What is Digg?176 Comments
- buzzedlightyear, on 02/29/2008, -6/+172good luck pointing him in any direction, he's blind.
- Roger, on 02/29/2008, -1/+155"... fell in with a gang of telephone ruffians -- men as old as 40 -- who eventually fingered the teenager ..."
There's gotta be a better way of saying that. - inactive, on 02/29/2008, -12/+159I think the problem with a lot of gifted people is more boredom than malice. I think this kid could be a major force for good in society if he was pointed in the right direction. Good luck to him. I hope he doesn't end up in prison or worse.
- inactive, on 02/29/2008, -8/+72I hate that reasonning. Blind, smart or triangle, he's still a ***** *****. People could've died from his prank.
And the only thing that makes him a hacker is this reporter's lack of vocabulary. It's just a punk who made a prank call using a widely available service. - inactive, on 02/29/2008, -6/+67That's not hacking. Maybe it was in 1984, but not anymore. It's a 5$ party trick.
http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a ... - subliminalurge, on 02/29/2008, -4/+48Just grab him by the shoulders and turn him. Mission accomplished.
- exomni, on 02/29/2008, -2/+43"he poses a unique challenge to the federal justice system, because he is blind from birth"
Who the ***** cares if the ***** is blind? How does that change ANYTHING? Some law against throwing blind ***** in jail? - artmaster, on 02/29/2008, -0/+38"Because he's underage, Wired.com is not reporting Li'l Hacker's last name. His first name is Matthew..." - "And while Matt was on the party lines, his mother, Amy Kahloul, could sometimes be heard in the background..."
- elamr, on 02/29/2008, -3/+26unless your wilth NAMBLA
- johndi, on 02/29/2008, -3/+25He's a manipulative sociopath. How is that a "gift" that can help society? If anything he's the perfect example of how the informant system is so screwed up. As long as you cooperate you don't have to follow the law.
- talonstriker, on 02/29/2008, -2/+23At first I took it literally and went "No wonder he turned bad...poor kid"...
- sn0t, on 02/29/2008, -0/+21I don't care if he's blind, I'd kick the living ***** out of him for that.
- signal15, on 02/29/2008, -1/+22Many companies have strict policies against hiring "hackers". But the reality of it is that many of the security consultants they bring in either still are or were. Some of them have even been convicted.
Some of the most brilliant security consultants I've worked with are the ones that were on the wrong side of the law. - AdrianLamo, on 02/29/2008, -6/+26This is one of Wired's better-researched hacker articles in some time. I hope it makes the front page here.
Shame nobody ever lent this kid a braille Playboy, though. - spudlyo, on 02/29/2008, -0/+19The author of the article is a former hacker hired by Wired magazine.
- norman619, on 02/29/2008, -1/+19The activity in the quote is called social engineering. Messing with the phone system is called Phreaking which is basically hacking the phone system. So yes it's hacking.
- Monarch818, on 02/29/2008, -3/+16The Author of the article is one of the most famous hackers in the anals of hacker history. He's actually better and almost as infamous as Kevin Mitnick. So I think his vocabulary is very good when it comes to hacking.
- itzmattu, on 02/29/2008, -2/+14Phone phreaking? Man, what is this, Hackers?
Honestly though, new technologies like VoiP, and the SpoofCard service they mention in this article are really aiding in the elevation of small time hacks. - spudlyo, on 02/29/2008, -0/+12This article was written by Kevin "Dark Dante" Poulsen, a phone freak of some stature. The book "The Watchman: The Twisted Life and Crimes of Serial Hacker Kevin Poulsen" by Jonathan Littman is an excellent read which I highly recommend if you're interested in phone hacking.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Poulsen
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0316528579 - xxMarka, on 02/29/2008, -2/+14even if spoofing a number isn't hacking - he apparently did other things that I would classify as hacking.
"Matt says he ordered phone company switch manuals off the internet and paid to have them translated into Braille. He became a regular caller to internal telephone company lines, where he'd masquerade as an employee to perform tricks like tracing telephone calls, getting free phone features, obtaining confidential customer information and disconnecting his rivals' phones." - PATSCRU, on 02/29/2008, -0/+11where are these angry stupid emails from blind people you speak of?
- greenlight2001, on 02/29/2008, -1/+12Dude, shut up.
- isunktheship, on 03/01/2008, -0/+11what you got against us triangles.
- subliminalurge, on 02/29/2008, -3/+14*****.
This kid's problem isn't boredom. Boredom might be a valid excuse for playing to much WoW. It's not an excuse for committing federal crimes that waste taxpayer resources and could result in someone's death.
