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Original author of the story here... Just to add that 1. yes, the reporting on Le Roux's childhood is more tentative based on a family source (well backed up by
by myrbergs_army 11y ago
Original author of the story here... Just to add that 1. yes, the reporting on Le Roux's childhood is more tentative based on a family source (well backed up by docs and images sent to me). But the fact that the same Le Roux created E4M which formed the basis of TrueCrypt is something I think I've established definitively, company and site registration trails show it very firmly (and PLR himself admits it in court, but that comes in a later part of my story). And 2. for the _very_ interested, TC is actually just a small part of Le Roux's story, of which we've released three of seven parts (weekly on Thursdays). I know, TL;DR, it's a lot.
- Cyph0n 11y agoAbsolutely excellent reporting and writing. I'll start reading the other 2 parts now.
- 12981238129 11y agoIt's light years away from the New Yorker, in style, facts, and content. I would not be surprised if it's a false alarm, like the Satoshi "exposure".
- mirimir 11y agoAren't you nervous about doxxing someone like that so thoroughly?
- omginternets 11y agoYeah, I'd like to know the answer to this as well. Do you think their might be repercussions for this? If not, why? If so, how has this affected you?
- tptacek 11y agoIsn't "doxxing people" the actual job of a journalist?
- clinta 11y agoDoes that make it okay? Do the reasons we find it socially unacceptable in other instances apply to journalists?
- 794CD01 11y agoNot everyone finds it socially unacceptable.
- analognoise 11y agoThe same can be said about cannibalism.
- 794CD01 11y agoYes, it can. What's your point?
- tptacek 11y agoWho finds it socially unacceptable? Redditors?
- danielweber 11y agoReddit is hardly the only place. Off the top of my head, Twitter has rules against it, too. NB: I'm not claiming these rules are good or bad. But it's not like only freaks that are members of The Other have concerns about doxxing.
- patio11 11y agoPolice officers, almost universally. Abortionists. Parents of little children, frequently. "This guy we pictured in front of a gay bar." Many people who find themselves targeted by one of the (numerous) Internet hate machines. Elected officials. Unelected officials. Anyone involved in a contract negotiation with the Teamsters. People who take substantial efforts so that ex-romantic partners do not discover where they live because of a well-founded fear that that ex-partner would attempt to murder them. Television personalities. People who recently won the lottery. People named Adolf Hitler (no, not that one). There exist numerous reasons to not love the idea of one's personal information, particularly regarding one's work or home, put out there broadly, particularly when it is attached to information one does not control and/or in a circumstance which would tend to show it to people who do not respect standard middle class norms of detachment. Redditors did not invent concern over this issue. Many of the people with strong concerns about it are demographically dissimilar to the modal Redditor. Edit to add: It occasionally happens that journalists will transgress upon society's norms in this area and persons sympathetic to the aggrevied parties will transgress back. I have not heard a journalist say, in response to that "OK, fair commentary, wot wot." This often comes up in the context "We have published gun owners' addresses because the public has a right to know who owns guns." "We have published your address because the public has a right to know who writes newspapers." I feel like I've read that story ~5 times over the years. First Googleable citation: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/07/nyregion/after-pinpointing-gun-owners-journal-news-is-a-target.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/07/nyregion/after-pinpointing...
- myrbergs_army 11y agoAs tptacek says, I don't view reporting like this as "doxxing." As the series hopefully shows, Le Roux was a hugely newsworthy figure for many different reasons, so reporting his background and how he got there is part of understanding where he is now. As for being nervous, many of the major players in the story are in US custody, and perhaps somewhat counterintuitively a lot of people involved want to tell their part of the story. If they have beefs, they are typically with each other not with me. I do try to be careful, though.
- mirimir 11y agoTo me, it's just semantics. Let's say that someone published this much information about you. And let's say that they had whatever justifications. That there was widespread agreement that it was OK. Whatever. How would you feel?
- landryraccoon 11y agoAre moral rules situationally dependent on the personal feelings of the person subject to those rules? I would hate to be in jail, but I think it's morally and ethically valid to put people in jail in certain circumstances. Similarly I think that politicians and public figures should be subject to a high degree of scrutiny and transparency about their personal lives, even though I personally wouldn't enjoy such treatment.
- mirimir 11y agoBy "feel", I meant more what you might feel justified in doing about it. The key "moral rule" for me is to only mess with people who have messed with me. I don't get into third-party stuff, and I have little sympathy for those who do.
- BHSPitMonkey 11y agoSo what you're saying is, it would be moral for this guy's murder victims to dox him, but not a reporter? The funny thing with murderers is that they can only really be stopped by third parties.
- CiPHPerCoder 11y agoWhy should they be nervous about doing their job? Also, one X, not two: https://stallman.org/doxing.html https://stallman.org/doxing.html
- dfc 11y agoIs Stallman a new William Safire or Brian Garner? I never knew this was one of his areas of expertise. Oxford lists "doxx" as an alternate but accepted version. I don't have an OED license so I dont have access to the full etymology they use. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/dox http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/dox
- cakeface 11y agoThe OED does not have listings for "dox", "doxing" or "doxxing". Well, one entry for "dox" that relates to orthodoxy but that does not apply here.
