Harvard Bomb Hoax Perpetrator Caught Despite Tor Use 547
Meshach writes "The FBI has caught the student who called in a bomb threat at Harvard University on December 16. The student used a temporary anonymous email account routed through Tor, but the FBI was able to trace it (PDF) because it originated from the Harvard wireless network. He could face as long as five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine if convicted. He made the threat to get out of an exam."
In the kitchen (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
Yes. Or perhaps only one (in the relevant time frame).
In terms of a deterrent, I'm not sure 5 years of jail is going to sound any more scary than just expulsion; the penalties here seem out of line.
Re: In the kitchen (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure is a lot to give up to keep from having to take an exam.
Re: In the kitchen (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: In the kitchen (Score:4, Informative)
I shouldn't state it, but I hope an example is made from this person. At the uni I graduated from, they had many of these incidents, all timed around midterms or finals week. It got old having the police stop and lock down everyone in a building or having to wait hours for them to clear a parking lot with the dogs. Of course, when trying to focus on passing, it doesn't help either when a final is moved/rescheduled and one has spent a good long time preparing for it.
Re:In the kitchen (Score:4, Informative)
Yeah. I bet he was the only one (or a very few) at the time on Harvard's wifi and TOR. Then some good old fashioned police work, by telling the suspect some well crafted white lies closed the case. ie (we know what you did, sign this confession and make your life easier.) Unless I missed it, the court document never said they traced the specific message to him. Just him to TOR and TOR to the email. Then he admitted to it. At any rate, I'm glad they caught him. There are easier ways to avoid taking a test.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes. Or perhaps only one (in the relevant time frame).
In terms of a deterrent, I'm not sure 5 years of jail is going to sound any more scary than just expulsion; the penalties here seem out of line.
IMO, not even remotely out of line. Ignoring the impact to students at Harvard (and the cost to the school), it impacted local police, and the area around Harvard.
And more importantly, and the whole point of punishments, is to put the deterrent high enough to prevent others from doing it. If the perception of a moron like this kid is "I'm going to flunk out" vs "I'm going to be expelled", unless there's a 100% chance of being caught making the threat, you're better off making the threat if the only ramifica
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I suspect it wasn't hard to figure out. Bomb threats before exams are fairly common, historically. Therefore, there's a high likelihood that the perp is a student. Therefore, high likelihood that the threat originated on campus. Examination of router logs during the time in question then becomes the most likely first step. And it paid off. This doesn't really have anything to do with TOR. It has to do with an individual student understanding just enough about how the internet works to make a half ass
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
So once the FBI subpeona'd Tor to get the IP number that sent the threat, it was a done deal.
Tor is not an entity.
Re:In the kitchen (Score:5, Informative)
If you had taken the time to read the deposition, when confronted he said that he did it and why.. so yeah, he's toasted.
Re:In the kitchen (Score:5, Informative)
So once the FBI subpeona'd Tor to...
That's an awful long post for someone that doesn't seem to know what they are talking about. Tor cannot be subpoenaed for information. It is a peer to peer network, not a legal entity. They got this guy because to get on university wifi you need to login, which then associates your mac address with your account and allows traffic to flow. They also monitor your traffic and could associate his account with Tor use. This gave the FBI enough information to question him and he probably was so scared and guilty feeling that he freely confessed. You can change the mac address [osxdaily.com] on most network adapters. You wouldn't need to buy a throwaway usb wifi adapter. The FBI would have had much less to go on if the perp had simply used a free wifi hotspot.
It is difficult to understand what was going on in his head but it obviously wasn't rational thought.
Of course, he'll have affluenza (Score:5, Funny)
And therefore they'll put him in rehab rather than prison.
Unless he's not affluent enough for his affluenza to be strong enough to cover this crime, after all, he called in a bomb threat, rather than killed four people in a drunk-driving incident.
Re:Of course, he'll have affluenza (Score:5, Insightful)
You should look at the statistics for people who attend Harvard. 30% of their students have a family that pulls in 150k or more.
I'm amazed it's that low.
Re:Of course, he'll have affluenza (Score:5, Funny)
Don't be, the other 70% just don't have an income, they're living off trust funds.
