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When Going Online Will Send You to Prison

62 points| nols | 11 years ago |digg.com

54 comments

order
[+] mratzloff|11 years ago|reply
> "Tits or GTFO."

> Surprisingly, that didn't deter Kylie. In fact, she responded by posting a picture of herself in a bikini. "So we started talking," says Higinio. "And from there it was just love.

This has to be the first instance in history where that line has resulted in marriage.

[+] kazinator|11 years ago|reply
The idea that women never respond positively to that sort of thing, and are universally offended by it, is only a naive stereotype, reminiscent of "women hate porn; it is only for men".
[+] lost_my_pwd|11 years ago|reply
This comment from Higinio is both telling of his mindset and maddening:

  "They're not going to give a [...] 13-year-old kid access to a multi-million
  dollar Unix server because he wants to learn to program. They will use shitty
  passwords and let me break into it. But that's on them."
[+] kazinator|11 years ago|reply
He's 33 and started hacking at 10. So needing to gain "access to multi-million dolar Unix server" is a massive, massive hyperbole.

That statement is an old-school card which can only be legitimately played by people who started long before he did.

Twenty-three years ago, you could have learned how to program in a Unix environment on consumer hardware. E.g. early Linux or NetBSD on an Intel 80486. A used or freebie 386 if you were poor.

[+] Raphmedia|11 years ago|reply
Well, if your password is "123456", "password", "root" or "dragon" for your entire system, you are indeed asking for it.
[+] malka|11 years ago|reply
"Since Higinio's parole officer doesn't want Kylie acting as a middle-man between Higinio and the Internet, for larger batches of code he is forced to actually print the code out and mail it to his boss, who then has someone else type it up."

So stupid.

[+] pascalmemories|11 years ago|reply
Indeed stupid.

But in the US, parole officers see their role to add additional punishment through threats and inserting petty and vindictive 'rules' into the lives of released prisoners in order to reinforce their authority and express the displeasure of the authorities. There are countless examples of people being returned to prison for trivial and even made up violations of parole - remember private prison is big business in America with lots of money to be made from returning people to prison (and sending them there in the first place).

Other countries see parole officers tasked with helping ex-prisoners return to society and keeping them out of trouble through support and assistance. Often parole officers are social workers or psychologists specializing in dealing with ex-offenders. A return to prison is seen as a failure of the parole officer rather than of the prisoner.

[+] dfxm12|11 years ago|reply
Why can't he just mail the USB drive? This part of the story doesn't add up...
[+] kazinator|11 years ago|reply
Convicted hit-and-run drivers should similarly be forbidden from taking a taxi or bus, or riding as a passenger. They are dangerous if in any contact with a motor vehicle. And that should probably include escalators and elevators, too.
[+] pyre|11 years ago|reply
That's a poor analogy. They are forbidden from operating a motor vehicle. In this case, he's forbidden to operate technology that's connected to the internet. His wife controlling the Netflix feed is analogous to a drunk driver taking the bus (someone else is driving).
[+] sixQuarks|11 years ago|reply
There's no way this guy is not using the internet from time to time. If his wife is allowed to use it, how will the parole officer know if it's him or his wife using it?
[+] outworlder|11 years ago|reply
There may be surveillance that he doesn't know about.
[+] rayiner|11 years ago|reply
You can't make this shit up:

> Like the hacks that had come before it, Higinio released the information in a web page which contained some ASCII art, a video, and a picture of Kylie from the neck down holding a sign that said "PwNd by wOrmer & CabinCr3w <3 u BiTch's!" The picture was taken with Kylie's iPhone and she had location services turned on. This meant that location data was embedded in every picture she took.

[+] gknoy|11 years ago|reply
It's interesting to be reminded in little ways of the importance (and all-or-nothing nature) of opsec. It's something most of us don't really think about, since we tend not to consider ourselves as having a reason for it.
[+] christianbryant|11 years ago|reply
This is a great article - I feel like I want to read more, and that it should be expanded into a feature.

Nothing is stopping him from writing brutally malicious code, by the way. He is technically still a threat. At any time, he could hand that USB over to his wife with malicious intent.

That's not a judgement of him, but a simple analysis of how cyber crime and punishment is still entirely misunderstood by the majority of the legal system.

[+] tzs|11 years ago|reply
I wonder if he could pick up a couple of dial-up modems, and set up a dial in BBS at work and use that for file transfer?
[+] pyre|11 years ago|reply
His parole office didn't like the idea of his wife emailing work files for him... I don't think they would be accepting of this. Ultimately it's up to his parole officer (and even if he were to fight it, a victory might just mean dealing with a pissed off parole officer for the rest of his time on parole).
[+] rjaco31|11 years ago|reply
I guess you wouldn't try to be a smartass in such a situation. Parole violation means going back to jail.