Anonymous Hacker Gets Lost At Sea, Rescued, Then Arrested (softpedia.com) 116
An anonymous reader writes: Martin Gottesfeld, 31, from Somerville, Massachusetts, was arrested by FBI agents after being rescued at sea in the Gulf of Mexico. According to the FBI, Mr. Gottsfeld was under investigation after launching a series of cyber-attacks against Boston Children's Hospital in 2014, as part of the Anonymous hacker collective. Gottesfeld and his wife were found in a sailboat, near the coast of Cuba, with lots of luggage and 3 laptops. A Disney Cruise ship took them to the Bahamas, where FBI agents took him into custody.
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OMG, they thought they were actually pirates! LMAO.
Re:Disney? (Score:5, Funny)
Got rescued by Disney. But did not live happily ever after.
Re:Nice to have a black / white image of a person. (Score:5, Informative)
Boston Children's Hospital was likely in the wrong for what they did. Here's some background: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/12/07/difficult-return-hospital-for-justina-pelletier/u4JXzmt5YsmWhYk95za2aK/story.html [bostonglobe.com]. Justina Pelletier had been diagnosed with a mitochondrial disorder, but doctors at BCH decided the ailments were mental. They claimed that Pelletier's parents were harming her by seeking medical treatments that the BCH doctors deemed unnecessary with their diagnosis. Pelletier was declared a ward of the state and spent over a year in a psychiatric health unit. Another article worth reading is http://www.csoonline.com/article/2147347/hacktivism/activisms-slippery-slope-anonymous-targets-childrens-hospital.html [csoonline.com], which says that there was a note allegedly written by Pelletier saying that caregivers in the psychiatric health unit were abusing her.
Diagnosing some ailments is difficult, and doctors don't always agree. I suspect Pelletier's parents believed they were doing the right thing. Declaring her a ward of the state was a pretty awful thing to do. If the caregivers didn't treat her well, that's even worse. Campaigns on social media and going to the traditional media to protest this is absolutely warranted. Threatening to harm doctors crosses the line. Denial of service attacks against a hospital might affect systems used to provide medical care, endangering patients. That's truly wrong because it puts innocent people at risk of being collateral damage.
Re:Nice to have a black / white image of a person. (Score:4, Insightful)
No, they were not "likely in the wrong for what they did". Do you think it's just a coincidence that she was "in desperate need of hospitalization" when they separated her from her parents, then during the time away from them she became healthy enough to be going out and playing, going from interview to interview, going on trips, etc... then a couple months later after living with her parents ended up back in the hospital on an IV drip?
It amazes me how everyone took the parents statements at face value in this case. According to the hospital, they didn't just rush off and try to get her declared a ward of the state - after the parents refused to listen, they tried to convene a meeting with all of her past caretakers, other people who knew her, etc, but the parents derailed their efforts. They basically had no choice but to either let the parents continue to do what they were convinced was medical child abuse, or step in. And the judge didn't just defer to the hospital's diagnosis in his ruling to put her in protective custody, but also blasted the parents for their erratic behavior and for trying to derail all attempts at compromise. There were many proposals laid out that would have left them with custody of her, but "Rather, the parents, either directly or indirectly, continue to engage in very concerning conduct that does not give this court any confidence they will comply with conditions of custody.'
The case was accused of basically being Munchhausen Syndrome by proxy - that is, the caretaker lies to or otherwise misleads the child and doctors about their child's condition, and often seeks treatment that actually cause the child to develop real symptoms which they then play into their dealings with the child and with doctors. They often engage extensively in doctor shopping, staying only with a doctor so long as he agrees to continue doing whatever treatments they feel are necessary for the child. Kids are very suggestible to begin with, even without parents doing that sort of thing. In the case of Justina, when they brought in a psychologist, the psychologist immediately noticed that the severity of Justina's symptoms was highly dependent on whether her mother was around, and the mother was constantly playing up everything.
