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Sony hacking suspect smashes computers to get out of prosecution

P

Perkel

Banned
Why people are so confused about smashing entire PC not only HDD ?

He needed to destroy his shortcuts on monitor.

/s

As someone suggested i would put other HDD with full encryption and ton of cat pics.

OR

some smart script to create bilion folders with randomly generated files in them with randomly generated size of them. Each of folder would also include cat photo.
 
Koroviev

Koroviev

Member
Perkel said:
Why people are so confused about smashing entire PC not only HDD ?

He needed to destroy his shortcuts on monitor.

/s

As someone suggested i would put other HDD with full encryption and ton of cat pics.

OR

some smart script to create bilion folders with randomly generated files in them with randomly generated size of them. Each of folder would also include cat photo.
Click to expand...

Too much work compared to hack 'n smash.
 
A

Abandond

Member
(in response to three posts)

Nope, not a joke. I am very much against the jail system in the United States.

I did ask what he did, and if he stole information which caused people harm, then sure, jail time may be appropriate, but 20 years?
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
I H8 Memes said:
Zero fill data wipes take hours. He should have been using encryption.
Click to expand...

Not guaranteed to work in court though. Geohot had to allow decryption of his hard drives. Failure to decrypt would probably fall under obstruction as well.
 
M

MechaX

Member
The fact that he only got a year of house arrest (the guy actually could have gotten up to 20 years for obstruction of evidence too; it really depends on his past criminal history and other factors if the judge was really going to go for a substantial amount of sentencing time) shows that he probably wasn't likely to get anywhere close to 20 years in prison even if the prosecution brought the charges. Of course, the predicament here is that in order to support a lengthy sentencing, the FBI needed the hard drives. But this guy was most likely small-time.
 
M

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
Metalmurphy said:
Hurray for criminals! Way to go man!
Click to expand...

No one's siding with him, just appreciating his cleverness. Big difference. Although I do think 20 years is excessive. Maybe 2-3 years in prison would be more reasonable.


I still don't get how he'd even be convicted of obstruction, though. He destroyed his property before the warrant was served, right? Destroying your own property is not a crime.
 
M

MechaX

Member
Morrigan Targaryen said:
I still don't get how he'd even be convicted of obstruction, though. He destroyed his property before the warrant was served, right? Destroying your own property is not a crime.
Click to expand...

All that really matters is that he destroyed the hard drives while knowing that they would be used in some official proceeding later on down the line. Given how the FBI interviewed him specifically in regards to computer use, it would be a very tough argument to say that he was just destroying his own property just because.
 
V

Visualante2

Member
I love that scene in conspiracy theory where the guy torches his entire apartment without killing his neighbors.
MechaX said:
All that really matters is that he destroyed the hard drives while knowing that they would be used in some official proceeding later on down the line. Given how the FBI interviewed him specifically in regards to computer use, it would be a very tough argument to say that he was just destroying his own property just because.
Click to expand...
"I sold them to help pay for my legal costs"
 
V

Visualante2

Member
Mr.Monitor said:
What he did is the tech savvy thing to do. Especially if he didn't have much time beforehand.
Click to expand...
Yeah these arguments are incredibly dumb. Like keeping a murder weapon that you could in theory clean well enough to hopefully usurp forensics teams who have years of experience.
 
N

NoirVisage

Banned
FlyFaster said:
tumblr_lod1zmIXGB1qjs39r.gif


can't believe no one beat me to it
Click to expand...
neh, the context overpowers whatever statement you try to twist it into
 
F

flipswitch

Member
Chao said:
So they came in it was like:

-Are you hacking something right there? Because we don't like people hacking things!

-No sir, no hacking is being done

-Okay! We will be back to make sure, but don't smash those computers or anything because we won't have any proof if we find out you were hacking !
Click to expand...

I'm reading this in my chief wiggum voice.
 
Z

Zuly

Member
Honestly, if you were in that situation, you would try every possible and quickest method of getting rid of evidence. He made the right choice rather than risking himself of them finding traces of data.
 
5

5amshift

Banned
Best thing he could have done. I'm happy for him to get out of this that easily. The drives are probably microwaved, melted and buried somewhere. Or probably just at a stash house.
 
U

UntoldDreams

Member
Realistically he's on the FBI shit list for LIFE. He didn't get off free & clear. There's obvious and clear suspicion (smashing your stuff to hide evidence) which easily warrants him being closely monitored.

The moment he does something on a computer which crosses a line he's toast.

He still screwed himself into being monitored for a long time to come. NOT a position you want to be in as a professional in the field.
 
D

diaspora

Member
UntoldDreams said:
Realistically he's on the FBI shit list for LIFE. He didn't get off free & clear. There's obvious and clear suspicion (smashing your stuff to hide evidence) which easily warrants him being closely monitored.

The moment he does something on a computer which crosses a line he's toast.

He still screwed himself into being monitored for a long time to come. NOT a position you want to be in as a professional in the field.
Click to expand...

Versus 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 it seems like an obvious choice.
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
BrokenEchelon said:
You're going to house arrest a hacker?

Genius. Utterly genius.
Click to expand...

I'm sure there will be restrictions on his computer use.

Edit: A little more from the source article:
Miller, who has a ninth-grade education, told the judge that he was “immature and ignorant and caught up with the wrong people at the wrong time” when he destroyed the computers.

He said he has learned his lesson.

“You will not see me again,” he told Economus.

The judge also sentenced him to three years probation and ordered him to get his high-school equivalence certificate.
Click to expand...
 
B

BobTheFork

Member
It's not considered an act of guilt?

Obstruction I can understand but destroying the possible evidense against you seems damning.
 
