like scenario where people are being murdered in the streets in massive numbers, just to preempt anyone who might want to make that blatantly absurd claim yet again. Yes, it would be better for bad laws to be removed, but in the mean time, I don't care if people break those laws.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday February 21 2018, @03:58AM (7 children)
- laws.
Martin Luther King, "Letter from a Birmingham jail"
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by TheGratefulNet on Wednesday February 21 2018, @04:05AM (6 children)
I judge EACH and every law and decide FOR MYSELF if its worth obeying or not.
see, I'm not a robot. to blindly follow orders is so... - well - I won't complete that thought.
I do find it funny that conservatives will usually be on the side of blindly following laws. they love the authority concept.
I DON'T.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 4, Insightful) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday February 21 2018, @06:37AM (2 children)
I too use my own conscience.
The law exists to force an artificial conscience on those who have none.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Spamalope on Wednesday February 21 2018, @04:08PM (1 child)
The law exists to force an artificial conscience on those who have none.
Or to prohibit moral behavior for the benefit of those with no conscience.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 21 2018, @06:49PM
The law exists to keep the proletariat in their place.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by acid andy on Wednesday February 21 2018, @12:03PM
Yes and in many cases a whole lot of behaviors that are legal but immoral are condoned or even encouraged.
No fuc|<s given.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by acid andy on Wednesday February 21 2018, @12:14PM
I should add that it's not necessarily just conservatives. There are lefty authoritarians too. Also, authoritarians love other people being made to follow their laws. The laws do not apply to the authoritarians themselves or their best buddies.
No fuc|<s given.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @11:59AM
Sorry, but this is a recipe for disaster. If everyone considered any law they disliked as optional...
What makes a society cohesive is the common trust we have in the order of the society. Anarchy betrays that.
Abraham Lincoln had the better answer than MLK.
"The fastest way to repeal a bad law is to enforce it strictly."
If the law is truly unjust, the body politic will revolt against it.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Wednesday February 21 2018, @03:56AM
Yes, I can.
With the note that, bottom line, my approval may mean next to nothing when it comes to bearing the consequences of the act itself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 3, Insightful) by FakeBeldin on Wednesday February 21 2018, @01:28PM
I can. We (you, me, others here) shouldn't be building this stuff.
This is not some weird dictatorship in a far-off south-east Asian country. This is a Florida, USA based firm that makes spyware.
Computers are everywhere and are handling more and more of our daily lives. Those of us that have the knowledge to program these machines to do things, have an obligation to consider the impact of their work on society. Those of us who teach this knowledge, have a duty to teach our students to be able to recognise these situations, so that they can ask such questions of themselves, their company and their clients.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday February 21 2018, @03:55AM (3 children)
I wrote Last Resort, a keystroke record for Macs. I got a lot of fan mail from aspiring writers. I went to a lot of trouble to make it obvious to the user
One of MacUsers editors told me he was quite happy that Last Resort ratted on his girlfriend. She was using email to carry on with her other man
I was completely mortified
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 21 2018, @04:03AM
Good for him
(Score: 3, Insightful) by captain normal on Wednesday February 21 2018, @05:40AM (1 child)
It's ok Mike, we forgive you. Just be careful about what you do in the future. :-))
"It is easier to fool someone than it is to convince them that they have been fooled" Mark Twain
(Score: 5, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday February 21 2018, @06:36AM
I once wrote a database kernel for a hedge fund. My kernel is now part of a quantitative investment program. I like to call it "A License To Print Money". As a result of my contribution that program can print money twice as fast.
Having that on my resume resulted in countless solicitations to apply to bloomberg and solomon-page to work on Sub-Millisecond Precision High-Speed Trading.
That sub-millisecond precision trading code is a thing is why we really did need to Occupy Wall Street.
From time to time a proposal is floated to create a punitive, very-short-term capital gains tax, which would go a long ways toward solving the problem but so far it's never gained traction.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 21 2018, @04:20AM
To bad garbage. Even if only temporarily.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday February 21 2018, @04:35AM (6 children)
If we all posted our social security numbers online identity theft would be a thing of the past
518-92-8663
You would really help me out if you sent my ssn to all your friends
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Wednesday February 21 2018, @05:46AM (5 children)
Reminds me of a friend I had years ago. He would give out his SSN to illegal immigrants so they would have a tax number. He figured it would add to his Social Security account. I never asked how he expected to get around to explaining income from many employers at the same time.
"It is easier to fool someone than it is to convince them that they have been fooled" Mark Twain
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday February 21 2018, @06:38AM (4 children)
I have some friends who could translate my site to Spanish.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 21 2018, @07:34AM (3 children)
Stop lying. You don't have any friends.
You're here on SN. QED.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday February 21 2018, @07:37AM (2 children)
He was a schoolmate at Caltech.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 21 2018, @09:55AM (1 child)
A friend in Gresham.
Is that like having a Canadian girlfriend?
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday February 21 2018, @07:51PM
It's not true what they depict on South Park, where Canadians talk like two halves of a coconut
However they really do say "aboot", and they really will deny it if you point it out to them
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 21 2018, @11:31AM (1 child)
For all the good he did the society.
Status quo is a bitch. [imgur.com]
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday February 21 2018, @05:59PM
But it would have been better if he'd just corrupted the data, say replacing email addresses with those of politicians, etc.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.