- CiPHPerCoder 11y agoIt's simple: Dox is short for "docs". Shortening a 4-letter word to a 3-letter word is sensible (albeit lazy). Shortening a 4-letter word to a 4-letter word ("doxx") is stupid. I don't know why people spell it with two. Maybe they think it looks cooler? But really it's hacker slang for "I accessed and published sensitive information about an individual" and is in most cases horrible.
- na85 11y agoStallman has been irrelevant for years so I couldn't care less what he has to say on the subject, but tt very clearly comes from "documents -> docs -> dox" and should therefore have just 1 x.
- m0nty 11y ago> Thus, we usually have to write the name of the oil company as "Exxon", though its proper spelling is "e exx o n". (Don't make the mistake of pronouncing "Exxon" like "exon"; you will appear unsophisticated.) The development of the Exxon exx is shown here: http://www.logodesignlove.com/exxon-logo-raymond-loewy http://www.logodesignlove.com/exxon-logo-raymond-loewy It's clearly a double-x rather than any more exotic character, the styling is just that - styling. The Wikipedia article has it as /ˈɛksɒn/ and that's the pronunciation used in their commercials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s80Hbac2b8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s80Hbac2b8 So that's way off-topic. But what he says about "dox" vs. "doxx" is as much a preference as "focused" and "focussed", or "busing" and "bussing" - there's no "correct" way, not even if it is the original way.
- mratzloff 11y agoDoxing is a targeted attack intended to harass and terrorize the victim as retribution for expressing dissenting opinions or beliefs. The ultimate goal is suppression of free speech. Journalism is not doxing.
- iheartmemcache 11y agoSetup a Patreon. I'll throw in $20 per article for long-form journalism like this. Youtubers who make long-ish videos (i.e., EE's who tear down industrial gear narrating analysis[1]) have recently taken to this model and it's absolutely fantastic. My money goes to support the continued generation of new content, cutting out the middleman. "Pay because it's good" is the best content monetization model yet. [1] Ben from Applied Science [https://www.youtube.com/user/bkraz333 https://www.youtube.com/user/bkraz333] Mikeselectricstuff [https://www.youtube.com/user/mikeselectricstuff https://www.youtube.com/user/mikeselectricstuff] and AvE are all incredible. Some of the underappreciated but really educational channels are(Sharhair from the Signal Path[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKxRARSpahF1Mt-2vbPug-g https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKxRARSpahF1Mt-2vbPug-g] and Paul from Mr Carlsons Lab [https://www.youtube.com/user/MrCarlsonsLab https://www.youtube.com/user/MrCarlsonsLab], along with HAM'er W2AEW [https://www.youtube.com/user/w2aew https://www.youtube.com/user/w2aew]. These guys don't even have Patreons - they just do it to because they want to disseminate knowledge.
- jjoonathan 11y agoAre you me? I subscribe to Applied Science, AvE, Signal Path, and W2AEW. I'll have to check out Mikeselectricstuff and Mr Carlson's Lab. EEVblog is missing from the list, but arguably that one goes without saying :-)
- runn1ng 11y agoThe story is really, really captivating and really Bond-ian. Thanks for telling it so far.
- nxzero 11y agoWhen do you think Le Roux first knew that you where working on this story?
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- krylon 11y agoFascinating story! The funny thing is, if someone wrote a novel with this plot, I would probably dismiss it as too far-fetched. Sometimes truth is indeed stranger than fiction.
- cantrevealname 11y agoThe birth certificate says, "Paul Calder Le Roux", but the diplomatic passport names him, "Paul SOLOTSHI Calder Le Roux". What's with the SOLOTSHI? Was that a nickname, an additional real name, or just a false name he threw in to the mix?
- neilk 11y agoSolotshi appears to be a very uncommon Congolese name. Le Roux's story starts in Africa, and the author alleges he was an arms dealer - maybe there's some connection there. http://forebears.io/surnames/solotshi http://forebears.io/surnames/solotshi Or maybe, as the above website shows, it's an alternative spelling for a similar Moldovan or Georgian name? I have no idea.
- svenfaw 11y agoAm I the only one who first read it as "Satoshi"?
- distracted_boy 11y agoYou are not.
- jonquark 11y agoNo - I read it like that too - before a double take. Now that would be a story :)
- droffel 11y agoSatoshi Nakamoto: Arms Dealer Coming to a theater near you, this Summer.
- myrbergs_army 11y agoAlso read it that way the first time and lost my mind for a second.
