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crazy political hacker. demands bitcoins for anonymity sends USB keys in the mail that part lead me to believe he/she is probably clueless

by nikcub 14y ago

jentulman 14y ago
Would you expand on that a little? [edited for tone/less brevity]
- lifeguard 14y ago
  You can walk up to any mailman/mailwoman in the USA and hand them a stamped, addressed letter and they will throw it in their mailbag and then at the end of their shift they will dump all the outgoing mail into a sorting machine. There are un-surveiled postal drops all over the USA. Remember the anthrax letters? Case was never solved.
  - phaus 14y ago
    You are technically correct about the anthrax case, but that's because the guy who most likely did it killed himself. I know that the original suspect was the wrong guy, and that the government basically tried to ruin the guy's life anyways, but the second suspect (the dead one) seemed to be the real deal. This doesn't really detract from your statement about the post office though, I believe they found the anthrax guy because they can trace the source of the anthrax. EDIT: It's been a while since I looked into this case, but apparently in the last few years a lot of the evidence has been called into question by external scientific organizations.
    - lifeguard 14y ago
      I stridently reject any "lone gunmen who commit suicide before interrogation" explanations. (edit for adverbs)
      - neilk 14y ago
        You probably didn't mean to use 'strident' there. From Webster's dictionary 1913: Stri'dent (?), a. [L. stridens, -entis, p.pr. of stridere to make a grating or creaking noise.] Characterized by harshness; grating; shrill.
- nikcub 14y ago
  This case will have a lot of resources thrown at it, which means tracking down where the USB key was bought from, where the envelopes are from, printing marks, where it was mailed from, how it was mailed, surveillance cameras within distance, toll booths, traffic cameras, witness statements, door knocking in the areas, electronic purchasing records, etc. you name it. It provides 8, 10, 12+ more bits of information in narrowing down the suspect He sent two letters, so you double up the amount of information and then can narrow down the bits by overlapping what you find The FBI uses a computer program now that can take all these bits of information and consolidate them, so it no longer even requires a single investigator to have the complete picture. You can send out dozens of agents and local police to collect as much information as possible and to log it, software will do the job of spotting patterns, narrowing down ranges, etc. By venturing outside of the realm of the internet where the advantage is with the hacker/perp you step right into a world of real evidence where the FBI has a huge advantage with resources, knowledge, information, ability to subpoena, physical evidence etc. Very different to just a single IP address on the other side of the world Many large and high profile cases have been broken with such evidence, for eg. BTK killer Seemed a bit strange to think of using bitcoins but to then undo that work by leaving an evidence trail and a lot of information to narrow you down with
samstave 14y ago
I don't know how anonymous bitcoin is, but sending a USB key in the mail could be better than allowing for online download You simply take the envelope to be mailed into a residential area and hand it to any mailman walking around. There are no surveillance cameras, and the mailman isn't going to remember shit.
- GuiA 14y ago
  Heck, even driving to any sufficiently large city rand(10,50) miles from where you live and putting the enveloppe in any random mailbox is pretty much guaranteed anonymity.
  - samstave 14y ago
    I would be wary of surveillance cams - they would know the thing was dropped in a box between x and y times, check the cameras and have a list of potentials. They could then go back and follow you after the fact to see where you went. If you recall this is how they caught the guy who had a car bomb in his car near times square in NYC. Much safer to either place in someone else's outbound mail in a deep and foreign-to-you residential neighborhood or, ideally drop into a mailmans box in his vehicle when he isn't looking. For example, when a mailman parks in front of a multi-tennent mailbox on the street and he is standing within feet of his vehicle - they typically leave the rear door open, you could place it in at that time without being seen.
    - robryan 14y ago
      There are cameras on most suburban and rural mailboxes in the states? Here in Australia there are plenty of mailboxes where you likely wouldn't even be witnessed at all placing mail into.
      - samstave 14y ago
        Not on residential, which is why I mention that. In any urban city environment my money is on cameras moreso than not.
tsotha 14y ago
That's because there wasn't any actual "hacking". Obviously they were leaked by the Obama administration, which needed a way to get them out there without owning up to being the source of the leak. I'm sure in twenty years or so we'll learn the "hacker" is a member of the Obama campaign who got the documents directly from the IRS. Congratulations, Democrats. You put this generation's Nixon in the White House.
- glomph 14y ago
  Whoa. When did I leave hacker news?
- ralfn 14y ago
  Wow. All the conspiracy theories. Im an outsider; i live in Holland. I dont think you americans realize just how paranoid you guys come accross, at times like these. From both sides. If you had any distance, you would realize this is the work of a troll, with no political ambition and no secret documents. He is making you all consider the most ridiculus scenarios where the world is filled with people you cant trust, but who are somehow able to collaborate in these large scale conspiracies.
  - cookingrobot 14y ago
    If it makes you feel better, remember that there are far more of us who are reading these threads than commenting. All comments on the internet come from the fringe.
  - tsotha 14y ago
    Well, if you're right, and this is all the work of an internet troll who doesn't actually possess any documents, then those documents won't be released. But if they are released, will you be willing to admit you may have misread the situation?
    - ralfn 14y ago
      Sure. I don't know what's really going on. But neither do you. Yet you speculate the worst scenario and start slandering half of your nation. Here in Holland we have a saying, where the literal translation in English would be "The inkeeper trusts his guests after his own character". Meaning that when a person has little faith in people, they are actually afraid that people are as morally corrupted as they themselves are. In general, nice people collaborate more easily. Civilization is the conspiracy of nice people making a nice country. Except it's not a secret. So, when I don't know anything, and you don't know anything, the difference in our assumption, is the difference in our character. Your speculation and slander tells us nothing about reality. It only tells us something about you.
nmridul 14y ago
Does not the USB keys contain hardware identifications ? They could trace who purchased it or which store sold it and when ?

