Charges And Pleas In Computer Crime Cases Involving Significant Cyber Attacks

https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/pr/justice-department-announces-charges-and-guilty-pleas-three-computer-crime-cases

by meri_dian • 9 years ago

93 55 9 years ago

drefanzor2• 9 years ago

Last few lines state how assistance was provided by various regional and international agencies, and then goes on to list google, coinbase, cloudflare, etc. Interesting.

gtirloni• 9 years ago

Isn't that normal, desired and expected?

paxy2• 9 years ago

Coinbase is the surprising one to me, since it is the only one on the list that operates at the application rather than network level. And there's no mention of bitcoin theft anywhere in the report, just DDOS.

meri_dian4• 9 years ago

He probably held his Bitcoin on coinbase.

sophacles• 9 years ago

Bitcoin payments in DDOS for hire, or extortion (as in we'll stop if you pay us). If they cashed out via coinbase, the authorities can find out who profited via the paper trail created.

pm903• 9 years ago

Looks like HN effectively DDOS'd justice.gov

drefanzor2• 9 years ago

They should have thanked Brian Krebs, though. To be honest. Didn't he call out Jha long before anyone else knew?

ryanlol4• 9 years ago

Krebs almost never knows anything before "anyone else". Before the public or other journos, sure.

tptacek2• 9 years ago

Obviously "anyone else" is hyperbolic, but whatever shade you want to throw at Krebs, he is serious about the job of investigative journalism for information security in a way literally nobody else in the industry seems to be.

meri_dian4• 9 years ago

He did, in this article published in January 2017: https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/01/who-is-anna-senpai-the-m...

It's a great read.

Sniffnoy3• 9 years ago

Interestingly, in addition to Paras Jha and Josiah White, the justice department's announcment mentions a guilty plea from Dalton Norman, who isn't mentioned in Krebs's article. I wonder what the story there is?

waldfee• 9 years ago

thanks, interesting read. though it basically comes down to bad opsec on anna-senpai's part

pacaro• 9 years ago

English grammar and orthography are weird and funky, but given that the title is summarized anyway, can we change “has plead” to “has pleaded” or “pleads”

meri_dian4• 9 years ago

Sure, that sounds better

nick_g2• 9 years ago

An unfortunate reason to see a former university classmate of mine in the news. It always feels strange to see this story come up every so often. I was never a friend of Jha's, nor was I every really close to him, but I remember him exactly as his attorney described him: "Paras Jha is a brilliant young man whose intellect and technical skills far exceeded his emotional maturity." Jha was not the only former classmate of mine whom I felt lacked emotional maturity, and it is harrowing to imagine how a command of technology can give anyone the power to do something like this if he chose.

Jha intentionally used his skills to inconvenience those around him and he was able to do a great deal of harm to the world at large. While technology makes us better suited to solve problems and help those less fortunate, it also amplifies an individual's ability to do harm.

Intentional malice aside, all of us have the ability to greatly effect the world around us. It is imperative that we consider the impact of our actions. While I was a student at Rutgers, there was no mandatory ethics class for computer science, nor do I remember a class on ethics for computer scientists being offered.

pm903• 9 years ago

I don't buy your insinuation that he was just a brilliant mind who was immature enough to inconvenience others. I'm reading through https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/01/who-is-anna-senpai-the-m... and Jha's actions sound like a real criminal. Yes criminal: he was using his technical prowess to bring down minecraft servers and steal customers, effectively running an online protection racket.

I know this sounds harsh but: I'm glad he has been charged with this law and I really really want this guy to be behind bars and think for a long time about what he did. Hopefully it will seriously discourage others from doing the same stuff he did.

On a slightly related note: I can't help but think how this dude could have had a highly successful career in computer security. But he chose to be a criminal. Why?

nick_g2• 9 years ago

It wasn't my intention to detract from the fact that his actions were criminal

ganoushoreilly• 9 years ago

I read op's commentary more along the lines of emotional immaturity being present, he wasn't really surprised at the nature of the crimes. A lot of these emotionally immature individuals often times are part of the "do things for lulz" mindset. The fact that this started as Minecraft DDOS attacks, re-iterates the immaturity of the individual based on initial targets. I'm not defending these criminals by any means, but I would agree with OP that people whom fit the mental profile of potential asshat hackers are way more common than we'd like to admit. If every crazed rick and morty fan had the technical prowess to pull this stuff off... just imagine the chaos.

burntrelish1273• 9 years ago

There's two predominant end-games:

0) Recruit to a three-letter agency, putting talent to positive use under extra scrutiny and a short-leash.

1) "Throw away the key," squander his potential and make him a better criminal.

Hmm, which is better: repay society, generate taxes and give someone a second chance... or be "tough" on crime and let the cycle repeat again?

pishpash• 9 years ago

If the department had been in the School of Engineering, pretty sure there would have been a mandatory ethics class.

swiley• 9 years ago

I've been told the administration at my university plans to move the compsci department out of the engineering department and in to the business school. I really haven't heard any pro to that yet other than "it makes the business people happy and there are more of them."

skate22• 9 years ago

I used philosphy classes to fill some gen ed requirements, including ethics, but it was by no means required

dmix2• 9 years ago

It said he got fined $250k for damages his hack caused...Ive always been curious how these fines work. Will he be paying that back after he’s out of jail and employed? Does he have a monthly payment depending on his income? Or can the equivalent be worked out in some type of community service or more jail time?

I ask because the guy is only 21 and now a felon...

slededit3• 9 years ago

They can garnish his wages after a small livable wage is achieved. Basically it will be almost impossible to ever get out of subsistence living. With his skill he may actually have a chance after a decade or two.

dmix2• 9 years ago

Wow, the implications of that are quite interesting. The effects of his sentencing can technically last for decades after he is out of jail. Funny how you never hear much about that in these trials...

But agreed being a convicted hacker won’t prevent him from being employed. Even by the government...

PeterisP• 9 years ago

If he gets a $100k+ job in IT security, he'll have paid the fine in three years.

alexschnapp3• 9 years ago

I personally know Paras. Brilliant guy, really fun to hang out with, and learned a lot of technical knowledge from him. He was my go-to guy (like a lot of other people in the class) to help me fix the programming problems that I can't fix quickly.

I think he hacked the school for the lolz.I dont think he even thought it would be this serious when he did it, with feds and possibly jail time. He probably just wanted to see what he could do.

Even finding out about his involvement in Mirai today, it still doesnt change what I think about his character, or his ethics. Knowing this now, I think he'll become very successful very soon.

tedivm3• 9 years ago

That's horribly disappointing. The man hacked thousands of devices and used them to launch DDoSes. He attacked competing minecraft services to steal customers and generate a profit. His botnet was also used to attack Brian Krebs (security researcher) and Dyn.

This isn't up for despute- although Paras originally denied involvement in the botnet this plea agreement and his confession prove that he is both a liar and a criminal.

He may end up being a successful person in the long wrong, but that doesn't make him an ethical person.

alexschnapp3• 9 years ago

Yeah he hacked minecraft services to generate a profit when he was 19 or 20, I wish I could do that when I was 19. I dont think I would have known better at the time either.

He's as responsible of taking down Dyn as Mikhail Kalashnikov is responsible for all the people killed by the ak-47. He simply open sourced a tool for other people to use however they like.

He took the plea to reduce the sentence and the legal expense.

Charges And Pleas In Computer Crime Cases Involving Significant Cyber Attacks

Related Stories