Re:Of course, he'll have affluenza (Score:4, Informative)
You mightn't call being in the top 9% of households incomes "exceptionally affluent", but the other 91% of people probably do.
I'm in the bottom 91%, but I certainly don't think a household on $150k a year is "exceptionally affulent". The median is about $70k.
Re: (Score:3)
Close.. but not exactly.
Try a median of 51k [cnn.com].
However that median is brought down by young kids who don't have children who go to university.
The typical wage earners in a family that send their kids to university will be arround the 45-55 mark (having had the kids around 25-35)
http://advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/Household-Incomes-by-Age-Brackets.php [advisorperspectives.com]
backs my figure up, and earning twice what the average earn (pre-tax) doesn't make you rich, it's just a divide and conquer that the truely rich like to put out there.
$150k a year for your househol
Re:Of course, he'll have affluenza (Score:4, Informative)
The valedictorian at my high school went this route. With a perfect SAT and ACT score and a bunch of academic achievement awards she probably could have gone anywhere, but she picked Harvard because they waived all the tuition and fees for her. Since her parents were Army, they couldn't provide much financial support outside of the scholarships, but their little girl got into Harvard so they were going to try.
So he didn't get caught from the e-mail... (Score:5, Interesting)
...but because he was the only one on the whole campus wifi that used Tor that day.
Lesson to learn: Keep your endpoint traffic able to be lost in the noise, or ya' stick out like a sunflower in a coal mine.
I.E. SSH somewhere *THEN* Tor.
Re:So he didn't get caught from the e-mail... (Score:4, Interesting)
His mistake was admitting it. They basically had nothing on him, he could have been using Tor for any number of reasons and was not required to explain himself. All he had to do was deny sending the email and assuming he properly secured his browser there would have been no evidence to the contrary.
Tor is still fine, even if you are the only one on campus using it. That fact alone is meaningless.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Unless they had probable cause to grab his computer and he wasn't savvy enough to have wiped the drive. Cookies for the offending email address would be pretty incriminating.
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Unless they had probable cause to grab his computer and he wasn't savvy enough to have wiped the drive. Cookies for the offending email address would be pretty incriminating.
i dont think you know how tor software works.. in using the preconfigured tor software that utilizes firefox, cookies are disabled by default, also java. and at the end of every session all history, cache and any traces to what you were doing are deleted automatically.. save if you download or bookmark something...
Re:So he didn't get caught from the e-mail... (Score:5, Insightful)
He could make a great banker, though.
Re:So he didn't get caught from the e-mail... (Score:5, Insightful)
"His mistake was admitting it."
And this is what is wrong with the world. His mistake was calling in a bomb threat to get out of taking an exam.
What an idiot. (Score:3, Insightful)
Really?! Smart man.
Avoid exam?
Bomb threat!
Police arrive?
Immediately confess!
The evidence itself was completely circumstantial. Without a confession they surely had nothing.
They had no way to prove anything other than:
1. Guerilla Mail was accessed by Tor to send the e-mails.
2. Kim is a Harvard student that recently accessed Tor.
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The evidence itself was completely circumstantial. Without a confession they surely had nothing.
They had no way to prove anything other than:
1. Guerilla Mail was accessed by Tor to send the e-mails.
2. Kim is a Harvard student that recently accessed Tor.
Enough to get a search warrant. So what do you think would a search warrant have shown? Fact is: If you did it, then there is evidence. And if the police thinks you did it, and the case is important enough to search very, very hard, they will find the evidence.
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Sounds like he visited torproject.org recently... (Score:5, Informative)
I read the PDF (shock).
It sounds suspiciously like they just checked the logs to see who had visited Tor related websites and then went and interviewed the handful of people who happened to visit these sites within a few days. Maybe interview those who had exams in the 4 listed buildings at the designated time?
Or, possibly, they just checked who had used Tor in the last few days on their network - can you ID a Tor packet by looking at it?
It doesn't sound like they needed to crack Tor.
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It doesn't sound like they needed to crack Tor.