crazy political hacker. demands bitcoins for anonymity sends USB keys in the mail that part lead me to believe he/she is probably clueless

by nikcub 14y ago

crazy political hacker. demands bitcoins for anonymity sends USB keys in the mail that part lead me to believe he/she is probably clueless

jentulman 14y ago

Would you expand on that a little? [edited for tone/less brevity]

lifeguard 14y ago
You can walk up to any mailman/mailwoman in the USA and hand them a stamped, addressed letter and they will throw it in their mailbag and then at the end of their shift they will dump all the outgoing mail into a sorting machine. There are un-surveiled postal drops all over the USA. Remember the anthrax letters? Case was never solved.
- phaus 14y ago
  You are technically correct about the anthrax case, but that's because the guy who most likely did it killed himself. I know that the original suspect was the wrong guy, and that the government basically tried to ruin the guy's life anyways, but the second suspect (the dead one) seemed to be the real deal. This doesn't really detract from your statement about the post office though, I believe they found the anthrax guy because they can trace the source of the anthrax. EDIT: It's been a while since I looked into this case, but apparently in the last few years a lot of the evidence has been called into question by external scientific organizations.
  - lifeguard 14y ago
    I stridently reject any "lone gunmen who commit suicide before interrogation" explanations. (edit for adverbs)
    - neilk 14y ago
      You probably didn't mean to use 'strident' there. From Webster's dictionary 1913: Stri'dent (?), a. [L. stridens, -entis, p.pr. of stridere to make a grating or creaking noise.] Characterized by harshness; grating; shrill.
nikcub 14y ago
This case will have a lot of resources thrown at it, which means tracking down where the USB key was bought from, where the envelopes are from, printing marks, where it was mailed from, how it was mailed, surveillance cameras within distance, toll booths, traffic cameras, witness statements, door knocking in the areas, electronic purchasing records, etc. you name it. It provides 8, 10, 12+ more bits of information in narrowing down the suspect He sent two letters, so you double up the amount of information and then can narrow down the bits by overlapping what you find The FBI uses a computer program now that can take all these bits of information and consolidate them, so it no longer even requires a single investigator to have the complete picture. You can send out dozens of agents and local police to collect as much information as possible and to log it, software will do the job of spotting patterns, narrowing down ranges, etc. By venturing outside of the realm of the internet where the advantage is with the hacker/perp you step right into a world of real evidence where the FBI has a huge advantage with resources, knowledge, information, ability to subpoena, physical evidence etc. Very different to just a single IP address on the other side of the world Many large and high profile cases have been broken with such evidence, for eg. BTK killer Seemed a bit strange to think of using bitcoins but to then undo that work by leaving an evidence trail and a lot of information to narrow you down with

