3 ms·

Weren't you detained in a similar way when you traveled to the US to attend Defcon (without the arrest part)? Are you able to discuss how that all went down?

ryanlol 9y ago
Hotel rooms searched before con by the FBI, seized some tech and left me alone. Pretended to arrest a "friend" who was with me. On my way back, switching planes at JFK there were a bunch of FBI agents waiting in the tube whom served me a subpoena and suggested that I'd be arrested if I tried to continue my trip. Ended up being dropped off at the courtyard Marriott in Newark by the FBI (after very little arguing they paid for it, rather strange). Stayed there overnight, got interviewed in the morning about things I knew little about. After the interview I got driven to JFK (maybe EWR, not sure) in a FBI car, with the agent at the wheel demonstrating some impressive skills in the heavy traffic, mostly going around it by driving on the shoulder. Never going to the US again I guess, not voluntarily nor involuntarily.
- DaiPlusPlus 9y ago
  Forgive my ignorance, but who are you and why was the FBI interested in you?
  - Cozumel 9y ago
    He could tell you, but then he'd have to kill you!
  - fweespeech 9y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10845619 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10845619 That might help.
  - ryanlol 9y ago
    Because of a bunch of silly shit I did as a kid. I've got more details in past comments but it was the typical things that happen when you grow up spending too much time on hacker IRCs.
  - sugersvoltet 9y ago
    Google "Julius Kivimaki" / zeekill. http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-33442419 http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-33442419 Member/associate of HTP and Lizard Squad, hacked Linode (at least once), Lenovo, the Python wiki, some game companies; called in a bomb threat on a plane a Sony executive was flying (might've just been a friend of his who did that, can't remember), DDoSed video game services and 8chan for ages, possibly involved with the creation of the GayFgt and Mirai botnets, and much more. Got off scot free because he did it all before he turned 18. I believe his use of ryan / ryanlol is a mocking reference to Ryan Cleary, whom he hated and considered incompetent. (Could be wrong.) It may have an (unintentional?) double meaning, since that's also the name of the aforementioned "friend" who secretly snitched on him and led to his detainment. Nothing against the guy. He's intelligent and a good HN commenter. By sheer coincidence I sat in many disparate IRC channels under different aliases over the years that he would always seem to find his way into (probably not a coincidence in retrospect; he just loves IRC). He was very open about most things and generally appeared to be driven by e-cred, revenge/competition, and comedy over financial gain. But some people say he was involved with carding, too. No idea if that's true. edit: Looks like he recently admitted to (light) carding as well: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14884487 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14884487
    - j_s 9y ago
      tfw HN stops allowing/supporting delete. See also: Coinbase on this month's "Who's Hiring" (flagged)
- AlexCoventry 9y ago
  > suggested that I'd be arrested if I tried to continue my trip. If they've got grounds to arrest you, they're simply going to do so.
  - ryanlol 9y ago
    You're right. I was 15 at the time, would deal with the situation very differently today.
    - hellbanner 9y ago
      So if I'm following right, the FBI tried to keep you away from a hacker conference and -- I'm inferring here -- because you were a foreigner, and possibly a kid ( no offense meant)?
      - ryanlol 9y ago
        FBI grabbed me after the hacker conference. Before the con they just searched my room in Vegas and seized my throwaway netbook and phone. They didn't harass me for being a foreigner or a kid, I suppose they might have let me off easy because of that though.
        hellbanner 9y ago
        Why were you targeted in the first place? (Sorry I'm not familiar with you)
        ryanlol 9y ago
        If you go up a bit in this thread you'll find other comments discussing this.

ryanlol 9y ago

Hotel rooms searched before con by the FBI, seized some tech and left me alone. Pretended to arrest a "friend" who was with me. On my way back, switching planes at JFK there were a bunch of FBI agents waiting in the tube whom served me a subpoena and suggested that I'd be arrested if I tried to continue my trip. Ended up being dropped off at the courtyard Marriott in Newark by the FBI (after very little arguing they paid for it, rather strange). Stayed there overnight, got interviewed in the morning about things I knew little about. After the interview I got driven to JFK (maybe EWR, not sure) in a FBI car, with the agent at the wheel demonstrating some impressive skills in the heavy traffic, mostly going around it by driving on the shoulder. Never going to the US again I guess, not voluntarily nor involuntarily.

DaiPlusPlus 9y ago
Forgive my ignorance, but who are you and why was the FBI interested in you?
- Cozumel 9y ago
  He could tell you, but then he'd have to kill you!
- fweespeech 9y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10845619 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10845619 That might help.
- ryanlol 9y ago
  Because of a bunch of silly shit I did as a kid. I've got more details in past comments but it was the typical things that happen when you grow up spending too much time on hacker IRCs.
- sugersvoltet 9y ago
  Google "Julius Kivimaki" / zeekill. http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-33442419 http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-33442419 Member/associate of HTP and Lizard Squad, hacked Linode (at least once), Lenovo, the Python wiki, some game companies; called in a bomb threat on a plane a Sony executive was flying (might've just been a friend of his who did that, can't remember), DDoSed video game services and 8chan for ages, possibly involved with the creation of the GayFgt and Mirai botnets, and much more. Got off scot free because he did it all before he turned 18. I believe his use of ryan / ryanlol is a mocking reference to Ryan Cleary, whom he hated and considered incompetent. (Could be wrong.) It may have an (unintentional?) double meaning, since that's also the name of the aforementioned "friend" who secretly snitched on him and led to his detainment. Nothing against the guy. He's intelligent and a good HN commenter. By sheer coincidence I sat in many disparate IRC channels under different aliases over the years that he would always seem to find his way into (probably not a coincidence in retrospect; he just loves IRC). He was very open about most things and generally appeared to be driven by e-cred, revenge/competition, and comedy over financial gain. But some people say he was involved with carding, too. No idea if that's true. edit: Looks like he recently admitted to (light) carding as well: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14884487 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14884487
  - j_s 9y ago
    tfw HN stops allowing/supporting delete. See also: Coinbase on this month's "Who's Hiring" (flagged)
AlexCoventry 9y ago
> suggested that I'd be arrested if I tried to continue my trip. If they've got grounds to arrest you, they're simply going to do so.
- ryanlol 9y ago
  You're right. I was 15 at the time, would deal with the situation very differently today.
  - hellbanner 9y ago
    So if I'm following right, the FBI tried to keep you away from a hacker conference and -- I'm inferring here -- because you were a foreigner, and possibly a kid ( no offense meant)?
    - ryanlol 9y ago
      FBI grabbed me after the hacker conference. Before the con they just searched my room in Vegas and seized my throwaway netbook and phone. They didn't harass me for being a foreigner or a kid, I suppose they might have let me off easy because of that though.
      - hellbanner 9y ago
        Why were you targeted in the first place? (Sorry I'm not familiar with you)
        ryanlol 9y ago
        If you go up a bit in this thread you'll find other comments discussing this.