It's easy to get concerned about the seriousness of taking a child out of their parents' custody - it's a massive blow to both the parents and the child. But let's also not forget the seriousness of what medical child abuse is all about. In the case of Justina, her parents had taken her for all kinds of surgeries and invasive procedures, some risky and experimental, such as installing a flush port to her digestive tract in her abdomen. She was said to have "mito", but her metabolic workup showed perfectly normal results. She had never had a muscle biopsy. While she was at the hospital her parents were trying to have a feeding tube installed. She was taking a wide range of medications, some with harmful side effects. If you were concerned that this was a case of MSP and were looking at what these parents had done and what they were trying to do, wouldn't you be concerned?
parent is a one-sided deceptive view (mod down) (Score:3, Interesting)
It's never that simple, when parents receive conflicting information from different doctors. And when someone alleges a parent is abusing a child, that be a very scary thing. It's particularly so when it involves removing custody from a parent who genuinely wants the best for the child. It's very possible the parents may not have cooperated out of fear. There are plenty of people who will say that medical child abuse is overcharged, that it's actually less frequent than the accusations that are made.
There h
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This is why I feel the "I'm just doing my job" shield needs to be removed from people who make judgements like taking a child away from their parents. Before a decision like that gets made, it needs to be reviewed by independent people, and if certain players in the game (BCH reps in this case) start taking consistent adversarial positions, they should be excused from decision making roles in future judgements - advocate, fine, judge or jury, no.
Oh, but that takes too much time and is too expensive. What
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Munchhausen Syndrome by proxy is very real. My earlier reply shows how limited exposure to the facts of the case can give a particular point of view weight - sometimes too much weight. We have friends who brought their infant in to a hospital for treatment and, thanks to the hospital staff executing procedure like mechanized drones, lost custody of their infant for over a week while they were forced to engage lawyers and drop their entire life to get their child back. The hospital made the absolute wrong
Re:Nice to have a black / white image of a person. (Score:5, Informative)
Holy Crap, you people are ignorant.
1. Justina's Doctor moved from their home town to BCH.
2. HE was the one that diagnosed her and was treating her.
3. They took her there in order to see him during a difficult time for her.
4. BCH people NEVER LET HIM SEE HER.
5. Instead, they sent her to the Psch ward where some asshat Doctor had a program that had previously taken children away from other parents.
To reiterate. HER Doctor, who Diagnosed her and was treating her, moved to BCH. That's why they went there.
BTW, her doctor is a leading expert in the field of mitochondrial disease.
It's all out there for anyone to read with just a tiny bit of effort.
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After 14 years of it, no, that's not really expected. As was stated by the medical team.
And anyone who heroizes attacks on childrens' hospitals is horrible.
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To be more specific (FDIA is another name for the condition): Link [clevelandclinic.org]
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Munchausen syndrome by proxy is a mental illness and a form of child abuse. Her parents had a port permanently installed in the child's intestines when there was no medical reason to do so, and were now petitioning the doctors at BCH for even more invasive treatments.
Doctors at BCH examined the child, remember, and found no medical evidence to explain her symptoms. Removing the child from her parents is not something they undertook lightly, but in this case was warranted - the child's symptoms were much imp
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It's not that simple. This isn't a case of siding with the medical experts versus the parents. This was a case where the medical experts disagreed on the causes of the child's symptoms. The doctors at BCH claimed it was a mental health issue. The doctors at Tufts believed it was a physical health issue. The parents were stuck in the middle between doctors at two hospitals who disagreed. When the opted to follow the treatments proposed by doctors at Tufts, the doctors at BCH alleged medical child abuse. BCH
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If the parents have an accredited institution backing their decisions, BCH needs to respect the parents' decision and get the hell out of the case. That would be simple overstepping of their authority and role - BCH is there to help, but if the parents prefer Tufts, BCH needs to leave the parents the hell alone - attack Tufts if they must, but not through any negative consequences to the family. Even if the family is nuttier than a truck full of fruitcakes, BCH should go down for something like this, hard
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Munchausen syndrome by proxy is a mental illness and a form of child abuse
and it is a significant contributor to the infant mortality rate.