- jron 11y agoThere are some interesting circumstantial connections to Satoshi: Considered to be a "brilliant" programmer with a strong C++ background - Most people would call you crazy if you attempted to put a 6 billion dollar prize behind an internet facing application without memory safety Author of crypto/privacy software - E4M and possibly TrueCrypt written in C++ Experience hiding identity both online and off Millionaire - Satoshi never converted any of his btc fortune Anti-authoritarian Understands the benefits of digital currency - Has millions of dollars stacked in boxes Understands the payment problem - Illegal prescription drug marketplaces Has an interest in internet gambling software - The first version of btc actually had some code for a marketplace and poker: http://imgur.com/a/NPiIs http://imgur.com/a/NPiIs Multifocal - Satoshi vanished around April 23 2011 to "move on to other things" South African spelling/phrasing - analyse, colour, defence, bloody hard
- ikeboy 11y agohttp://journal-neo.org/2015/06/12/paul-calder-le-roux-arch-villain-or-arch-agent/ http://journal-neo.org/2015/06/12/paul-calder-le-roux-arch-v... reported the same last year, although without the evidence you mention.
- ars 11y agoLong form is awesome, but it's not for everyone. Have considered also publishing a summary document? (Instead of letting random commenters do it.)
- acqq 11y agoBut E4M is not Truecrypt, see the post of jron citing Wikipedia here. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11382303 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11382303 Paul Le Roux stole E4M source from SecurStar, and TrueCrypt programmers "forked" that source code. So Paul Le Roux surely didn't "write" TrueCrypt as such, isn't the current title here on HN inaccurate? Mods can we please have the real article title "He Always Had a Dark Side" here instead of the current one?
- mark212 11y agoread the article before flaming. The author lays out a very well supported case for concluding that PLR wrote the E4M code then was hired by SecurStar to turn it into a commercial product. Also claims PLR was one of the TrueCrypt programmers, so yes, the title is accurate as far as what the author is claiming in the article.
- acqq 11y agoCan you please quote the exact part where we can see that PLR was one of the TrueCrypt programmers? I somehow missed that what you claim while (admittedly) speed-reading, namely, I've got only this in the article: "Indeed, even today the question of who launched the software remains unanswered. “The origin of TrueCrypt has always been very mysterious,” says Matthew Green". And also as Mahn writes: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11383392 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11383392 "The article is unclear as for whether he was still involved with TrueCrypt by the time they got him though. It sounds like he had quite a lot going on to even care for TrueCrypt at that point." I surely don't dispute that PLR wrote E4M and that TrueCrypt was kind of "fork" of that (see again my older post). But the following product is not the same thing as the original source, just as Marc Andreessen didn't "wrote the Internet Explorer" even if the later was once based on some Mosaic source. And HN is generally against editorializing the titles to make them more linkbaity. And this one is surely such at the moment.
- pwnna 11y agoOP of this post here. Not sure why you're downvoted and tried to upvote it to rebalance. I also realized after reading the article for the second time that it did not say that PLR is TC's author directly, but rather that it is unclear if he is. I made a mistake while first posting as my reading made me believe he's the author of TC. I tried to point it out here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11382412 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11382412 Additionally, Matthew Green's twitter also further reinforced that belief. However it is too late for me to change the title but I'm not sure what I would even change it to. After all, it seems his original work is the foundation of TC (which you can argue to be different, but the title question remains). Edit: @matthew_d_green's twitter has also published corrections at this point. However when I first learned about the post I only saw his initial tweet. It's a shame that I didn't realize that PLR is actually not the author/maintainer, tho.
- aryehof 11y agoI really enjoyed reading all three parts. Many thanks!
- mratzloff 11y agoPlease, turn this series into a podcast. If done well, it would be as compelling as Serial. It would be a compelling character study.
- ekianjo 11y agoWhy does everything have to end up in a podcast?
- Jommi 11y agobecause reading is such a drag. No but really turning a long text into podcast can really add to a work. Just Look at something like Serial.
- ekianjo 11y agoSerial works this way because it uses a lot of interviews from external folks. That would not work at all in writing. You have to design for reading or design for podcasting, there's rarely a case where something works well on both media.
- mratzloff 11y agoYes, but I think it's probably possible that interviews could be conducted. Maybe interviews were even already conducted and recorded for this approximately 50,000 word series...
- 9erdelta 11y agoFantastic story! I'm really excited to read all 7 parts.
- skynetv2 11y agoreally well written. i have to read the other two yet
- valisystem 11y agoI don't read long content on lcd screens, I really wish for a (paid and proper) ebook release. Is it possible? How could I be notified?
- samstave 11y agoYou should edit the line that implies that everyone on Reddit is a troll. That's basically trolling in itself: "a troll like the type of person you'd find on Reddit" Reddit fucking rocks and an AMAZING amount of quality people/content comes from Reddit...
- TaylorGood 11y agoBrilliant writing; some of the better long-form I've discovered..
- allenz 11y agoYou might like longform.org.
- kenshaw 11y agoOk -- this is badly tripping me out. A former employee of mine in the Philippines is (was?) his wife. I'm pretty sure I met this guy while I lived in the Philippines. Even though I haven't seen her since 2008 (I think?) her family contacted me about 2 years ago wondering if I had spoken to her (I hadn't of course).