homeless hackers

I found this artical on wired.com and found it interesting. I homless man who is a hacker and in his spare time looks for hole in company's web sites. The artical has a good view point and a lot of insitefull information about what a true hacker is. He holds true to the pricable by not accepting any money from the company's after he notifes thiem of thier problems. I would like to know what everyone else thinks about this artical. And about what the quato below.

"To such barbs, Oxblood Ruffian, a veteran of the hacker group Cult of the Dead Cow, replied, "It's like dancing. Anyone can dance. But not many people can dance like Michael Jackson."

Lamo's latest move: using a back door in The New York Times' intranet to snag the home phone numbers of over 3,000 Op-Ed contributors, including Vint Cerf, Warren Beatty and Rush Limbaugh.

Although Lamo (pronounced LAHM-oh) did nothing more mischievous with the information than include himself in its roster of experts, the Times is considering pressing charges, according to spokeswoman Christine Mohan. Hacking is a federal crime, currently punishable by five years in jail.

Prison would be an ironic twist for Lamo -- it'd be the first time in years he would have a steady place to stay."

Also I would like to know why someone has not offered to hire this insitefull man.

I've heard about this guy before. Interesting fellow. I wouldn't be surprised if he gets locked up though. Hacking is evil, even if you do it morally remember? ::: sarcasm :::

The Times are thinking of pressing charges??? They should be thanking him for makin them aware of a very dangerous hole in their security!!

v_Ln

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Also I would like to know why someone has not offered to hire this insitefull man.

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You said it yourself:

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He holds true to the pricable by not accepting any money

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Gotta love the way our society works. Help with security, go to jail. Its kinda like the Samartin clause that is in a lot of states. If someone is dying, and you help them, but that person still suffers injuries, the person who help them can be sued for injuring that person. Remember that the next time someone is choking, and you are considering doing the himelick manuver.

souleman, he didn't except money for a reward, but he was not offered a job. I do agree with you logic though. At least I think that is what the artical said.

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Originally posted here by valhallen
The Times are thinking of pressing charges??? They should be thanking him for makin them aware of a very dangerous hole in their security!!

v_Ln

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My guess is some higher up at the times is embarssed that the system was vulnerable. This person has egg on his face and rather then sucking it up and admitting security was not perfect this person is pushing for prosecution. I think the times would be wise not to prosecute.

Cheers,
-D

Hey all,
just wondering. What computer was he using to do this? The library?

preacherman481, in the artical it talked about a laptop he would use. "At times the only thing dry I owned was my laptop". It also spoke of him using public lines to connect to the web.

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Originally posted here by valhallen
The Times are thinking of pressing charges??? They should be thanking him for makin them aware of a very dangerous hole in their security!!

v_Ln

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My guess is some higher up at the times is embarssed that the system was vulnerable. This person has egg on his face and rather then sucking it up and admitting security was not perfect this person is pushing for prosecution. I think the times would be wise not to prosecute.

Cheers,
-D

I am surprised they are pressing charges....I mean against a homeless guy who stole nothing?!??! Damn thats low...

I wouldn't hire him unless he promised
to take regular baths.
:cool:

The only time I fumbled into a private system was really a pure coincidence (The FTP account "anonymous" had all permissions on the website, and I mean it, all). I emailed the webmaster, another email address which was on the site noticing them, and they never, ever fixed it, until I put a file in their wwwroot explaining how to do it. And they never thanked me. So I wouldn't be surprised if the Times would go after him for this "evil" act...

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Originally posted here by souleman

You said it yourself:

Gotta love the way our society works. Help with security, go to jail. Its kinda like the Samartin clause that is in a lot of states. If someone is dying, and you help them, but that person still suffers injuries, the person who help them can be sued for injuring that person. Remember that the next time someone is choking, and you are considering doing the himelick manuver.

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You mean, if the samaritan clause applies, you *can't* be sued, right?

<not-sarcasm>That is EXACTLY what we need! A federal computer-samaritan clause! </not-sarcasm> Get into politics, here is your hazmat suit, fitted with an integrated spellchecker/dictionary, just like the one that our current president fails to use.

HEy terr

Are you talking about a good faith rule, Like in this senerio. A person comes apon aother person chocking and helps him but at the same time brakes one of his ribs. the man cant sue him. Good faith rule should apply In this case. Whats going to happen to someone if by chance on day there online just looking at sites and stumble across a place they shouldnt be, What they go to jail? Because this has happened in the past with a little kid who came across a site of nasa satalites and had access to use them. Nasa found out oh what a mess.

Preacherman481: He uses Kinko alot (whatever that is)
I´ve read an article about Adrian Lamo some time ago and I tried to find it and post it here. I didn´t find it but I found this instead. Scroll down abit to the comments made by Peter Lindstrom.
A sample:

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Lamo should get jail time, and the company should be the subject of a class-action lawsuit for its "negligence," he said. "I am absolutely astounded by the indifference, nay, graciousness, with which a company like WorldCom is treating the hacking nomad, Adrian Lamo."

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Now I can see his point in a lawsuit against the company but throwing Lamo in jail?! COME ON! Pushing al grey hats over to the black side can´t be the answer now can it? What´s he afraid of? Loosing business or something?
Ok, so Lamo ****ed around abit on the inside. Hé didn´t destroy anything, didn´t spy for info. He simply looked around to see how far he could come and when he couldn´t come any further he told them about it. (in worldcom he hung around for a couple of months before reporting it)

Im sorry..but in my eyes this person did a GOOD thing by finding this out. I mean what he did was wrong, but at least he let someone know. Now some pissed off admin is looking to press charges? thats just stupid. I mean look at people who have jobs trying all day to crack, NOT HACK, companies network. If this mans gets into trouble for doing this then i think everyone who has a job doing what was stated above should get into trouble.

I might get flammed for this post, but i do not feel he should get anything. If anything they should thank him for finding this serious security hole.

Andrew

i agree with compman i do the same for a living and i do it for the betterment of all man kind.
now if i was nytimes and after being hacked by more newbies and pros i would hire an army of sec it pros to get rid of all my weakspots.