It's a tough nut to crack, how to respect good parent's rights while identifying the cases in which they really are abusing their child (or themselves in straight Munchausen syndrome without the proxy.)
I'd err on the side of "refuse to treat" rather than "remove the child from the home" - but that's also a quick way for the child to end up dead. It's kind of similar to a patient showing up demanding an MRI, then identifying their gall bladde
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Munchausen by proxy is also fantastically easy to misdiagnose. With what I know about psychology and psychiatry I wouldn't even 100% trust it to be real. Neither field can claim to true understanding of how the brain works and both have a history of inventing 'quack' illnesses, and of massive misdiagnoses. I've also seen how good people like doctors or police can be at covering things up when they make a mistake - especially if it might cost them their careers or time in prison..
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Threatening to harm doctors does cross the line, but if you put yourself in their position you can see how they view the doctors as threatening to harm Justina. The whole "ward of the state" move is something that should carry some personal responsibility for the person "making the call" - I know it's a tough job and that most people in it do far more good than harm, but it's a job that absolutely demands compassion and sympathy for the people who are being impacted by the decisions - and often the people
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Whether the doctor/hospital was harming the child or not is a matter that the state and the courts were involved in. Where does this individual, acting under the Anonymous label, gain anything for anyone by injecting themselves into the debate with an attack?
This was a DDoS attack, not a fishing expedition to find incriminating documents. In the latter case, I could at least see a value to one side or another in freeing information. In this case, they just denied service to users, which in the case of a
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Yes, DDoS was a childish play, petty revenge, and not helpful to anyone from a logical standpoint.
From an emotional standpoint, the M.D. is screwing with this person using the power of his position, not that this justifies somebody screwing with his practice in some eye for an eye balance of things, but... when my first child was about to be born, I very nearly punched out a billing clerk who interjected herself into the process with a very untimely demand for money - here's a woman who has slacked off on h
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I have no idea who is right or who is wrong in the original situation, but I see no utility in executing a DDoS in this scenario. It feels like the DDoS in the hands of some hackers is a "solution" looking for a problem.
When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
You arrogant asshat (Score:2)
"Had it been targeted against the incompetent doctor(s) i would have no problem with this."
So a stressed out doctor who may have worked 80 hours that week makes one mistake and you think its ok to cyber attack him systems which may compromise patients records or even their treatment??
Why the fuck do people like you think you're judge and jury??!
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"A jury is a pretty stupid concept. "
I think my initial subject line was too kind to you. You're clearly an utter moron.
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Maybe doctors shouldn't be working 80 hours per week.
Anonymous became a tool of establishment (Score:3, Interesting)
as time went on Anonymous increasingly became a tool of western 'liberal' establishment pushing its ideology against outsiders.
for example, it, becoming prosecutor, judge, and executioner, tried to take down twitter accounts (branded as isis supporters) of those protesting and resisting( by definition through a non violent platform of tweets) western crimes, torture camps, invasions, etc.. it tried to do the same for outsider candidate trump. in contrast Anonymous has not done anything against establishment criminals like clintons, or members of western military drone killing children in countries it invaded , or those running the torture camps illegally.
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Now it encompasses those who want a lesser government, so that they can freely steal... (from their clients!), those who think they are blessed when they make money and poor people are scum, those who want to lobby the government to put its machinery at their service ...
So, these "western liberals" want at the same time a lesser government but a bigger government???
It's funny how many people push so much for an all-powerful government but only if it agrees with their ideas, then complain when the tide shifts.
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What has been Anonymous' three biggest victories? I don't follow them, so I'm curious as to how effective they have been.
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I asked for three.
Re:Anonymous became a tool of establishment (Score:2)
Are you claiming ISIS are the good guys who are just resisting Western imperialism?