Of course, if the NSA has easy and simple ways of cracking Tor . . . they're not going to brag about it anyway:
"Go ahead, keep using Tor . . . it's safe and we can't crack it . . ."
Re:Sounds like he visited torproject.org recently. (Score:4, Insightful)
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... and they are not going to use it for this kind of case.
Bomb threat from unknown source? Boston? Possible foreign connections? The NSA is allegedly supposed to be involved in investigation of terror threats. It's the other stuff they're doing that's got people upset.
Re:Sounds like he visited torproject.org recently. (Score:5, Informative)
Depends on who the "you" is. The list of entry nodes is public knowledge. Telecoms/Government agencies probably keep historic lists of entry nodes. So it should be trivial to show a connection to the Tor network. The PDF implied (to me) that the FBI just crossreferenced Harvard's log with their list of entry nodes.
To technically answer your question: Tor packets don't have a unique signature, but they all are of a known size.
This is one of the best-known ways to deanonymize people using Tor: timestamping entering traffic and exiting traffic. Tor itself explains they have no theoretical way to fix that issue and still maintain a system that is low-latency (there may have been a third feature as well, where they got to pick-2-of-3).
So he was clever enough ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:So he was clever enough ... (Score:5, Insightful)
He called in a bomb threat to delay taking a final. This is a dude that has already shown that he has poor decision making skills.
The linked article is confused... (Score:4, Interesting)
The linked article is confused... but Emerson Hall houses the philosophy department, so it was a philosophy final.
Which is incredibly ironic, since those are generally a matter of opinion or history, which means he could likely have passed it in any case, given that he was a psychology major with a minor in Japanese, so it was kind of a pass/fail class for him anyway. I wonder if any of the news organizations have talked to Professor Gary King (Kim was his research assistant).
No it isn't (Score:5, Insightful)
No normal person calls in a bomb threat to get out of a final that will at most just end being delayed.
That YOU were (and are) an idiot doesn't mean everyone is. If your moronic logic was true, then the phone at your average school would never stop ringing. This guy (and since you clearly identify with him, you) is an asshole who thought nothing of creating a major nuisance for teachers and students because he wanted to get out of an exam. Ten to one you and him are the type who then later grow up... grow older and at the slightest provocation threaten to sue anyone and everyone for any delay or inconvenience.
It is the eternal excuse of the asshole: Everyone does it.
Nope.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
No normal person calls in a bomb threat to get out of a final that will at most just end being delayed.
Ok, so I was flippant when I said that "everybody" (and by implication, me) does it. Let me assure you that I never did such a thing, nor anybody that I know personally. However, it does happen often enough to be well known that some students do this (and in my town we did indeed have a case where a group of students did it, and they were caught by a phone camera hidden in the payphone booth).
That YOU were (and are) an idiot doesn't mean everyone is.
That you are a humourless prick (that can't spot a flippant remark) doesn't mean that everybody else is, either. And
Re:So he was clever enough ... (Score:4, Insightful)
... to use TOR, but then gave a full confession during an "interview", throwing his right to remain silent (and to have a lawyer present during questioning) out the window?
We can assume that someone who needs to avoid a test isn't the brightest spark. We can assume that someone who sends a bomb threat to avoid a test is reckless and stupid. We can assume that if someone who is reckless and stupid mails in a bomb threat, and his identity is discovered, then there _will_ be evidence. For example, they had easily enough to get a search warrant for his computer. What are the odds that there is evidence, like a draft of the email, on his computer? Remember: This is not an evil genius trying to disrupt US universities, it is a reckless idiot trying to get out of an exam.
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We can assume that someone who needs to avoid a test isn't the brightest spark. We can assume that someone who sends a bomb threat to avoid a test is reckless and stupid. We can assume that if someone who is reckless and stupid mails in a bomb threat, and his identity is discovered, then there _will_ be evidence. For example, they had easily enough to get a search warrant for his computer. What are the odds that there is evidence, like a draft of the email, on his computer? Remember: This is not an evil genius trying to disrupt US universities, it is a reckless idiot trying to get out of an exam.
