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[padre29]

http://houston.cbslocal.com/2012/04/13/anonymous-hacker-busted-by-fbi/

Summary is, a linux admin for a concern in Houston is accused of being a hacker by night who hit the HPD's servers and did some minor stuff like read personnel files or altered work schedules.

How he was arrested:

-pic posted of a girl friend w/l breats
-digital photos are choc a bloc full of information about date, place, time etc
-read said digital info/pic was taken in OZ
-checked his facebook account..pics posted of his vacation..to OZ

I'm sure there is other information that was used, however, Facebook is more or less "sell my life, but let me post on my wall" proposition.

[Adventurer, Explorer, Inquiring Mind.]

According to Gizmodo, Ochoa allegedly used the Twitter handle @Anonw0rmer to link to a site boasting personal information on law enforcement officials, along with a picture of a young women in a low-cut shirt that read, “PwNd by w0rmer & CabinCr3w.”

The FBI alleges that, in addition to the violation of police officer’s privacy, Ochoa also hacked the County of Houston’s website.

“[He] created fake events on their online, posted images representing Anonymous and CabinCr3w, deleted the entire administrator accounts except the one created by the attacker,” the FBI detailed to Gizmodo.

The FBI also said that Ochoa also leaked personal information of Goldman Sachs executives last September.

Dunno, seems like a damn hero, that man should get a medal for helping the "government accountability" people with their accountability.  Aren't cops "PUBLIC" officials?  They finally get some PUBLICity and they don't want it?  Perhaps they should go back to being private security guards without all the perks and having to actually earn their salaries, instead.

Hell, I won't ever hold a grudge to anyone who gives Goldman Sucks a black eye when it comes to PR.

Why the specific mention that he's a linux sysop?  Is that their way of trying to target Linux as a blackhat thing, or just stating that a windows sysop would be harmless by contrast?

Never heard of a hacktivist being busted and being identified as a Windows System Administrator.  If he worked for a Microsoft shop it'd be somewhere in the credits or the addenda or legal filings but nowhere in the news.  Guess Microsoft is paying extra to have the other side smeared.  Given that I used to get training as a Microsoft engineer "how to compete with Linux" I'd say that's pretty crystal clear and cut.

On the black hat vs white hat vs grey hat issue, I never tire of seeing some poor sucker get busted because he got sloppy while giving The Man a black eye.  For a "hacker" he sure was sloppy.  Didn't retranslate the photo, reprint it, encode extra data into it for his buddies via stego or anything.  Just put it up like that, on a job that was guaranteed to get his ass Holy Hand Flamered (wh40k reference.)  Pity.

[stainzblue]

Is that their way of trying to target Linux as a blackhat thing...

The don't want people to be anonymous.  Just like they don't like preppers (Hurricane Sandy make preppers look too good.)  Interesting that just a few weeks later Sandyhook "happened" and wouldn't you know it, the woman with the guns was, allegedly, a prepper.  I suspect that the Mac OS and Windows has back doors and trap doors that allow authorities to snoop on people.  Just a hunch. 

[Adventurer, Explorer, Inquiring Mind.]

Any decent geek and Microsoft skilled admin knows Windows does (or has more than a "strong suspicion.")

Not necessarily back doors per se, just "features" that permit feds and such to snoop via various methods.  While stuff like truecrypt, for windows, has some nasty holes, I wouldn't trust stuff like Microsoft Bitlocker as far as I can throw it.  Reason?  Simple, Microsoft is known for having already been in bed with the NSA/blackbag folks in the past, and when busted, they backpedaled about it and pretended it was just a joke by their programmers, in naming certain things.  It was back when they introduced user/documents encryption in Windows XP.  That's why all sorts of "police and law enforcement data recovery tools" were sold all over the place and the guys who sold that stuff made good money.  Its like expensive, well made, hard to break into (without vandalizing them) cars to which the manufacturer still sells a master key, but only to the people you most wish to keep from surreptitiously searching or planting evidence in your fancy car.  Same deal with MS OS's.  I wager Windows 8 is laden with all sorts of bullshit.

Not so sure about Apple, and I wager with the right tinkering, one can reskin and retool Darwin BSD as they feel fit, that being the beauty of a unix-like kernel in the first place.

Linux and BSD have bugs, no argument there, but at least, the bugs get squashed promptly within time of being reported (there are some bugs that, for example, prevent a multiple processor or multiple core system from running without crashing but those are "fixed" by a competent administrator or dev knowing how to compile the kernel and what to put in and what to take out and how, and when.)

[padre29]

Hmm, thought True Crypt was open source?

[Adventurer, Explorer, Inquiring Mind.]

Hmm, thought True Crypt was open source?

Truecrypt is, but on the windows side it has some seriously nasty bugs, and overall some of its nastiest shortcomings were overcome by an eastern block dude.  If I remember the project he runs, totally free of charge (guy won't even accept donations) I will post it here.

What I meant is that while Truecrypt has bugs, its the only other option for Windows that is remotely trustworthy (as trustworthy as anything can be these days.)  The main flaw is that the system partition encryption is password only (no tokens, usb dongles or anything else supported for truecrypt) which leaves you with the nasty issue of having to deal with the worst bug of all.  Strange system partition corruption that occurs randomly.  They deal with this by forcing you to burn a cdrom with a 7 or 8 meg image on it, containing the drive header.