R

Rubius

Member
WalkMan said:
He should be smart enough to run DBAN on the drives to overwrite them instead of playing his hand that he destroyed the drives. Anything over 3 wipe passes is pretty much irrecoverable.
Click to expand...

From what I understand from my IT class is that the FBI says that they can get up to 7 wipe and still get info out of HDD. Destroying HDD was bright, but I dont think they could have gotten info from the motherboard and the ram... I do wonder why.

Also, could the FBI realisticly get a broken HDD and "repair" it and get the data from it? Since its all Magnetic 1 and 0, could you simply "stamp" the piece and see the info from it? But in this case, I think they didnt find the HDD which is strange since the FBI was probably tracking him.
1289523002677Rje.jpg


8byte said:
What a coward, lol.
Click to expand...

Its not being a coward to run away from the lion when he's right behind you. He was smart.
 
E

eastmen

Banned
I have about 20 old hardrives in my shed. They all have 4 drill holes and were boiled in a pot of water over a fire pit. So if the fbi ever came to my house I simply have a history of disposing of old drives this way.

Also all my stuff is encypted.
 
U

Unknown One

Member
Was kind of hoping this guy goes to trial for what he have done. Releasing people's private information is just wrong. Sony is in the wrong too.
 
G

Gadirok

Member
ProfessorLobo said:
Yeah people like us we ain't ascared of prison.
Click to expand...

Can't do the time? Don't do the crime.


He obviously was brave enough to hack PSN or whatever he did, given that he felt it was necessary to destroy his harddrives and computers.

A innocent person wouldn't have done that. And more importantly, I'm pretty sure none of us would have liked to go to prison but we shouldn't exactly be going about things like that without any fear of consequence.

Kind of makes it unfair for the felon who killed someone, then expected to get off scott free by hiding the body.

Would people like in this thread be saying "smart". Probably not, since its the wrong thing to do.

Only difference is, this is the entertainment industry and most wouldn't consider it as severe as killing someone.


Regardless, these sort of actions should be condemned. Sure some may consider its putting some nameless corporation in their place but it also did a lot of damage in various ways.
 
P

Principate

Saint Titanfall
Gadirok said:
Can't do the time? Don't do the crime.


He obviously was brave enough to hack PSN or whatever he did, given that he felt it was necessary to destroy his harddrives and computers.

A innocent person wouldn't have done that. And more importantly, I'm pretty sure none of us would have liked to go to prison but we shouldn't exactly be going about things like that without any fear of consequence.

Kind of makes it unfair for the felon who killed someone, then expected to get off scott free by hiding the body.

Would people like in this thread be saying "smart". Probably not, since its the wrong thing to do.

Only difference is, this is the entertainment industry and most wouldn't consider it as severe as killing someone.


Regardless, these sort of actions should be condemned. Sure some may consider its putting some nameless corporation in their place but it also did a lot of damage in various ways.
Click to expand...

Yeah while this is true the chances of a large proportion in this thread having done something illegal online (downloaded an mp3, watched a movie, or any tv program etc) are pretty high I find it difficult to judge when I'm not exactly blameless, Of course some are worse than others but crimes are crimes.
 
P

Principate

Saint Titanfall
Crakatak187 said:
He might be responsible for leaking thousands of personal information. That does not equate to downloading anything.
Click to expand...

There is no equivalence but crimes are crimes you can be convicted for downloading things if caught guilty. I simply see it difficult to throw rocks when your not blameless. If you tell him to go to police to accept what he's done you really should have also told the police about everything you have remembered to have downloaded and watched.
 
S

squidyj

Member
Gadirok said:
Can't do the time? Don't do the crime.


He obviously was brave enough to hack PSN or whatever he did, given that he felt it was necessary to destroy his harddrives and computers.

A innocent person wouldn't have done that. And more importantly, I'm pretty sure none of us would have liked to go to prison but we shouldn't exactly be going about things like that without any fear of consequence.

Kind of makes it unfair for the felon who killed someone, then expected to get off scott free by hiding the body.

Would people like in this thread be saying "smart". Probably not, since its the wrong thing to do.

Only difference is, this is the entertainment industry and most wouldn't consider it as severe as killing someone.


Regardless, these sort of actions should be condemned. Sure some may consider its putting some nameless corporation in their place but it also did a lot of damage in various ways.
Click to expand...

did you just compare this guy to a murderer?
 
A

AlphaDump

Gold Member
destroying is the only way to be sure. Encryption is just a matter of time.

Solid State Drives are a completely different story, and need to be destroyed at the bit level, so not even typical shredding works.

if anyone were ever curious...
 
T

Treemonkeys

Member
Dude probably had nothing to do with it and just didn't want the FBI to see is torrents.

Also, they have a tool that can sometimes recover data from RAM, who here is really gonna bet 20 years on their armchair knowledge level of computer hardware?

Bunch of nerds who could never hack PSN going 'omg, why didn't he do ccleaner?' lololol
 
C

coldfoot

Banned
How much time was between the initial questioning and the warrant? The article makes it sound like weeks/days. Plenty of time to get new HDD's (I was upgrading my computer) and sell your old ones to an international buyer on eBay after zero filling them.

There would be no case if he had done that. None at all, just upgrading my PC and selling old parts to recover the cost, your honor.
 
T

Treemonkeys

Member
coldfoot said:
How much time was between the initial questioning and the warrant? The article makes it sound like weeks/days. Plenty of time to get new HDD's (I was upgrading my computer) and sell your old ones to an international buyer on eBay after zero filling them.

There would be no case if he had done that. None at all, just upgrading my PC and selling old parts to recover the cost, your honor.
Click to expand...

Yeah and for all you know the FBI comes back in an hour with a warrant...
 
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