Did you read a different warrant than I did? I saw *nothing* in the declaration that would count as probably cause for a search warrant, until it got to the part of "he admitted it to me". So most likely they did NOT have enough to get a warrant for his computer (the fact that he accessed TOR on that day wouldn't, by itself, be enough - he could have been using TOR for any number of reasons).
You were dead on about him not being the sharpest knife in the drawer, though. What probably happened is that the
Re: (Score:3)
I'm not sure that it's really that surprising that he confessed - most people who are convicted of crimes plead guilty.
And that's not a ridiculous notion; if you did it and have been caught, pleading guilty can get you a pretty hefty discount on your sentence when compared to being convicted at trial. In particular, where, like here, the range of sentences is very wide, it might mean the certainty that you will not go to prison.
Re:So he was clever enough ... (Score:5, Insightful)
You plead guilty right before the trial would start, if anything.
pleading guilty can get you a pretty hefty discount on your sentence
And you waive that discount by confessing to a law enforcement officer during an "interview". Because in that case, the court has sufficient evidence to convict you regardless of your plea.
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Even if there is - cops do not have any authority to influence the sentence in any way. If you want to make deals, you'll have to talk to the prosecutor and the judge. Not to cops. Cops will merely be witnesses during the trial and happily testify that you confessed to them.
Re: So he was clever enough ... (Score:3)
As I explained before, the aim of these policies is not to try to secure convictions that otherwise would not be obtained (although obviously that will still sometimes occur). The aim is to avoid the expense of a lengthy trial.
For that reason, in many (if not most) jurisdictions, a sentence reduction will automatically be considered by the judge, whether there is agreement from the prosecutor or not. It doesn't matter what the particular cops want from you - it's a systemic policy, and the system wants to a
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Plea bargaining in the sense you see on TV - "plead guity to the jaywalking or we seek the death penalty" - is, to my mind, coercion. I don't know to what extent that exists in reality, however.
In reality, fewer than 10% of criminal cases go to trial. Fewer than 2% of federal criminal cases go to trial. Mandatory minimum sentences run in the multiple decades, making a bid for a trial an extremely risky proposition. This is extortion, plain and simple.
It's in nobody's interest to spend public money tryin
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... to use TOR, but then gave a full confession during an "interview", throwing his right to remain silent (and to have a lawyer present during questioning) out the window?
Outside of pessimists, paranoiacs, and people whose job description involves the word 'uptime', it's normal for someone engaged in 'problem solving' to stop thinking as soon as they find a solution.
In his case, he started thinking, came up with a multi-layer anonymity plan, and then apparently stopped. When it failed, he suddenly had FBI agents and no additional plan. (Also, basic script-kiddie attempts at hiding online and lying to experienced interrogators in person are two very, very, different skill
Re:So he was clever enough ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
Because there are other, innocent people interrogated as he was. And it would be better for them if the police didn't think harsh interrogation produces confessions.
Re:So he was clever enough ... (Score:4, Informative)
He just gave away any bargaining leverage by confessing to a law enforcement officer. Being able to skip a few days or weeks of trial and the associated costs will be the only advantage of a guilty plea.
"if you cooperate with us, you'll get a lesser sentence"
That is a lie, by the way. Law enforcement officers may lie when "interviewing" suspects.
If faced with 50% risk of jail time and felonies compared NO jail time and felonies, the option with the lowest risk will always win.
Confessing a to cop will get you all the jail time, every time. It's among the worst possible choices in such a case.
How did they do it? (Score:5, Informative)
From the pdf
"Harvard University was able to determine that, in the several hours leading up to the
receipt of the e-mail messages described above, ELDO KIM accessed TOR using Harvardâ(TM)s
wireless network."
So Harvard keeps track of your connections. Still circumstancial but he confessed.
"KIM then stated that he authored the bomb threat e-mails described above."
Re:How did they do it? (Score:4, Insightful)
What's more notable is that they apparently keep traffic logs for some amount of time, at least long enough to catch this guy, who knows how much longer?