I hope he sits in prison for a very, very long time. Then we can talk about "boredom". - ichserbe, on 02/29/2008, -2/+12I had to read that part twice to see that they didn't mean literally.
- beloitpiper, on 03/01/2008, -1/+10I laughed at "gang of telephone ruffians". This article sounds like it was written in the 1880's.
- campigenus, on 02/29/2008, -0/+9The companies have policies against _convicted_ hackers. It's a big difference. ;-)
- stopbrorape, on 02/29/2008, -2/+11it's funny on its own, the "That's what she said" comment just ruined it.
- TnTBass, on 02/29/2008, -0/+8I can't say I feel bad for the kid. He had plenty of opportunity to co-operate and avoid trouble, but his arrogance has blinded him to the fact that he is already caught, just hasn't been arrested yet.
Any intelligent person has got to start reconsidering their actions when they have the FBI sitting in their house asking specific questions about what he does and who he knows.
He truly is not smart enough for his IQ. You would think he would learn to cover his tracks better. - hs112186, on 02/29/2008, -1/+9""He doesn't understand what it took a long time for me to learn," Daniels adds. "Everything you think is another world is really the same old world.""
- johndi, on 02/29/2008, -1/+9They aren't even in the same league. Frank was a hell of a con man, but he didn't have a sadistic streak. This kid has also been given the chance to reform and work with the Feds. There is no indication that he has a desire to change or even remorse over the harm he has done.
- Akaman01, on 02/29/2008, -4/+11You remind me of fail
- bludragn0, on 03/01/2008, -0/+6and..you do?
- HonoredMule, on 03/01/2008, -0/+6Wouldn't Braille Playboy be...a woman?
- Enasni1212, on 03/01/2008, -0/+6Yer too damn pointy. 'S unnatural.
- inactive, on 02/29/2008, -3/+9Why does that sound like an advertisement?
- pathogenal, on 02/29/2008, -13/+18At least he won't need to close his eyes while they're raping him in prison.
- oxdeltaxo, on 03/01/2008, -0/+5It's called social engineering, its easy. It can help, for example when the guy got free food for the homeless because he convinced a restaurant the were u.c's.
- sunyata76, on 02/29/2008, -1/+5Wow, that call is creepy-sounding.
- rhakes, on 02/29/2008, -2/+6"Who's the best out there?" says Jeff Daniels..."The little blind kid is one of the best. And that's a fact."
Hmm, Jeff Daniels...Blind kid... My guess is Li'l Hacker is still mad about the parakeet incident.
"You sold my dead bird to a blind kid? Petie didn't even have a head!" - Eldorian, on 02/29/2008, -1/+5Hope he enjoys federal pound me in the ass prison. That *****'s just not cool.
- DCB360, on 04/11/2008, -0/+4Maiden name probably. They list his initials as M.W.
- digh, on 02/29/2008, -0/+4Since when is swatting "a new type of nasty hoax"...
- SceptreData, on 02/29/2008, -1/+5Just in case any of you are somehow thinking this isn't that bad, listen to the audio clip on the site. It will convince you pretty quickly that this kind of thing is ***** ridiculous.
- jb0nd38372, on 02/29/2008, -0/+3Yeah but you've gotta hack a gibson, until then your just small time :)
- inactive, on 03/01/2008, -0/+3Innocent at first, Matt's worst instincts surfaced after he fell in with a gang of telephone ruffians -- men as old as 40 -- who eventually fingered the teenager when they were swept up in an FBI crackdown on swatters late last year.
- andycr512, on 03/01/2008, -0/+3Wow, he picked the most hilariously humiliating name I've ever seen.
- harrisbradley, on 02/29/2008, -3/+6True story... back in high school (1992) we got a computer with braille (sp?) input/output for a student who was blind who had a high level of interest and skills with computing. Two weeks later our school was locked down by the Feds (wasn't the last time, someone threaten the prez via school computer 2 years later) and the blind student was arrested on charges of weapons trading. Thought I'd share that amongst my digg buddies. this along with the biggest US traitor spy, since B.Arnold, the guy who worked for the Russians having graduated from my high school, I say Go Hornets!!!
- SuperCow1127, on 03/01/2008, -0/+3There's plenty of ways to intellectually challenge one's self with "outside the box" approaches to real life environments that don't involve breaking the law or putting people's safety in jeopardy. There's a tremendous difference between being a successful, mentally stimulated contributing member of society, and being a successful, mentally stimulated, dangerous criminal.
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