thesuperfunk
Member
Guys like this would have been straight into a top job years ago ... now they're all doing time!
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Sony hacking suspect smashes computers to get out of prosecution
- Thread starter mentalfloss
- Start date
I fail to see what smashing the computers accomplished other than making him look like a panicking guilty idiot. You'd think someone involved in something as serious as bringing down PSN would have a clear backup plan also, but I mean wrongly accused or not I'm sure he had something on that HDD that he didn't want them to see. Get out of 20 years of prison only to get slammed with a bunch of other charges.
Either way I wonder if he knows how to properly destroy a hard drive? You can recover data from some surprisingly damaged drives, just a matter of cost. And I doubt he has a hard drive shredder lying around.
Either way I wonder if he knows how to properly destroy a hard drive? You can recover data from some surprisingly damaged drives, just a matter of cost. And I doubt he has a hard drive shredder lying around.
d00d3n
Member
Add me to the list of dumbfounded people. So the guy is questioned by the FBI, who don't execute a search warrant for his stuff, and when they much later ask for his hard drives he does not have access to them. Is this obstruction of justice? Or is it incriminating that he confessed to smashing his drives (if I understand things correctly)? What if the drives were encrypted, would that also have been obstruction of justice?
One year in house arrest is not leniency, it is a very harsh sentence. The guy is also a felon now, I guess, which is not a joke.
One year in house arrest is not leniency, it is a very harsh sentence. The guy is also a felon now, I guess, which is not a joke.
Principate
Saint Titanfall
They couldn't convict so his job was perfectly fine.
With a hammer lol
blitzcloud
Banned
it saved him up to 20 years in prison. I'd say that's enough reason.
Mithos
Member
Okay, I know these look like computers... Totally not.
Principate
Saint Titanfall
Of course it isn't, It's pretty obvious to them that he had done something illegal so they weren't going to let him get off scot free they're not that stupid. But comparative to $250,000 and 20 years this is nothing. even 5 or year 10 years is bad enough but 20 is something else.
That's what I was thinking. While the FBI was there in 2011 they catalogued his stuff. Without the necessary warrant to search it they did the next best thing. Then a 'contingency' workstation would have been useless because they knew about everything else.
Uh, I'm pretty sure it doesn't.
Jake Tower
Banned
In contrast, Jeff Skilling, the architect of the criminal enterprise known as Enron, received 24 years in prison, and will likely only serve 10. Ken Lay, the other architect, avoided prison by faking his own death.
Mr_Antimatter
Member
In some cases it does. If someone subpenas your drives, and then you erase them, it's considered guilt in many cases.
Kazuma Kiryu
Member
"FBI, open the door"
"OH SHIT"
oh man, i'm dying here. where is this gif from?
Pureauthor
Member
The issue is that he junked them before anything official was filed. So...
Weltall Zero
Member
20 years and 250k$ seems batshit crazy for this, unless he gathered and sold credit card info. Also a hilarious contrast with how Hollywood glamorizes hackers all the time.
He knew he was under investigation and destroyed all his computers. I don't know, but I don't tend to destroy all my computers when I have no replacements.
Just like everyone who uses TrueCrypt... *rollseyes*
NekoFever
Member
Implies. Doesn't prove. Innocent until proven guilty.
flintstryker
Banned
Not how the law works bro
Vermillion
Banned
It froze up while he was typing a paper and... well, he kind of lost it.
crazepharmacist
Member
How does dban compare to CCleaners "wipe free space" tool? They have 1, 3, 7, and 35 passes. I imagine it's the same thing?
Principate
Saint Titanfall
That doesn't mean he was covering for himself. That's the issue a person may not destroy evidence because they are guilty but due to self interest, (saving someone else saving something you have a stake in but not criminally a part of etc), they just don't know, so there's instances where they can't charge you just for that.
NekoFever
Member
DBAN's a standalone bootable thing that can entirely wipe any drive attached to a system. But yeah, the function they're performing is the same thing.
"No one was ever convicted on a hunch."
Those are a tremendous amount of conclusions you are jumping to. Sweating and stuttering could also be signs of guilt. Maybe he is overly conscious about security it could be argued, maybe he was letting off some stream like the printer beatdown in Office Space. If you have bad credit, insurers imply that you are also a bad driver... see where all this is going?
d00d3n
Member
I understand that they are motivated to charge him, but this kind of prosecution overreach will backfire big time in a couple of years. I am looking forward to see how the FBI and DOJ gather digital evidence in the future when every ssd drive is hardware encrypted with aes-256 or better (where the drive can be rendered as useless as if it was smashed with a hammer in a couple of seconds with a button press).
