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| 7/16 |
| 2004/1/20 [Computer/SW/Security, Computer/SW/OS/FreeBSD, Computer/SW/OS/OsX] UID:11846 Activity:nil |
1/19 Slow to load, but worth it.
This guy is no crook, I used to work with him, he is just
a geeky programmer:
http://squeedlyspooch.com/blog/archives/000072.html
\_ He was being accused of ...?
\_ Raping his cats.
\_ Close enough: hacking Valve and stealing the source code
for Half-Life 2. So, wtf? did he do it?
\_ I suspect this particular guy probably didn't or he
wouldn't be spewing his story over the net, but I wouldn't
be surprised if one of his friends or net.friends did it.
\_ http://www.csua.org/u/5m7 |
| 7/16 |
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| squeedlyspooch.com/blog/archives/000072.html January 15, 2004 The whole surreal story So at 6:30am on January 14th, I woke up to the doorbell buzzing. Fucking drunkard I thought, and rolled over, intent on ignoring it. It then started a rythmic buzz buzz buzz buzz, over and over again. After about 5 minutes battling to get back to sleep, I gave up and got up. Put my pants on, grabbed my sweatshirt, and stumbled off toward the door. As I walked down the steps I heard them talking to the nextdoor neighbor, asking him where the landlord lived. I compose myself to deal with whatever is behind the door, and open it. I looked down out of the glare of the flashlight and saw the FBI badge of the long haired blonde woman standing in front of me. I also saw two people behind her, bodies turned sideways so as to present less of a target. It was too hard to tell really with the glare of the flashlight, but Im assuming yes. I mumbled something about turning on the light so I could see the warrant pages 1 2 3 4 5 theyd thrust into my hands and turned and groped on the wall for the switch. So Peter got to get dressed under the watchful gaze of government employees. They took Peter to the back of the house, and took me back upstairs to the front of the house, and proceeded to start going through everything in my room and the office. I was questioned by the FBI agent in charge and a Secret Service agent at length about the Hungry Programmers, people I used to live with, whether particular people had the capacity/knowledge to do what they were investigating, etc. During the questioning she says Now were going to take all your computers. She sees the look on my face and says Yeah, this is going to be hard for you. She said it depends, that theyd try to have them all back as soon as possible, but it depends on if they find anything suspicious on them. If they found contraband kiddie porn, talk of drugs, or stuff they were actually looking for, that particular computer would never be coming home. After the questioning I basically sat in the front room on a folded futon mattress, with at least one agent with me at all times. At one point I said I really needed to brush my teeth and the SS agent assigned to me at the time walked with me back to the bathroom and stood behind me watching me in the mirror as I brushed my teeth. On my way back down the hall I looked into my room and saw 3 FBI agents rifling through my belongings. One looking at the condoms and stickers in my nightstand, one going through my underwear/sock drawer, and one looking through my books. After a lot more sitting in silence in that room, interspersed with tidbits of conversation an fbi agent asking me about the guitars, talking about the piano lessons in his youth, and how he was kicked in the chest by a horse. He asked how I was doing, I said Id had better mornings, to which he responded well youll definitely have one unique experience more than most people. I know of very few others that have been through something like this. The blonde FBI agent was nice and annoying enough to tell me repeatedly that the judge would go easier on me and they could all go home earlier if I would just tell them where the stuff was. But if I denied having it, theyd really throw the book at me when they found it. After more waiting, the FBI agent in charge comes into the room and explains that they arent actually pressing charges against me, so Im not being detained. After a few more minutes of listening to the bumbling idiots in the next room arguing over how to turn off my machines, I decide a walk might be nice. I say Im leaving to go walk around, that Ill be back to look over the list of equipment theyre seizing. I broke the news to Seth and he looked as shocked as I felt when I opened the door at 6:30. Got on ICB and spread the word that the wolves were circling, and everyone pretty well freaked out. I hung out with them for a while, then figured Id better be getting back so I got back in the car and returned home. I walked upstairs, and found the long haired blonde agent and the admittedly very cute asian evidence photographer still there, finishing up. Taking photos of the rooms in their condition post-raid, writing down which exposures corresponded to which room. The blonde agent handed me the seizure receipt to look over and sign. It looked ok to me, but I really had no idea at the time that some items theyd taken werent on the list. Asked them for their business cards, which they declined to give us, saying they would likely be plastered all over the web. We asked if we could get a picture of them or their badges, which they also denied us. Peter walked them to the steps, and I walked into the office to assess the emptiness. There were a few times in college when the computer labs would be closed during the day, due to a bomb threat or a gas leak or whatever. When this happened all the geeks would wander around outside, eyes squinting in the unaccustomed glare of the mid-day sun, looking like