Twitter Hack May Have Had Another Mastermind: A 16-Year-Old (nytimes.com) 34
When authorities arrested Graham Ivan Clark, who they said was the "mastermind" of the recent Twitter hack that ensnared Kanye West, Bill Gates and others, one detail that stood out was his age: He was only 17. Now authorities have homed in on another person who appears to have played an equal, if not more significant role, in the July 15 attack, New York Times reported Tuesday, citing four people involved in the investigation who declined to be identified because the inquiry was ongoing. They said the person was at least partly responsible for planning the breach and carrying out some of its most sensitive and complicated elements.His age? Just 16, public records show. From the report: On Tuesday, federal agents served the teenager with a search warrant and scoured the Massachusetts home where he lives with his parents, said one of the people involved in the operation. A spokesman for the FBI confirmed a search warrant had been executed at the address. The search warrant and other documents in the case are under seal and federal agents may decide not to charge the youth with a crime. If he is ultimately arrested, the case is likely to be handed over to Massachusetts authorities, who have more leverage than federal prosecutors in charging minors as adults. (The New York Times is not naming the teenager at this point because of his age and because he has not been charged.)
A kid is able to con Kanye? (Score:2)
And this is news?
Try him as an adult (Score:4, Insightful)
and the rest of his life will be completely fucked, once he's in the system.
Should that be a full citizenship/normal-life-ending crime? Should he be punished until he dies, which is what an adult felony does to you?
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Shouldn't Twitter have been more secure?
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Yes. They should have been.
But it doesn't matter if the car was unlocked when you stole the iPod. You still stole the iPod.
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Right, but when it is the bank was unlocked, this is no longer a 1-victim crime, nor can the bank management be trivially absolved of criminal negligence. Your analogy is not accurate.
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My analogy is accurate. Whether the bank is criminally negligent or not does not bear on the thief's legal case. It's a separate legal matter entirely. Neither does it matter whether the crime had one or a million victims. You don't get to say you should not be prosecuted for stealing the iPod just because the car was a cab and the driver left it unlocked and vacant with their fair's property in the front seat while they were waiting for the fair to finish getting their hair cut.
(Note I am not weighing
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Yea, I get your point. The problem is that nobody is going to miss that even without you saying it, so all you're doing is acting to reinforce the diversionary effect that is protecting Twitter from getting their fare share of blame in this situation.
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Interesting conundrum: if the vic was waiving a fistful of money around, is he any less legally protected from the muggers? Is the lady dressed scantily and seductively any less protected from rape?
Nope
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What is the threashold? I mean what he did cause individuals to be bilked individuals out of 100s of thousands directly. He impacted a major global scale business. Which could have serious consequences for share holders and so on but this time did not so much. Twitter for all ill is a major communications platform used for all manor of sorta-official information distribution, he helped undermine the trust in that.
He probably understood most of these potential consequences as well. Honestly he should be t
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Why does any of what you say matter in any way?
if he's not an adult, then the fact that his crime impacted many people and had "serious consequences for share holders" does not make him one.
Why does a juvenile justice system exist, in your opinion, if your belief is it should be discarded when you don't like what a kid did?
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I don't believe we should throw away the juvenile system. He should be tried as a juvenile.
He's not an adult, he shouldn't be tried as one. They are hoping to do otherwise.
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Is he a juvenile? 18 is pretty arbitrary number really. The question is did he have the mental capacity, developmental progress etc, to understand the consequences of the actions in question. In this case i tend think most 16 year olds would.
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i agree that 18 is somewhat arbitrary, largely done by slowly shifting convention. If we want to do it scientifically, then 16 is definitely not adult, because their brain hasn't finished developing an adult calibration [dana.org] for risk and sensorimotor response under stress. That could be near 25 [nih.gov] for most humans.
An fMRI study in Luna’s lab linked coordinated brain activity and self-control. On a test of the ability to inhibit a response—looking away from a flash of light, versus the reflexive tendency to look toward it—children performed much worse than adults, with adolescents in between. The fMRI data showed an age-associated increase in how smoothly frontal regions and lower sensorimotor brain areas worked together to perform the task. What’s more, the analysis linked stronger signals from the higher brain to superior inhibition.