If you have a network of any nontrivial size, and want to keep it from falling in a screaming heap (especially with the lousiness of wireless links in the mix), taking steps to ensure that most of the users are the ones you are supposed to be providing service to, and doing some QoS to keep them from stepping on each others' toes is basically necessary. Keeping traffic logs, though, is an additional chunk of effort and expense, and all so that people will be motivated to come bug you for access to them. I wonder when they started keeping logs, and why.
Re: (Score:3)
logs are kept because you need them. I wouldn't expect it to be apparent to someone who has never had to manage a real network, but logs and a reasonable retention are essential. There is a basic tension at work, though. You need logs from a management perspective, the more the better, but the more you have the greater your liability.
For something basic like netflow (which any sane network administrator is going to have) you might have months of data. Places will vary, and some insist they need years, other
Re:How did they do it? (Score:4, Interesting)
While we were forced to use DPI in order to catch people torrenting movies (our university threatened to pull the plug otherwise!), we also used it to catch the inevitable Worm infections or Botnets.
Such computers were isolated from the rest of the net and (almost) all HTTP traffic was redirected (save for traffic to know antivirus software providers) to a page which stated that their computed was infected with Zeus, Conficker or whatever else is floating around there. And that they were to clean up their PCs and that we also recommended a complete wipe. They then had to type in "Yes, I understand" and were given a 24 hour grace period. If, after that time period, their PC was still infected they were off the net until they proved a complete reinstall to us.
Well it worked (Score:5, Funny)
He made the threat to get out of an exam.
he won't have to worry about that any more
Harvard (Score:5, Insightful)
I expected more from a Harvard student.
A couple of hours of online research should have taught him to, at least, connect through a cracked wifi far from his neighborhood. Or, if he was computer illiterate, to convince someone from another country to send the mails for him.
Also, once he decided to avoid the exam in a way that could land him in prison, why use a method he didn't understand, instead of burning down the building or paying someone to send the teacher to the hospital?
However, the first question I would ask him would be if he had considered that simply approaching the teacher and explaining him that he and all his family would be killed unless the exam was postponed, carried a shorter jail time than a terrorist threat.
In conclusion, clearly in Harvard they are not teaching how to deal with real world problems pragmatically.
Re:Harvard (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
Yes. That means you must be rich or dedicated and intelligent to study there. However, even the most intelligent people make stupid things and he could also be from the first group. Beside that, I do not believe that Harvard graduates are better in general than graduates from a normal university. They are only better connected to influential people.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
What is this "pay phone" you mention?
Re:Kids these days... (Score:5, Interesting)
If he'd just called it in from a pay phone, they'd never have found him.
In Luxembourg, a couple of students at the European School did exactly that a few years ago. They were caught pretty quickly, because, you know, payphones have cameras... ("officially" to catch vandalism, but these cams sure did come in handy in this case as well). So, cops just walked with the pix from classroom to classroom until they found the perps.
Remember when this was no big deal? (Score:5, Insightful)
Remember the days when this story wouldn't even have made the local paper? Seriously, 25 years ago your average school saw one of these every few years. It headlined the school paper, the local cops investigated, but the FBI? National news? Heck no.
Who needs terrorists when we now pay large corporations and government agencies to spread panic? Quit terrorizing the nation to protect your job security and let me know when something actually blows up.
Heckler veto (Score:5, Insightful)
we can spank the crap out of the idiots so that this kind of noise is minimized. Same goes for rape/hate crime hoaxes.
Re:Heckler veto (Score:5, Insightful)
We can either live in a future where little jackwagons can effect a denial-of-service attack on society, or we can spank the crap out of the idiots so that this kind of noise is minimized.
OR we can stop over-reacting and instead apply a rational evaluation of the facts. This knee-jerk "all threats must be taken seriously" where "seriously" really means "total freakout" is the vulnerability here.
Re:Heckler veto (Score:4, Insightful)
When you are in charge, rational thing to do is to take threat seriously amd act on it.
Why? Because if you are wrong about it being hoax, you are the one who has been responsible for preventing any and all deaths or injuries related to bomb going off.
Your life would be instantly ruined - you failed to do your job and people died. Media and Internet would make sure everyone knows for year (up untill your deaths).