zombies. You could always spot a geek on such a day by the way they walked with a certain slowness in their step. Id lost upwards of 9 machines, and lots of misc equipment besides. Machines that, according to most people familiar with this stuff, I may as well write off as gone regardless of whether or not they ever find anything on them. Thankfully there were many people around that were willing and able to find the humor in such a preposterous day. Ive been running on laughter all day, unwilling to think about the fact that this all might end with me in court, or even in jail. Leila forced me to at least acknowledge the gravity of what was going on, but thankfully didnt force me to dwell on it. Im hoping I can keep myself laughing about it all until I pass out. And yes, the RIAA and ESA will start this shit soon enough Im sure. Look on the bright side though, if they find nothing then theyll look like the idiots. And then you can always sue for harassment : And for a personal rant - this country is going to hell. Were not even a fucking free country anymore when the feds can do shit like this. As far as i know, the original code-stealers showed themself up and for some reason happened to admit that they stole the code. Ok, heres the tricky part, what if FBI coulndt simply get the authorization to get those guys? Wouldnt be the first time things are screwed up in US With all due respect ppl. Ive been seeing things like this happening all the time, but only in North America, basicaly only in US. Oh well, hope no one took this message to themself, didnt mean to insult anyone if i did so. Ive lived here all my life, and have read so many stories about this, the result of sub-poena rights that are just outrageous. If you didnt do it - pray that your constitution holds, and that the corrupt $s who took more than what was on the list get busted and sent for lobotomies I hate corrupt government agents of any type. If you did do it - well, the FBI is smarter than us, because if they werent, youd work for them : so fess up. Dont trust any of those FBI people, or SS people, or state police. Their job is to punish you to the fullest extent on the law, all you are is a fucking statistic. Theyre not being nice to you, theyre trying to get what they want. Best way to get out of your situation is to get a damn good attorney. I wouldnt be talking so much about it online either, and I wouldnt be talking about it on phone. All that hype bullshit, and all this attention is NOT what you want. Computer files are considered changeable evience, and therefore comparativly weak. Any change in the environment that the media was found in can make the evidence unsubmitable, or at least open to challenge by the defense. Little things like them not noting the bios settings, or the date on the cmos clock vs the date on the system clock in the task tray can open them up for challenge. Or so that the presence of certain hardware is part or all of the decryption key. But mainly, they take the entire machine so that the person who pulls the hard drive is a technician wearing an anti-static strap, not a field agent who types two-fingered and thinks a 35 floppy is a hard disk. BTW, you... |
| www.csua.org/u/5m7 -> games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/01/19/1752221 Sections Main Apache 1 more Apple 1 more Askslashdot 10 more Books BSD 1 more Developers 3 more Games Interviews Science 10 more YRO 2 more Help FAQ Bugs Stories Old Stories Old Polls Topics Hall of Fame Submit Story About Supporters Code Awards Services Broadband Online Books PriceGrabber Product News Tech Jobs . FBI Conducts Raids Over Half-Life 2 Source Theft Posted by simoniker on Mon Jan 19, 04 02:39 PM from the take-em-down dept. TheXerox writes According to a recent weblog post , a San Francisco native had his house raided by the FBI last week, and lost upwards of 9 machines, and lots of misc equipment besides in a seizure related to the theft of the Half-Life 2 source code from Valve Software. Advertisement Slashdot Login Nickname: Password: Public Terminal Create a new account Related Links Compare the best prices on: Video games recent weblog post theft of the Half-Life 2 source code Hungry Programmers page More Games stories Also by simoniker Games How To Get Your Gaming PC Running Quietly? California Violent Gaming Bills Fail To Advance Even Pro Athletes Can Be Power Gamers Gearbox, UbiSoft Confirms Brothers In Arms N-Gage QD - Nokias Answer To The Critics? Silicon Knights, Nintendo Cease Exclusivity Deal City Of Heroes Beta Evaluated As Game Goes Gold PSX Production Stops, Development Issues Rumored? MGS Creators on Masochistic PS2, United States Popularity Men Incapable Of Portraying Videogame Women Fairly? Re:Secret Service by Steve Franklin Score:2 Monday January 19, 06:13PM Re:Secret Service by LilGuy Score:1 Monday January 19, 06:32PM 1 reply beneath your current threshold. Re:Secret Service by Scyber Score:3 Monday January 19, 02:48PM Re:Secret Service Score:5, Informative by menn0nite 699138 on Monday January 19, 02:49PM 8023041 No, the secret service has never been all about protecting the president. They started out primerily as treasury cops, however if I remember correctly, all cases of computer related fraud where damages pass the $10,000 mark and cross state lines fall into their jurisdiciton. That why theyre always involved with all the big time hacker cases. Judging from every story Ive ever read, the Feds always hang onto evidence machines for years upon years. In other threads, people have suggested that the Feds didnt understand how IP addresses work, and raided the wrong network. I suppose thats possible, but I think it unlikely, especially since they must know about the crack being