Jailhouse confessions of a teen hacker

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-09-19/multimillion-dollar-hacking-spree-scattered-spider-teen-s-jailhouse-confessions

by wslh • 10 months ago

86 49 10 months ago

bloomberg.com

https://archive.is/sMrZA

trwhite2• 10 months ago

That “I’m glad I lived my life as I lived it” line (or something to that effect) you hear criminals like these say is sickening. They acknowledge what they did was bad and express no remorse for the clear destruction they caused to other people’s lives. It’s cowardly and he should serve much longer in prison.

observationist2• 10 months ago

I think that's the inability to articulate well, as opposed to a celebration of his wrongdoing. He seems to be talking about how he thinks better of himself, that he doesn't think of himself as a bad person, and pairs it with a condemnation of what he did and the group of people that enabled it. Hopefully he serves good time, grows up, and comes out a credit to his family and society.

>> The following evening, Noah rang from jail. He said he wished he hadn’t hurt his family, or his victims, but he seemed hopeful that the friendships he made would endure. “I’m not saying what I did was a good thing, it’s a horrible community, and what I did was bad,” Noah said. “But I loved my life. I like who I am. I’m glad I was able to live life as I lived it.”

shkkmo2• 10 months ago

That seems like a lot of credit to give someone whose main criminal skill was being articulate and talking people into things.

Taek• 10 months ago

Especially if he went through a period of being suicidal or otherwise deeply struggling with his situation, those words do seem more genuine and forward-looking than saying something like "yeah I'd do more crime if I could".

mothballed2• 10 months ago

I think there's a very large segment of criminals that express remorse at sentencing as pure theatre, the courts know but they give brownie points for humbling yourself before the court.

Honestly it's refreshing to hear the truth. I thought something similar at sentencing when Weev told the judge he hoped she'd give him the maximum so people would "storm the docks" and that he not only didn't regret it but wouldn't be so nice next time, which only made it all the more sweeter when the bitch's sentence got totally vacated.

karlgkk• 10 months ago

well, i disagree

weev over-estimated his popularity. he was a deeply unpleasant person, and he didn't have a movement or any fans of him in a personal way

in addition, his whole shtick was being as annoying and confrontational as possible. "weev belongs in jail but not like that" was the general sentiment i heard

so no, it wasn't "sweet". he could have rotted in jail and nobody would have cared other than the awful precedent that ruling would have set. and that'd be the most fitting end tbqh lol

he not only didn't regret it but wouldn't be so nice next time

despite all of his hard chatting, he immediately fled the country after he was released. last i heard he's living in some eastern european shithole pretending he's huwhite and running the stormfront servers (im not joking). loser behavior

watwut• 10 months ago

Well, he is a full on nazi so, no he was not nice.

which only made it all the more sweeter when the bitch's sentence got totally vacated

Yeah, everyone who does not admire toxic nazi is a bitch.

wubrr2• 10 months ago

and express no remorse for the clear destruction they caused to other people’s lives.

They obviously do multiple times in the article, including the same paragraph you referenced in your comment.

"He said he wished he hadn’t hurt his family, or his victims, but he seemed hopeful that the friendships he made would endure. “I’m not saying what I did was a good thing, it’s a horrible community, and what I did was bad,” Noah said. “But I loved my life. I like who I am. I’m glad I was able to live life as I lived it.”"

Did someone steal your shitcoin?

z3dd• 10 months ago

I’m glad I was able to live life as I lived it.

he's not even pretending he has regrets. All that around is just PR, he's a serial manipulator and there's no reason to believe that he's suddenly changed after such a short period of time.

hn_acc1• 10 months ago

He also says multiple times that "this felt like me" and "I loved living this life" and the FBI agent says, based on their experience, he had no remorse.

contingencies• 10 months ago

"I need the full database for an audit", said nobody legitimate, ever. Great job Twilio manager.

CobrastanJorji2• 10 months ago

See also, the Department of Government Efficiency.

Aeolun3• 10 months ago

Except every audit firm that’s ever passed by my company. Like, the reason these requests get honored is because people have been conditioned to think madness is normal.

hermannj314• 10 months ago

It seems to me the kid is going to be out around the time he is 30, most likely has many millions stashed away the Feds never discovered, and he will do fine.

If I have learned anything in the last two decades, crime does indeed pay, the risk is absolutely worth the reward, and there is almost no long-term reputational damage from dedicating yourself to this sort of life.

He is going to land on his feet and live a life better than most of us too scared to break the rules.

CobrastanJorji2• 10 months ago

Although I suspect many people would consider it a great deal, I personally would not be willing to spend the entirety of my 20s in prison in exchange for a good chance at getting away with $10 million after that, and I do not consider this an example of someone winning.