Best thing to do is to do your job properly and when someone tries to abuse that, kick the fucker in the nuts enough so that it is not worth it for him.
Re:"because it originated from the wireless networ (Score:5, Informative)
Not neccessarily. His access to Tor via the campus wifi matched the timing of the emails enough to get him in a room, and then he confessed. Without the confession there'd be a lot less certainty of conviction, as the presumption of innocence would probably compel a jury, in the absence of any other compelling evidence, to find him not guilty.
Moral of the story: Don't talk to cops.
(also, don't make false bomb threats. They're stupid)
Re:"because it originated from the wireless networ (Score:5, Informative)
In our next lesson we will learn delayed email deliver functionality. Stay tuned!
Re:"because it originated from the wireless networ (Score:5, Funny)
Re: "because it originated from the wireless netwo (Score:4, Insightful)
Is that more or less work than actually studying for the exam?
Re: (Score:3)
College students are allergic to studying. It gives them hives and agida.
Re: (Score:3)
Say what? Why not just buy a cheap USB wireless stick (paying cash, of course) and send the message from a car parked outside of Panera Bread (or any other unsecured wireless network) and then throw the stick into the nearest storm drain? The only thing you have to do is use a MAC address not already registered in Harvard's DHCP tables to the student. While a proper geek would then edit the internal logs of the laptop -- a REAL geek on their LINUX (or possibly Mac) laptop where the logs are in straight A
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Duke doesn't require you to authenticate your wireless device every time you connect, and I doubt most other Universities do either. It does require you to register your device MAC address (in an authenticated session). In fact, at this point Duke might require you to register wired addresses as well. Unregistered devices get kicked onto an anonymous network outside of a firewall, so visitors can get internet access without getting a "Duke" IP number. Duke controls its own outgoing PoP, of course, so it
Protip (Score:5, Insightful)
Just study, it's easier.
Re: (Score:3)
Except he sent the email 30 minutes before the exam, because he was desperate at the last minute.
Also, news at 10pm: Desperation makes teenager do stupid stuff.
Re: "because it originated from the wireless netwo (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
I stand corrected.
Re: (Score:3)
It's really hard to know how universally safe tor is. Maybe it protects you against Chile but not the NSA. Obviously, the Feds have a lot of money and can deploy a lot of tor systems. Shifting the discussion a little bit, from anonymity to privacy, I'm basically skeptical of all technological means at maintaining privacy, for several reasons: 1) it's super easy to screw up and leak information (this bomb hoax being a prime example). 2) Encryption acts more as temporary barrier because inevitably, it is
Re: (Score:3)
I completely agree. I tend to trust high end encryption because I know something about how difficult the problem of cracking a serious cipher with a large key is -- even brute force attacks simply aren't tenable for the good ones. 4096 bits is 2^4096 approx 10^400 permutations and 100 billion years with every atom in the visible Universe a computer still aren't enough. Of course this time can be substantially reduced if one discovers mathematical weaknesses in the encryption or if people do stupid things
Re: "because it originated from the wireless netwo (Score:5, Insightful)
also, don't make false bomb threats. They're stupid
Don't make real ones either. They're even stupider.
Re: "because it originated from the wireless netwo (Score:5, Informative)
This reminds me of the news the other day - there have had a few bombs going off recently in Northern Ireland - with warnings. Anyhow, on Monday the news said that a man was being treated for burns in Belfast, which was thought to be linked to sectarian violence, my first thought was "FFS, now they're setting each other on fire", quickly followed by laughter when it turned out the incendiary device he was carrying detonated - serves the stupid fucker right.
Re: (Score:3)
Or, and I'm just spitballing here, don't do any of that. Instead, use persuasive arguments to convince people to follow your will instead of trying to impose it via violence or threat of violence. Or even, if what you want people do do is legal to pay people to do, try that.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Re:"because it originated from the wireless networ (Score:5, Funny)
If you weren't ready to make that post, you could've called in a bomb threat.
Re:"because it originated from the wireless networ (Score:5, Insightful)
The wonderful thing about shows like CSI is that it convinces criminals to implement absurd technical defences when their crimes will almost certainly be dealt with by old-fashioned police work.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
If you're *innocent*, don't talk to cops.