traced to a user in Europe. Its more likely that they know or suspect that the HP guys have copies of the stolen source, and the raid is just a way to send a message to others who might consider downloading it. Technically, computers get seized so the cops can gather evidence, which is supposed to lead to some kind of punishment if all the due process requirements are met. But as often as not, the seizure itself is the only punishment metted out, and is obviously meant as such. Which is pretty scary, when you consider your total lack of recourse when you are punished in this manner. In other words, once the cops seize your stuff, they dont have to give it back, so long as the initial seizure was legal. They can take your stuff house, car, boat, whatever, never charge you with anything, and youll never see it again. Seizing assets in a civil action this way is a big part of the War on Drugs. All the cops have to do is make the assertion at the time of seizure that the property in question was being used in conjunction with a drug operation. Of course, being lazy and actually somewhat bad at covering my tracks, I got caught about a month later. Anyway, the police came to my school and arrested me although I think it was all a setup, because I was never read my rights, and I was never handcuffs - I think it was a scare tactic, and I was never officially arrested. They allowed me to drive my own car back to my house, so they could collect evidence. He seemed impressed with my skill level, and he actually smiled and talked with me in a conversational tone, like he was interested in how Id pulled it off. They took my machine into evidence, and I didnt see it for 7 months. Later that year, after serving my community service, I got a call from the evidence room saying my computer was ready to be picked up. I drove over as fast as possible, fearing the drive had been wiped and all my source code lost. Imagine my surprise when I picked up the machine and it had a Post-It note on it saying I took the liberty to upgrade your computer. Sure enough, the detective had installed a 33 MHz 486, and also an additional 4 meg of RAM. To this day, I am thankful for the detective making the effort to prevent me from going to jail for what I did. I learned my lesson the moment the reality dawned on me that I had police officers searching my mothers house. I havent hacked since, and I hold that detective in the highest regard for seeing that I was just a stupid kid who didnt mean any harm. Hah Score:5, Interesting by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 19, 03:16PM 8023322 You almost never get the shit back. Half the reason for only having $300 used eBay computers at your house/apt/dorm. You dont want them stealing your $3500 Alienware rig or the setup you just built with $1000 of parts from Pricewatch, or your shiny new Apple G5 or G4 TiBook. All because I had a fake CNN web page made, a few months before the CNN fake news generator got popular. The FBI was waiting for me one day when I walked outside my apartment to go to work. They asked me a few questions and took the following: White box AMD 800mhz that I built from spare parts. They did not, however, take my mice/keyboard/monitors, they did take the Mac stuff though. They also did not take every floppy disk and CDROM I had in the house. You always used to hear news stories with headlines like OVer 5,000 disks siezed in piracy raid in the early years of home computers. As the agent was leaving, my roomates newer Compaq laptop caught his eye, but I told him that machine wasnt mine and he didnt question me. They would never return my calls, and always were telling me things were transfered to another office, etc. Originally I was told that they would be done with my stuff in 6-8 weeks. After a while, I figured no news was good news, and didnt want to even deal with them any more over $500 worth of computers. Ironically, I had to help the FBI/Customs on a case they were working on, someone in our office was looking at kiddie porn from a work computer. Figure theyd be looking out for me but thats the government for you. Now, on the other hand, your police departments are a little better. My friend had his computer missing for nearly 6 months, and when he got it back it was covered in identifcation stickers but it was pretty much the way it was when they took it. If they ever do bother to return it, its likely to be many years from now. And thats assuming that they cant find, or appear to find, anything that could plausibly be interpreted as illegal on it. I suspect that if you are lucky, theyll just forget about it, and some office of the law will give it to his kid. If you arent lucky, they may come back for all of your property and cash. I might, with some plausibility, be asserted to be involved in something that might be related to gangsterism under some argument. So we must remove anything that you could use to practice your profession, hire a lawyer, or otherwise do something besides live on welfare. Its looking like he may eventually win, since they have essentially no evidence. But hes already served time in jail, had all his medical records and computer equipment confiscated. He prescribed a few more pain killers to cancer patients than the feds decided the patients needed. The other charges got dropped after the first hearing, when the prosecutor refused to defend the charges. He hasnt been found guilty of anything, but his professional live has been destroyed. Looks like the riaa has a competitor by Ohm1e Score:1 Monday January 19, 02:41PM Article text Score:5, Informative by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 19, 02:41PM 8022955 January 15, 2004 The whole surreal story So at 6:30am on Ja... |