Hope that clarifies my prior remark.

[stainzblue]

If I ever truly felt the need to encrypt things (installing encryption is something I have never gotten around to doing) I would probably not bring them onto a computer in the first place. I fear my own sloppiness.  I try to keep the important stuff in my head.  A difficult task and I worry about the time when my freakish memory begins to fade.  By that time I am hoping we'll all be in a different, and hopefully better state in general. 

As for the dude that got busted for his gf's boob picture, that's just hubris.  Very sloppy.  A note to all you singles out there, unless your s/o is fully invested in your lifestyle and has as much to lose as you, remember how ugly some breakups can get; keep yer cards close to yer vest.  So in other words, if you are a hacktivist, no need for your s/o to know about that aspect of your life.

[padre29]

Hmm, thought True Crypt was open source?

Truecrypt is, but on the windows side it has some seriously nasty bugs, and overall some of its nastiest shortcomings were overcome by an eastern block dude.  If I remember the project he runs, totally free of charge (guy won't even accept donations) I will post it here.

What I meant is that while Truecrypt has bugs, its the only other option for Windows that is remotely trustworthy (as trustworthy as anything can be these days.)  The main flaw is that the system partition encryption is password only (no tokens, usb dongles or anything else supported for truecrypt) which leaves you with the nasty issue of having to deal with the worst bug of all.  Strange system partition corruption that occurs randomly.  They deal with this by forcing you to burn a cdrom with a 7 or 8 meg image on it, containing the drive header.

Hope that clarifies my prior remark.

When I looked into it basically there is some malware that can be inserted unto the MBR, but that had to be done physically.

Hmm, thought TC had a traveler mode as well, never bothered with it though.

[Scarmiglione']

I've been using TC on a Windows set, full drive encryption plus a second encrypted drive, without a single problem for a couple of years now.  I don't have anything terrible on it, but I also don't want anything *put* on it.  To me the great protection TC offers is not the encryption of the contents, but that new content can't be added inside the partition easily.  Anything added outside the partition is suspect simply because everything exists encrypted.  All non-encrypted files must have been added by a third party without access to the partition.

I presume that just as there are plant guns and plant drugs, there are also plant files that could be easily dropped onto an open disk to "insure" convictions.

[knobster]

Fellas, we're getting waaaay off track here.

How large were the breasts?

[Adventurer, Explorer, Inquiring Mind.]

I've been using TC on a Windows set, full drive encryption plus a second encrypted drive, without a single problem for a couple of years now.  I don't have anything terrible on it, but I also don't want anything *put* on it.  To me the great protection TC offers is not the encryption of the contents, but that new content can't be added inside the partition easily.  Anything added outside the partition is suspect simply because everything exists encrypted.  All non-encrypted files must have been added by a third party without access to the partition.

I presume that just as there are plant guns and plant drugs, there are also plant files that could be easily dropped onto an open disk to "insure" convictions.

PRECISELY why I use encryption.  I had one of my bootsticks in my possession wiped when the donut grazers nabbed me, they probably tried writing something to the disk in question.  They required significant work and they're only serving duty as videogame save file backups for my playstation now.    "Just in case."

The system at home, the actual used system booted from a secondary partition that was stored offsite.  Nothing new on it, for sure.

You would be surprised, say you want to run for sheriff in your area, and suddenly your house gets raided by the current statist sheriff, and kiddie porn gets found on your computer, and you do years of time and your stuff gets stolen and your life destroyed.  Not that it will happen, but it could.  And it has.  Hit the hacker underground 'zines and read up.  Lots of lives have already been destroyed with a little bit of black hattery by the powers that be.  Most of them are incompetent, but that's what makes the few competents amongst them so dangerous.  You aren't expecting them to harm you, and when they do, its too late to encrypt stuff and learn how to actually use that stuff right.

I couldn't even begin to tell you how many freedomistas are equally as sloppy as the cops.  Probably unintentional for most of them, but one compromised key during a serious conversation, and bye bye friends.

[stainzblue]

Fellas, we're getting waaaay off track here.

How large were the breasts?

I am thinking the same thing!

[padre29]

Fellas, we're getting waaaay off track here.

How large were the breasts?

I am thinking the same thing!

IDC if they were EE's, no breasts are worth going to prison for...well maybe...

[stainzblue]

Fellas, we're getting waaaay off track here.

How large were the breasts?

I am thinking the same thing!

IDC if they were EE's, no breasts are worth going to prison for...well maybe...

Reminds me of a line Rodney Dangerfield has in the movie Easy Money.  A condition of his wealthy mother-in-law's will was that he had to give up his flirting, drinking, and gambling in order to inherit two million bucks.  He goes in his backyard and his voluptuous neighbor is sunbathing topless in plain sight.  He mutters to himself "They're not worth two million... One million maybe..."

[Adventurer, Explorer, Inquiring Mind.]

I'd say they were D-, C+ maybe C with the right underwire?  Can't say for sure but they weren't worth going to jail for.  Very little is worth that abuse.  Most assuredly not some girl's or guy's naughty bits, that's for sure.