samstave 14y ago

I don't know how anonymous bitcoin is, but sending a USB key in the mail could be better than allowing for online download You simply take the envelope to be mailed into a residential area and hand it to any mailman walking around. There are no surveillance cameras, and the mailman isn't going to remember shit.

GuiA 14y ago
Heck, even driving to any sufficiently large city rand(10,50) miles from where you live and putting the enveloppe in any random mailbox is pretty much guaranteed anonymity.
- samstave 14y ago
  I would be wary of surveillance cams - they would know the thing was dropped in a box between x and y times, check the cameras and have a list of potentials. They could then go back and follow you after the fact to see where you went. If you recall this is how they caught the guy who had a car bomb in his car near times square in NYC. Much safer to either place in someone else's outbound mail in a deep and foreign-to-you residential neighborhood or, ideally drop into a mailmans box in his vehicle when he isn't looking. For example, when a mailman parks in front of a multi-tennent mailbox on the street and he is standing within feet of his vehicle - they typically leave the rear door open, you could place it in at that time without being seen.
  - robryan 14y ago
    There are cameras on most suburban and rural mailboxes in the states? Here in Australia there are plenty of mailboxes where you likely wouldn't even be witnessed at all placing mail into.
    - samstave 14y ago
      Not on residential, which is why I mention that. In any urban city environment my money is on cameras moreso than not.

tsotha 14y ago

That's because there wasn't any actual "hacking". Obviously they were leaked by the Obama administration, which needed a way to get them out there without owning up to being the source of the leak. I'm sure in twenty years or so we'll learn the "hacker" is a member of the Obama campaign who got the documents directly from the IRS. Congratulations, Democrats. You put this generation's Nixon in the White House.

glomph 14y ago
Whoa. When did I leave hacker news?
ralfn 14y ago
Wow. All the conspiracy theories. Im an outsider; i live in Holland. I dont think you americans realize just how paranoid you guys come accross, at times like these. From both sides. If you had any distance, you would realize this is the work of a troll, with no political ambition and no secret documents. He is making you all consider the most ridiculus scenarios where the world is filled with people you cant trust, but who are somehow able to collaborate in these large scale conspiracies.
- cookingrobot 14y ago
  If it makes you feel better, remember that there are far more of us who are reading these threads than commenting. All comments on the internet come from the fringe.
- tsotha 14y ago
  Well, if you're right, and this is all the work of an internet troll who doesn't actually possess any documents, then those documents won't be released. But if they are released, will you be willing to admit you may have misread the situation?
  - ralfn 14y ago
    Sure. I don't know what's really going on. But neither do you. Yet you speculate the worst scenario and start slandering half of your nation. Here in Holland we have a saying, where the literal translation in English would be "The inkeeper trusts his guests after his own character". Meaning that when a person has little faith in people, they are actually afraid that people are as morally corrupted as they themselves are. In general, nice people collaborate more easily. Civilization is the conspiracy of nice people making a nice country. Except it's not a secret. So, when I don't know anything, and you don't know anything, the difference in our assumption, is the difference in our character. Your speculation and slander tells us nothing about reality. It only tells us something about you.

nmridul 14y ago

Does not the USB keys contain hardware identifications ? They could trace who purchased it or which store sold it and when ?