The folks who stole millions online doing crypto shenanigans or whatever and whom you have not heard of, they won. But not this guy.

SoftTalker2• 10 months ago

I’m not sure I agree. Life is much easier after you turn 30. And easier still after 40. In your 20s most people think of you as a kid.

sciencejerk• 10 months ago

Did you read the full article? Hackers found Noah's previous address and threw bricks through the window. He was lucky -- other harassment attacks of this nature included bullets fired at houses. Noah's hacker friend was abuducted on a street with a black hood over his face and later beaten and tied on a stake.

Noah might come out ahead financially, sure. But it looks like he might have snitched on people for a lesser sentence, and we all know that snitches get stiches.

What I'm confused about is why Noah just didn't stop while he was ahead. Looks like he was a millionare years ago and had plenty of chances to stop

whatshisface• 10 months ago

It's really simple. People stop behaviors when they receive negative reinforcement, not when they receive positive reinforcement.

justusthane• 10 months ago

It’s hard to quit when you’re ahead when you think you can keep winning.

dash2• 10 months ago

If you call cheating, lying and working for criminals a “good life” then yeah, sure.

mrheosuper• 10 months ago

this heavily assume that prison does not affect you in anyway even after spending decades inside it.

qingcharles• 10 months ago

It affects you after a day. After a decade you will never fully recover. It definitely changes you.

commandersaki• 10 months ago

The following evening, Noah rang from jail. He said he wished he hadn’t hurt his family, or his victims, but he seemed hopeful that the friendships he made would endure.

His family will probably be there for him, but his friends, likely criminal associates, will disband either because he is caught or they are.

MisterTea• 10 months ago

Maybe and maybe not. Even gangsters who worked together and were caught will still keep in touch. Though sometimes they legally can't. I know a guy who keeps in touch with whoever is still alive from his crew, though sparingly for reasons.

ggm2• 10 months ago

Given how much cryptocurrency is used to perform broad criminal acts (from tax evasion upwards) .. wouldn't anyone in posession of crypto illegally acquired be at high risk of being chased both sides? ie cops and robbers want their vig?

The "crypto queen" who rug-pulled and has $billions, nobody hears from: I find it more likely there's a simple reason why, and it isn't "she spent big to hide herself really, really well"

lazide3• 10 months ago

How would you tell the difference between illegal and legal crypto? Assuming you didn’t already have their names, anyway.

mptest2• 10 months ago

normally, and it's been a LONG time since I been anywhere near crypto, it's about progeny of the actual "coin" , ie how many private wallets has it touched since being mined. coins freshly "mined" go for more than touched crypto.

ggm2• 10 months ago

The forensic accountant I know says "follow the money" works really well for bikie gangs, drug money and international crime links. Sure, there's mixers. But, there's also a chain and pseudonymous ain't invisibility.

She works in Australia. Maybe things are different in other jurisdictions.

akimbostrawman2• 10 months ago

Inferior cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are non fungible with a transparent blockchain so tracing and tainted coins are a very real and enforced problem.

To solve this use actually useful currency that is private and fungible by design like monero.

nadermx• 10 months ago

This entire thing reminds me of reading Ghost in the wires but like teen version. I don't think this kid truly understood the gravity of his situation, but ten years, damn. Did wreck some lives. Even Mitnick got only 5 and he was 30 when he did those shennanings.

jimt1234• 10 months ago

And Kevin Mitnick had the ability to start a nuclear war from a payphone! LOLOLOL

Aeolun3• 10 months ago

It’s so weird. I can never bring myself to truly blame the hacker in these instances. If you can call up a random company as an 18 year old, and do anything that costs them $100-200M that’s the fault of the company. If you decided to stick all your saving in crypto instead of a bank account, then I just don’t have any sympathy for you.

That’s not to say that it is good or desireable, but…

MountDoom2• 10 months ago

As an 18 year old arsonist, you can set a commercial building on fire and cause tens of millions in damages. Is that the fault of the owner?

I don't know why, but we all have a much stronger moral compass when it comes to the real world than to the internet. It's not just cybercrime, the standards of civility are completely different too.

Aeolun3• 10 months ago

No, it’s like owning a bank and leaving your vault door open, then blaming people that take something out. Yes, it’s still technically illegal, but it’s also an unforgivably stupid thing to do as a bank.

It’s like that commercial building having a few tanks of gasoline standing right next to the valuable merchandise.

Like having a few thousand tons of ammonia nitrate stored in your dockside warehouse next to fireworks, then making surprised potato face when it explodes.

elisbce• 10 months ago

Yeah, blame the victims for not protecting themselves enough. How familiar.

Jailhouse confessions of a teen hacker

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