If he's into computers half as much as your average GAFer, house arrest doesn't sound like much of a punishment. It sounds like... Tuesday. I'm surprised they didn't include something along the lines of being prohibited from accessing the internet or owning a computer or something for the duration of his sentence.
Quicksilver4648
Member
A lot of people in here are calm and collective and using hindsight to say how they would have handled this situation. But, you have to think about it as if you were this guy. The FBI shows up at your door and asks you questions but because they don't have a warrant aren't able to collect anything. He was facing up to 20 years and 250k fine. I doubt he even had to think for half a second on what he needed to do. He smashed anything and everything that could have held a log of events. He probably even destroyed his router. Without any evidence they couldn't prosecute him on hacking so the best they could is charge for is obstruction of justice which resulted in house arrest. Destruction of potential evidence might imply guilt to you and I but if you don't have evidence in the court room then there you can't prove anything. There is a reason why prosecutors are able charge obstruction of justice, evidence is a requirement.
Also, reformatting a hard drive does absolutely nothing but tell the computer that a previously reserved memory sector can now be overwritten. When you clear out your recycling bin or trash folder that data is still very much present. Unless the computer actively overwrites that precise sector again (which can very rare on large hard drives) it will still remain. If you ever want a 100% method to confirm your old data is gone then multiple hammer swings, drill holes, and grinding is required.
As per why he destroyed his HDD-less computers? My guess is that he simply wanted to be sure nothing could be matched to him. He didn't know what the FBI knew about him but he did know what was at stake. Maybe they could trace back which motherboard serial number he had, which RAM type, which OS serial key, I don't know. He could replace a $1000-2000 PC over time but can't replace 20 years in jail.
Also, reformatting a hard drive does absolutely nothing but tell the computer that a previously reserved memory sector can now be overwritten. When you clear out your recycling bin or trash folder that data is still very much present. Unless the computer actively overwrites that precise sector again (which can very rare on large hard drives) it will still remain. If you ever want a 100% method to confirm your old data is gone then multiple hammer swings, drill holes, and grinding is required.
As per why he destroyed his HDD-less computers? My guess is that he simply wanted to be sure nothing could be matched to him. He didn't know what the FBI knew about him but he did know what was at stake. Maybe they could trace back which motherboard serial number he had, which RAM type, which OS serial key, I don't know. He could replace a $1000-2000 PC over time but can't replace 20 years in jail.
Sweating and stuttering are things you can't control, destruction of evidence is something you do as a conscious choice.
It could if they raised the penalty of obstruction of justice to the same punishment as the crime itself.
Principate
Saint Titanfall
Pretty sure some prisons how you access to a computer.
That's not what I was saying though, I know prisons have computers. What I'm saying is that in similar crimes like this, they usually include a stipulation that the person is denied access to computers or internet access. Perhaps because they can't get him for anything except destruction of evidence, that extra punishment can be solidly argued against (i.e. "He didn't do anything wrong with his computers that you can prove, so why are you denying him access to computers?".
Dunno. I've heard of it happening before and wondered if they tried it here.
It's pretty easy to run CCleaner or similar programs and do a 32-pass erase.
But if I was in his shoes I would of smashed the hell out of my computer and router anyways. Fuck, I would have set it on fire.
Danny Dudekisser
I paid good money for this Dynex!
Alright, Phoenix Wright, let's not go overboard.
Hours of work with no guarantee that it will be sufficient and also no guarantee that your erase will be finished before they return or 30 minutes of blissful destruction.
"FBI, open the door"
"OH SHIT"
lol love it
no one ever posted this?
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2013/04/watch-the-alleged-lulzsec-leader-sing-along-to-grease-yes-really/
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2013/04/watch-the-alleged-lulzsec-leader-sing-along-to-grease-yes-really/
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It'd probably be sufficient enough, and what I was saying is that yes you can actually do a clean erase on a hard drive with software.
Although if I was in his shoes I would've destroyed my equipment as well.
edit: It says that his hard drives were no where to be found. I wonder how he got rid of them.
Fried Food
Banned
who wouldn't have done that?
anexanhume
Member
Zero fill those bitches 20 times.
I just told the FBI you killed Jimmy Hoffa. I'll be over in 20 minutes to destroy all your knives and take them to a remote dumpster. Enjoy prison!
H_Prestige
Banned
Becoming a criminal...over video games. Damn.
Metalmurphy
Member
Hurray for criminals! Way to go man!
jediyoshi
Member
Evidence + Destroyed = Destroyed Evidence