7 ms·
U.S. soldier charged in AT&T hack searched "can hacking be treason"
- duxup 2y agoHis google searches: -“where can i defect the u.s government military which country will not hand me over” -“U.S. military personnel defecting to Russia” -“Embassy of Russia – Washington, D.C.”
- Terr_ 2y agoGiven the Russia-centric stuff there, I can't help but imagine what it might look like if he were arrested several months later, especially if he'd known the results might be visible to new management in the DoJ or DoD. - "how to apply for a pardon" - "whistleblower protections from Trump for exposing the deep state" - "biden AT&T witch-hunt tip line"
- readyplayernull 2y agoHe just needed big balls on his side.
- decremental 2y ago[dead]
- someothherguyy 2y ago> Days after he apparently finished communicating with Country-1’s military intelligence service, Wagenius Googled, ‘can hacking be treason.'”
- ipsum2 2y agoIt's literally in the title.
- someothherguyy 2y agoI took the comment as corrective, my bad?
- xeonmc 2y agoWhat a genius.
- eastbound 2y agoNow I’m curious what Google returns. “10 ways to commit treason (You won’t believe the last one)”? “My grandma always used this recipe to [sell neighbors to the Stazi]”? Do governments have an SEO strategy to encourage spying from the opposite country?
- dkjaudyeqooe 2y agoThe top result is "This one simple trick to evade arrest that federal prosecutors hate"
- dkjaudyeqooe 2y agoIf only he'd searched for "how to cover my tracks after making incriminating google searches"
- bigfatkitten 2y agoIf only he searched "mens rea" first.
- legitster 2y ago> “As discussed in the government’s sealed filing, the government has uncovered evidence suggesting that the charged conduct was only a small part of Wagenius’ malicious activity,” the government memo states. “On top of this, for more than two weeks in November 2024, Wagenius communicated with an email address he believed belonged to Country-1’s military intelligence service in an attempt to sell stolen information. Days after he apparently finished communicating with Country-1’s military intelligence service, Wagenius Googled, ‘can hacking be treason.'” Seems like an easy guess as to what "Country-1" could be.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- bloomingkales 2y agoFuck, I was heavily researching what would happen if we nuked the Arctic. Apparently nothing, sea level won’t rise dramatically.
- bagels 2y agoFor your sake, I hope it doesn't happen.
- tbrownaw 2y agoLike, the entire Arctic?
- bloomingkales 2y agoI guess? Just found this: https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/64637/nuking-all-the-ice https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/64637/nuki...
- tcmart14 2y agoIt's about time the Arctic got what's coming to it, with all its ice and polar bears.
- dredmorbius 2y agoTotal worldwide first-strike nuclear capability is somewhat less than 4,000 megatons TNT. Total worldwide annual energy production is roughly 14.8 billion tons of oil equivalent (TOE). Dividing the two and solving for days, we're "nuking the Arctic" (and the rest of the planet) roughly every 10 days, or in actuality, probably about half of that. Call it weekly in very rough numbers. This mostly goes to show that 1) we're consuming energy at extremely prodigious rates and 2) the rate of energy release matters. The energy released in even a large nuclear explosion is typically a few hours of energy output of a large (1--2 GW) power plant. Form of energy release also matters, with nuclear weapons releasing heat, blast, and longer-term radiation, each of which has its own destructive potential on structures, people, and the larger environment. Primary energy production largely produces heat and combustion products, by contrast. Sources: - Global nuclear arsenal: <https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/estimated-megatons-of-nuclear-weapons-deliverable-in-first-strike https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/estimated-megatons-of-nuc...> - Global energy consumption: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_supply_and_consumption https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_supply_and_consum...>
- vitajex 2y agoDumb question here: How do they know what he googled? Is it a matter of serving Google with a warrant?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- tbrownaw 2y agoOr they searched his computer and it was in the browser history.
- metadat 2y agoMaybe they subpoenaed Google for the records of searches from his IP address. Is that a thing? I don't trust incognito mode when communicating with google servers, that's for sure.
- Lich 2y agoMy understanding is that incognito mode just doesn’t save local browser history. Your ISP and google can still log what you search based on IP or login state.
