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Sony hacking suspect smashes computers to get out of prosecution
- Thread starter mentalfloss
- Start date
TheRagnCajun
Member
So if the FBI started asking you about your computer, you wouldn't be tempted to smash it to bits?
StalkerUKCG
Banned
Yes because hackers are pedophiles and bestiality nuts. Go away. 20 years in prison and £250,000 is enough for anyone to smash up a few computers and bury some hard drives.
It's not like he wouldn't have had to say goodbye to his computer(s) anyways.
They would have been confiscated by the feds, so either way, he was going to have to lose thousands of dollars in computer hardware.
Hell, if you're caught with drugs in your car, the state could confiscate your vehicle (not just impound it).
They would have been confiscated by the feds, so either way, he was going to have to lose thousands of dollars in computer hardware.
Hell, if you're caught with drugs in your car, the state could confiscate your vehicle (not just impound it).
Koroviev
Member
crazepharmacist
Member
I don't think so. Harddrives are really durable. Even dropping it in water likely won't destroy it. Sure fire way would format then do a 35 system pass with a drive wiper and then to be doubly sure smash it with a hammer making sure to get the platters and then dump the pieces into various dumpsters.
I'll be sure to film you
I didn't say the burden of proof to proof he destroyed the evidence would go away. I said I would raise the penalty of destruction of evidence.Actually, it would be quite easy. It is really for hard drives to be at 0 or 1. They're usually at values like 0,4 or 0,8 which will be read as 0 or 1. A 0 in the middle of 5 1s will have a certain residual value.
CambriaRising
Member
Really? No jail time for breaking in and stealing personal information? None?
He stole personal information(including possibly credit cards) of millions of people. That's definitely worth 20 years.
dorkimoe
Gold Member
Facing 20 years? I would smash my house
Something to hide?
Shhhhhhhh, no cops plz XD
Oh, that's pretty crazy how durable they are. Sounds like a ton of work. Do strong magnets do anything to destroy data?
Also, it seems like the FBI will be tailing that guy for a long time. It would be smart of him to just make sure he never retrieves the HDDs since they'll probably storm on him as soon as he acquires them again.
Foxy Fox 39
Banned
how does HDs hold up to fire. Cause kid just smash n burn.
YouEnjoyMySelf
Banned
Looks like Garry's Mod.
Guy was smart and got himself out of a possible 20 years. It's so true that 10-15 years ago these guys would be hired for their ability.
Wickerbasket
Member
A year of house arrest?
So basically, life as usual for the guy then.
So basically, life as usual for the guy then.
You have the right idea, but the problem is bits are set using magnetism. Even when the drive writes a bit to zero there is still residual positive magnetism on that sector; not enough to where the drive itself will incorrectly read that the bit is a one, but a residual trace that data recovery equipment and software can detect and use to read a zero-written drive. That's why you see everyone talking about multiple pass formats, where the drive sets everything to one and then zero (or random ones and zeroes) over and over again until those traces of the original data can no longer be detected.
Dark Octave
Banned
What evidence? What were the hdds evidence of?
If they were never analysed and their contents documented, they aren't evidence, only avenues of exploration.
There is no proven destruction of evidence in this case. You are advocating for people to have long sentences based on mere suspicion.
VivaciousSoul
Member
So I'm twenty something now, add twenty years that makes forty something. I can't imagine what it would be like getting locked up in 1993 and coming out today. So much happens in a single year. I would've set those platters on fire. They'd burn until whatever I was burning them in ceased to exist.
davepoobond
you can't put a price on sparks
The crime was already committed
BibiMaghoo
Member
This. Formatting a drive does not remove the data that was on it, only the directory of where the data is held.
dragonelite
Member
In our cyber crime classes the teacher said if you throw away a hdd just fucking demolish the thing.
If you wrote everything to 0 multiple times would that pull all the values closer to an absolute 0?
Even without doing that I have a hard time understanding how they can tell what the value was in the past. It seems like that would take a lot of assumptions. I know I could/should do some research on my own, but I am just trying to get the "in a nutshell" version of how they move backwards with any sort of court-permissible accuracy. Do they assume that every magnetic value moved the same amount from it's previous position and then adjust it back accordingly?
The more I think about it it really wouldn't be too difficult to make several assumptions and test them all (moving back to the known state before trying another one). After moving the bit values up or down they way you have assumed you could just test for readable data to see if your thinking was correct. When this is all done in an automated process it wouldn't be too bad.
Koroviev
Member
I think the general consensus is "smash it and burn it." Sure, there are other, less outwardly destructive solutions.... But we want to be sure
Quicksilver4648
Member
Multiple people in here are saying this. The thing is that the FBI was never able to analyze the hard drives so it would be impossible to say that he ever tampered with evidence; as there was no evidence yet. He removed the HDDs and destroyed his computers before the FBI could issue a warrant and that is not illegal. I can destroy all of my computer equipment right now and no crimes will have been omitted. If the FBI had already claimed his computers to be evidence AND THEN he destroyed everything it would have resulted in him being charged with tampering with evidence and that can have an unpleasant jail sentence. But, he was able to prevent any potential evidence from being collected which is why he could only be charged with obstruction of justice. You can't tamper with evidence that doesn't yet exist.
tl;dr: The FBI could have still charged him with hacking Sony's network in a federal court but his defense attorneys would have simply said "where is the evidence to support this accusation?" and he would have gotten off. Being put under house arrest for obstruction of justice is probably the best they could have charged him with without evidence.
Just smashing it would suffice.
If a disc has even a small hole where data would be, that data is irrevocably lost (and if it was attached to other sectors of the image, that data would likely be inaccessible as well).
If you wanted to actually get rid of the data without destroying the drive, you would have to do a 0 pass, but that takes a lot longer.
daaaayyyyuuumm.
Holy hell! L-O-L!
bigdaddygamebot
Member
Jesus...are you for real?
RumblingRosco
Member
He should have RMA'd them. That's what I do when I want to make sure I never see my hardware, or any replacement hardware, ever again.
I'm surprised it took this long for someone to think of this. Fuck messing around with geeky shit. Just get that HHH hammer and go to work!
I would have removed the HDD and DDR5 and smashed it like I was smashing in Cameron Diaz's backdoor and burned it to cinders and then replaced the drive and RAM quick time before the feds returned.
I would have removed the HDD and DDR5 and smashed it like I was smashing in Cameron Diaz's backdoor and burned it to cinders and then replaced the drive and RAM quick time before the feds returned.
Koroviev
Member
The voices in my head said it was necessary.
And no one would witness you going to the parts store....
HACK THE PLANET
Evolution_1ne
Banned
Lmao I remember that scene, didn't he have like microwave emitters
Innocent unless proven guilty.
Sorry, that's a pet peeve of mine. The word until implies that the suspect will eventually be found guilty.
Carry on...
Or that's exactly why he did it? He knew they would be able to recover the data if he did practically anything else, which was also far less time consuming.
Went to get some CPU lube! No crime against that! Or send a kid off a street corner to get me some HDD goodness...what was the time frame anyway? If it was a case of we'll be back in an hour then I would do what the kid did.
I ain't gonna wait around and be butt raped by the feds and bubba down at county! Fuck dat shit!
I H8 Memes
Member
Zero fill data wipes take hours. He should have been using encryption.
Trogdor1123
Member
Is this a joke?