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This took 5 years to prosecute and the guy has at least one shell company mentioned in the panama papers. Seems likely there's a little more to the story. (or

by ryanlol 10y ago

This took 5 years to prosecute and the guy has at least one shell company mentioned in the panama papers. Seems likely there's a little more to the story. (or they didn't find anything for 5 years until the guy bragged to someone) However by far the strangest thing here is how very specific the charges are, one hack 5 years ago and no co-conspirators? How on earth didn't they find anything else to charge him with? [1] [1] Of course this all could be explained away by them having a weak case, which they probably would have if they failed to seize his personal equipment

dhimes 10y ago
My gut agrees with yours. What's the benefit? Was he working for someone, or is this part of a plan to become Dr. Evil? Seems to be beyond a prankster act.
- ryanlol 10y ago
  I couldn't easily figure out just who this guy was (i.e. handle) but it seems somewhat unusual that he would've performed the hack alone. Especially given the malware deployed[1] and information shared by the victims [2]. >What's the benefit? Tons, having personally tried the same thing in the past :^) Being able to serve backdoored copies of the kernel to targeted users would be all kinds of useful, and you'd be in an unique position to target the kernel developers themselves, allowing you to actually insert a backdoor into the kernel. [1] Phalanx is by far one of the most advanced pieces of publicly analysed linux malware https://volatility-labs.blogspot.de/2012/10/phalanx-2-revealed-using-volatility-to.html https://volatility-labs.blogspot.de/2012/10/phalanx-2-reveal... [2] Kernel.org folks claimed that they weren't the only target, which is to be expected (people with no prior hacking experience rarely decide to acquire/produce somewhat advanced linux malware and install it on kernel.org) [2] ctrl+f credential-stealing https://lwn.net/Articles/464233/ https://lwn.net/Articles/464233/
saynsedit 10y ago
What is your source on the shell company involvement? Couldn't find anything on that.
- ryanlol 10y ago
  https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/12097929 https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/12097929

by ryanlol 10y ago

dhimes 10y ago

My gut agrees with yours. What's the benefit? Was he working for someone, or is this part of a plan to become Dr. Evil? Seems to be beyond a prankster act.

ryanlol 10y ago
I couldn't easily figure out just who this guy was (i.e. handle) but it seems somewhat unusual that he would've performed the hack alone. Especially given the malware deployed[1] and information shared by the victims [2]. >What's the benefit? Tons, having personally tried the same thing in the past :^) Being able to serve backdoored copies of the kernel to targeted users would be all kinds of useful, and you'd be in an unique position to target the kernel developers themselves, allowing you to actually insert a backdoor into the kernel. [1] Phalanx is by far one of the most advanced pieces of publicly analysed linux malware https://volatility-labs.blogspot.de/2012/10/phalanx-2-revealed-using-volatility-to.html https://volatility-labs.blogspot.de/2012/10/phalanx-2-reveal... [2] Kernel.org folks claimed that they weren't the only target, which is to be expected (people with no prior hacking experience rarely decide to acquire/produce somewhat advanced linux malware and install it on kernel.org) [2] ctrl+f credential-stealing https://lwn.net/Articles/464233/ https://lwn.net/Articles/464233/

saynsedit 10y ago

What is your source on the shell company involvement? Couldn't find anything on that.

ryanlol 10y ago
https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/12097929 https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/12097929