- tbrownaw 2y agoYour ISP can't see it because of TLS. But the search provider will know things.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- eastbound 2y agoIs the IP hidden if I search from my workplace, where there are 250 computers from several startups behind a single IP? (and it’s not a corporate computer) Granted, Google can identify browsers uniquely using fingerprinting, even with Incognito.
- bloomingkales 2y ago
- unification_fan 2y agoDid they get to his browsing history because he's dumb and didn't even bother deleting it before they seized his PC, or because they have access to the ISP logs, or because Google just handed over the data? Regardless it's creepy. Use DDG, a VPN, and never persist history if you're looking for shit like this on the web. The people you can trust the least are not hackers or foreign agents (who don't really care about you) but your own government.
- UberFly 2y agoWhat's creepy? I would definitely trust hackers or foreign government agents more if I was trying to screw over my own country. I guess at least. This guy just seems dumb.
- blitzar 2y agoOption A: they used a correlation exploit combining taps of 14 undersea cables, with the audio and video recordings from his laptop and phone and the devices of his 3 nearest neighbours and two of the the cars across the street, in conjunction with multiple vpn and tor exit nodes. From this they were able to detect some of the keystrokes and virtually reconstruct the image on screen using lidar and radar to intercept brainwaves. Option B: they checked his browser history on his laptop.
- red-iron-pine 2y agooption C: they just asked google and paid a small filing fee for the trouble fairly routine thing for criminal proceedings
- oefrha 2y agoOut of all the search engines out there, he just had to use Google, the U.S. Big Brother search engine, to search for defecting from the U.S. Wouldn’t surprise me if the U.S. IC is alerted to these search terms in real time. Unbelievable.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- baxtr 2y agoHas anyone insights how the current DOGE cuts could affect the US cybersecurity posture? It’s not hard to imagine how they accidentally cut something very crucial.
- wmf 2y agoDidn't they just fire 100 NSA employees for being freaky?
- rererereferred 2y agoCan DOGE fire itself for being freaky?
- ghssds 2y ago> A U.S. Army soldier who pleaded guilty last week to leaking phone records for high-ranking U.S. government officials searched online for non-extradition countries and for an answer to the question “can hacking be treason?” prosecutors in the case said Wednesday. I searched for both those sentences in the past year at least once. I also made other sketchy searches on a weekly basis. Curiosity should not be considered evidence of a crime.
- superjan 2y agoI don’t expect him to get convicted for just the google searches. They possibly matter in this case because they direcly relate to his personal circumstances. In his legal proceedings, they are used as an argument to keep him in custody due to flight risk. I find that understandable.
- dkjaudyeqooe 2y agoIt's not, but other evidence of a crime together with suspiciously related searches might be considered evidence of a crime.
- refurb 2y agoIn the US judicial system, which is adversarial in nature, the job of the prosecutor is to put forth the strongest case which involves casting even minor details in the most evil, twisted light possible. Every single high profile case involves these sort of details including ones where the defendant is found innocent. All it takes is reading the takedown of a prosecutors case a few times to hear these “facts” with an highly skeptical ear.
- zmgsabst 2y agoEvidence can be circumstantial. Eg, searching “how to pick locks” when you’ve also robbed a house — even though people search that without committing crimes. That’s particularly true for evidence showing intent. The question for evidence is not “is this alone irrefutable proof of wrongdoing?” but “does this in an ensemble with other known facts raise the probability of guilty?”
- not_a_bot_4sho 2y ago
- blackeyeblitzar 2y agoOut of curiosity, why are the prosecutors who are mentioned in the article from Seattle? It sounds like the alleged criminal is from Texas and was stationed in South Korea. What determines this legal process?
- simondanerd 2y agoHe was a US Soldier, to my understanding he'll be tried under the UCMJ and federal government. I'm not sure if location has to do anything with it, as he held a clearance and committed his alleged crimes on US or US-held soil.
- red-iron-pine 2y agolikely based out of there, or his unit's HQ is, even if based elsewhere. joint base lewis mcchord is just south of tacoma.
- hackburg 2y ago[dead]