Anatomically, such changes reflect the process of myelination—the development of an insulating sheath that allows neurons to carry messages faster and more efficiently across the brain. While myelination generally increases from adolescence to adulthood, Luna and her colleagues found that some of these white matter tracts shrink. “We’ve found dramatic decreases in connectivity from the limbic system [the network that regulates emotion and reward] to the prefrontal cortex,” she said, which may account in part for the diminished influence of emotion on judgment and decision-making that comes with maturity.
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There is little question as far as the science goes that the brain continues to grow and change well into 20s. I think the question really is not when you are 'fully mature' but when you are no longer to juvenile to have understood the harms associated with the crime you are charged with and the specific circumstances.
For example, I would be inclined to charge a 16 year old who uses a fake id to purchase beer as minor. They probably have not thought of and likely are not capable of understanding broad impli
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It follows you for life. Not just, "a while". For life.
Consider that carefully when you suggest an adult felony charge. It is functionally equivalent to lifetime disenfranchisement, and the loss of many rights permanently. It's always a life sentence, even if you aren't actively locked up.
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Part of it follow you for life. Its already not as bad as it used to be in that respect. Having to check the "have you ever committed felony box" does not automatically get your application bin'd anymore everywhere like it once did.
At some point he can probably move beyond it. However in the short and medium term - yes he isn't as trust worthy as people who did not attempt large scale fraud schemes when they were few years younger. No he should not be voting, disenfranchisement is fair; he has disrespecte
Why try minors "as adults" (Score:4, Interesting)
"If he is ultimately arrested, the case is likely to be handed over to Massachusetts authorities, who have more leverage than federal prosecutors in charging minors as adults".
I'm just not sure why there's always this absolute frenzy to try minors as an adult. Yes, if a child commits a crime, they should be arrested and prosecuted. But the whole idea of having a separete juvenile justice system is that kids aren't adults, and in my opinion, doing a crime does not presto make somebody an adult.
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The system is an economic slave system. Any excuse at all.
Plus, this kid could be a "real threat" if they don't keep him under their thumb.
Only in a slave system could we so casually throw away lives for youthful stupidity or trivial, non-violent offenses like drug possession without so much as a trial. 99% plea bargain rate.
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A kid that steals a chocolate bar from a store because he's short on money is stupid. A kid that sets an abandoned couch on fire is stupid. A kid that spray-paints a wall is stupid. A kid that uses an aimbot in COD is stupid. A kid that sends his nudes to his girlfriend is stupid. These are all stupid kids, and should be made to work off the damage they do in the form of a few days work undoing it.
This guy is not stupid, he knows exactly what he is doing, and has done this for a while. [chicagotribune.com] He didn't do this as
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And you know what? Not a single thing you describe turns him into an adult.
You're saying "well, his crimes were pretty awful in my opinion, that means we should pretend he's an adult so we can punish him harder." But that makes no sense whatsoever.
Now, you could argue that the juvenile justice system is flawed in that sometimes it doesn't punish some juveniles hard enough. That could be a reasonable argument, assuming you actually knew something about the system, which I don't think you do. But your argume
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Simple: It is not about justice but about revenge and being as vicious as possible, trying minors as adults is only logical. In a sane legal system, such an inhumane act is not even possible.
Thank The Hacker (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: Thank The Hacker (Score:3, Informative)
When I Was Sixteen, It Was A Fun Year!!!! (Score:2)
It was a very fun year
{music}
I made myself a master key to my high school
{music building}
I made myself a master key to Boston Garden, home of the Bruins!
{Final crescendo; cymbals crashing}
I made myself a master key to Logan Airport in Boston!
{Music gets softer}
Now that I have done it, I know I can do it, I threw the keys away
Music gives way to silence
It's time to get on in life
Luv you all
Mark Allyn
Bellingham, Washington
I don't think that is the meaning of "Mastermind" (Score:2)
More like bumbling fools that managed to kick open unlocked doors...