You know that they are so insanely, aggressively viciously violent that even the "west's" formerly most reviled terrorist group (Al Queda) denounced them. Whatever you think aout the Clintons, ISIS is much, much worse.
You're also falling into the logical fallacy of claiming something is bad because it doesn't address every possible problem simultaneously and/or the problems that you consider to be particularly important. It i
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you seem to be a typical product of american 'education'
That's very curious, very curious indeed, given I'm not American.
read and understand before replying if possible.
You seem to be confusing disagreeing wiht not understanding. I read, I understood and I disagree. I put forth arguments, and you did not attempt to address them (beyond a few insults), and instead just restated. So, I'll restate my arguments once more.
i said Annoymous is applying double standards in favor of western 'liberal' establishment;
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Re:Anonymous became a tool of establishment (Score:4, Insightful)
i said Anonymous is a tool of western 'liberal' establishment, because it is ignoring its crimes
And I said that doesn't make them a tool and I gave reasons, which you've ignored.
there is no false equivalence, there is equivalence, period. crimes of western establishment and isis are comparable in horror.
Frankly, no they're not. The thing about badness is you can always have more of it. No matter how bad someone is, it's possible for someone else to be worse. What seems to be the problem is that you've latched on to some awful thing the Us has done and you are incapable of conceiving that there could possibly be anything worse. You are, of course either mistaken or ignorant. There's always room for worse, and ISIS is it.
how exactly is any crime worse than drone killing of children?
How about genocide of the children, their parantes and, if ISIS gets it's way, their entire race? I assert that is worse.
And WTF is your obsession with drones? How is killing children with a drone any worse than shooting them with an AK-47, stoning them to death or shelling them?
And trivially, killing more people is always worse than killing fewer. ISIS have killed far more than US drone strikes. Does that make the rather "collateral damage" heavy drone strikes good or acceptable? No, not even slightly. But is ISIS killing around 200,000 worse than the US killing 10,000? Yep, very much so.
if anything, while quality of evil is similar, as far as quantity goes western establishment is far worse.
I would argue that you are mistaken on both counts.
do explain. don't run from questions.
I did, twice. You're intent on just stating your rhetoric with no actual argument, ignoring my points then accusing me of having an "american" education and of irrationality.
or do you side with one side over another?
Yes I do. I mean, why support the greater of two evils? Much better to go with the lesser.
as in drone killing children is ok, systematic torture and killing of unarmed prisoners without judicial oversight is ok, bombing whole towns to dust is ok , but terrorist attacks in paris is not ok, torturing and killing of unarmed prisoners(by other side) is not ok,
Again, you are weirdly obsessed with drones. Apart from drones, ISIS engages in all of those things with great gusto. they slaughter children, and families, shell whole towns to dust with artillery, torture prisoners (do they have judicial oversight? who cares: as far as they care it's within their laws to do so), and so on.
Everything you're accusing the US of, ISIS is doing, and more so.
You're also ignoring the genocide which they're attempting to commit.
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all your 'arguments' ( to be generous to call them that )were answered previously.
you are yet to answer any of my arguments, but continues to display your ignorance, irrationality and twisted morality.
and i have nothing but contempt for a person like you who justifies child killing, torture and invasions etc etc ( all of which are committed by western establishment and isis). you( and Anonymous) support one side, i none.
you must love living off blood of innocents.!
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you must love living off blood of innocents.!
No, I dislike their blood: I find it a bit icky. I prefer feasting on their livers.
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thanks for admitting that you have run out of all rational arguments against me and is reduced to finding fault with my capitalization.
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who said i support trump ?
i said Anonymous is acting like a tool of western 'liberal' establishment against its opponents
The Bahamas - a new territory of the USA? (Score:4, Interesting)
Miami (Score:5, Informative)
According to a couple [bostonglobe.com] of reports [cnbc.com] he was arrested in Miami.
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I thought that [the Bahamas] was an independent country.
the Bahamas is located right off the coast of Florida and are reliant on the US for tourism. they wouldn't do anything to jeopardize relations with the US.
