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from the shades-of-"Weev"-and-Aaron-Swartz dept.
Thanks in part to America’s ill-defined hacking laws, prosecutors have enormous discretion to determine a hacker defendant’s fate. But in one young Texan’s case in particular, the Department of Justice stretched prosecutorial overreach to a new extreme: about 440 years too far.
Last week, prosecutors in the Southern District of Texas reached a plea agreement with 28-year-old Fidel Salinas, in which the young hacker with alleged ties to members of Anonymous consented to plead guilty to a misdemeanor count of computer fraud and abuse and pay $10,000 in restitution. The U.S. attorney’s office omitted one fact from its press release about that plea ( http://www.justice.gov/usao/txs/1News/Releases/2014%20November/141120%20-%20Salinas.html ), however: Just months ago, Salinas had been charged with not one, but 44 felony counts of computer fraud and cyberstalking—crimes that each carry a 10-year maximum sentence; adding up to an absurd total of nearly a half a millennium of prison time.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Monday December 01 2014, @03:40AM
Hairyfeet:
The business owner and the glazier are apt to have two completely different perceptions of the kids running around breaking windows.
I have been messing with these things since they first came out. Even built and programmed my IMSAI 8080 from a box of discrete parts.
Yes, I probably picked up that rootkit while trying to find out the nasty little secrets others know that I am ignorant of. One does not find that kind of info, unless its some sort of computer security classes taught to government investigators or industry insiders paying for the "first call". I scrounge all over the net trying to find it, so at least I can get some idea of what I am up against instead of calling someone else in to charge me to reload Windows. I have had it with what passes as "computer repair".
My system seems so Rube Goldbergian and of the likes of Ptolemy, who had conceived of immensely complex planes of spheres rotating within spheres to describe the motions of the planets. I see all sorts of stuff done in software that should be done in hardware, and vice versa, but is not done that way in the name of legacy or implementation of proprietary business models.
I believe the Commodore64 paradigm was the way to go. All the basic stuff was in ROM. Yes, one could still have rogueware, but it would really be a trick to make it persistent. One could cycle power to the machine, reboot and go directly to a debugging program, which would scan your work disk for any known malware without the malware on the work disk being able to grab control and hide.
I believe this stuff we have today is way too fragile knowing the threats of determined people out there deliberately crafting code to cause destruction.
A business may have several thousand POS machines rendered useless by just one determined hacker that is onto the secret handshake that bricks the interface chip that opens the cash drawer or reads the credit card.
You may make your living fixing these problems... therefore experiences like mine is income to you.
For me, these problems are a big pain in the ass. And I believe most of them are the result of bad workmanship resulting from trying to be everything to everybody.
I know our computing infrastructure can be made way more elegant than what it is. Just as Copernicus knew Ptolemy was barking up the wrong tree. Things fell so neatly into place when we realized we weren't the center of the universe.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]