If you're guilty, spill the beans immediately.
You seem to want to encourage criminals to waste the whole legal system's time? (Which, like everything in the end, is paid for by honest tax-payers.)
Re:"because it originated from the wireless networ (Score:5, Insightful)
Precisely this. Harvard keeps flow type logs, they found someone using tor. Pigs barfed on him, he cracked and confessed. The kid's a fucking retard, mostly for cranking people.
Please, don't use Tor to harass and be an asshole.
Real freedom fighters need Tor, not you and your lulz.
See who else really needs Tor: https://www.torproject.org/
And quit being assholes.
Re: (Score:3)
Please, don't use Tor to harass and be an asshole. Real freedom fighters need Tor, not you and your lulz.
Almost everyone needs anonymity, at least some of the time. The more people use Tor (without cheating), the more robust is the network, so your uppity attitude is completely out of place. Tor is for lulz as much as it is for freedom fighting.
Re:"because it originated from the wireless networ (Score:5, Funny)
Re:"because it originated from the wireless networ (Score:5, Funny)
Was the guy ever catched ? Nope.
Did this happen during an English class?
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Rule #9 of the American Justice System: To a jury, any doubt is reasonable; the better the case, the worse the jury; a good man is hard to find, but 12 of them, gathered together in one place, is a miracle.
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that would be a big red flag because, you know...Silk Road is shut down.
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You missed the part where he didn't want to take an exam.
He didn't want to take an exam that day (probably because he had started studying way too late). He wouldn't probably object taking it 1 week later (or whatever date it would have been postponed too).
If he hadn't confessed, he would have had to take it. So he really didn't have a choice.
Even that is no guarantee. Maybe the cops will "allow" him to take the exam from prison?
Re: (Score:3)
I think it is also worth noting that this is coming from Harvard. Not to say that other schools don't have similar issues but my point is that this is a very high end, private, and expensive university. And that that most of the people there are expected, and that is probably putting it lightly, to excel.
My point is that the higher the stakes the more people tend to be willing to do. Whatever those stakes may be. Be it some personal drive, parental urgings, or whatever. (And I'm talking about people th
Re:"because it originated from the wireless networ (Score:4, Interesting)
They didn't know it originated from the wireless network. They knew it came from Tor. I could have sent it, for all they know. What they did know was the time it arrived. They played a hunch that it came locally (someone who planted/discovered the bomb on campus) and checked to see who had used Tor on their network at around that time, it's plain old fashioned detective work.
Put the suspect in a room with an interrogator and extract a confession ("We have you on the Tor network the exact same time the email for the bomb hoax came through", "You were the only person using it at the time (whether that is true or not) so we know you did it", "This will go a lot easier on you if you confess now"). Will the confession stand? Did they read Miranda rights? Was he offered legal council?
Re:"because it originated from the wireless networ (Score:4, Insightful)
legal council? probably not. he's a terrorism suspect after all!!
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The PDF says he signed a waiver of Miranda rights.
Re:"because it originated from the wireless networ (Score:5, Informative)
Moron. I don't care how innocent or guilty you are.
Don't talk
Demand a lawyer (only time you can talk)
Don't sign anything
Don't fucking talk!
Did I mention not talking?
By the time your lawyer arrives you should need a glass of water because your lips will be stuck together from all the not talking you were doing.
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Every time you join their wireless network, there is a click-through stating you agree that your traffic will be stored, should you do something stupid. Not in those same words, but close enough (at least in a series of two sentences... of which any Harvard student should be able to understand..
Most of their traffic capturing was put in because of a mandate from the MPAA and RIAA back quite a few years ago. They were either going to be sued for aiding and abetting or they had to keep logs of which student
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I'm surprised he did it from his dorm (if, indeed, he actually did it). I thought the sensible thing was to go down to the local public library and/or coffee shop (without cameras) and do your shit from there.
Well, assuming that there aren't cameras in the local public library or coffee ship, the challenge is in getting there without showing up on any intermediary cameras.
That, after all, was one of the first things they scoured after the Marathon bombing.