Will they be getting Medicare soon?
will you shut up if i answer, "yes"?
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" the Bahamas, where FBI agents took him into custody". There - and I thought that it was an independent country. Will they be getting Medicare soon?
The FBI has agents in embassies around the world, where ether coordinate with local law enforcement. The Bahamas probably simply decided to let the FBI take them rather than arrest them themselves and then go through extradition proceedings.
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Clearly, he should have been given a plane ticket to the US and told to turn himself in. What could go wrong?
I can (kinda) understand him trying to flee (Score:2)
to Cuba (except for the piss-poor Internet), but why the hell was a Disney ship near Cuba?
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Re:I can (kinda) understand him trying to flee (Score:4, Informative)
The Disney Caribbean cruise travels first to a port in Mexico, then essentially sails around to the other side of Cuba to either Grand Cayman and/or Jamaica, depending on the cruise you book. All the interesting islands in the Caribbean essentially surround Cuba. See for yourself:
http://disneycruiselineblog.co... [disneycruiselineblog.com]
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All the interesting islands in the Caribbean essentially surround Cuba.
Are you trying to claim that Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, St Johns, Anguilla, St Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, etc are of no interest or are you claiming that all the the windward and leeward islands that all lie far east of Cuba somehow "surround" it ?
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[*] I mean affordable for purchase, not merely visit. The whole island, not some minor property therein.
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How else do you think Obama managed to get Cuba to come in from the cold and start warming ties with the US? They finally relented and offered him anything he wanted if they'd just stop torturing their island after he blasted the Frozen song at them off the coast for the 3087th time whilst they were forced to watch a hundred Mickey Mouses dance around on the deck every time they tried to simply enjoy their beautiful beaches.
Possibly the biggest surprise in the case (Score:3)
I didn't think Anonymous could go much lower (Score:2)
But attacking a childrens hospital because of one particular case that Mr Self Appointed Judge and Jury clearly had issues with is really setting a new low bar. I honestly hope they put him in a cell with Big Bubba and throw away the key. And at 31 years old the guy needs to grow the fuck up fast. This is the sort of shit that teenagers pull, not a supposed adult.
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Pretty much for jailing any of these outlaws that act independently to interfere with others on their own. Doesn't matter who they're interfering with, don't care if its bin Laden, doesn't matter, they don't have the right to act independently and maliciously. If they want to make a difference to wrongdoers, they can gather data and tell the FBI to "sic 'em."
Now... (Score:3)
...make an example of him.
At some point we seem to have recognized how vitally important networks and computers have become to our system, but we still pretty much treat hacking as a minor (if not outright trivial) crime.
Then again, I'm for capital punishment because if you have 7+ billion of ANYTHING, they're demonstrably not precious.
Hey FBI (Score:2)
What? I like to sail.
Raises more questions.. (Score:2)
I am curious about the backstory to this attempted escape more than the foolishness of his hacking that put him in the crosshairs.
Like, where did he get the boat? Was it stolen? Borrowed?
Was it seaworthy? Sail or power? Where did they leave from?
My guess is that they took off and tried crossing the gulf stream during a period when the wind was contrary and got tossed. The wife then tossed her cookies and probably demanded they get rescued.
Knowing how things operate down there, they probably had eyes on the
"Anonymous Hacker" (Score:2)
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Clearly not very anonymous, if they knew exactly who he was and what he was doing, to arrest him...
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To clarify: I knew what it meant. I was just snarking, because the whole reason for the name "Anonymous" is because they would like to claim to *be* anonymous, and this guy clearly totally failed at it.
Water logged ion cannons (Score:2)
While I think sentencing for hax0ring and in general has gotten way out of hand the DDOS attacks are just lame. They require no skill, have no class and closely resemble whiney little entitled bitches pouting.
If they had defaced the hospitals website with some class in response to an action of the hospital they believed to be unjust I would be far less critical.