I think you would need the original email to keep the original headers. Maybe as an attachment? But this geocities era website from the domain in the screenshot makes a good case. The media contact lines up too.
Okay, @Zay-Two-Kay forwarded me the email they received from the cops, and it definitely looks legit to me. The nested version of Zay's original email that the cops received contains a warning about the email being from "outside of the organization" (as one would expect from an email system that a police department would have set up), the purported email address of the cop is real and listed on their official site, and the cop's reply contains a phone number and address for the department, the PNG of their county seal, and the department's official Facebook and Twitter accounts.
There's also a couple minute details that add to my belief this probably isn't an elaborate fabrication, that being that the header of the cop's reply (being viewed from Zay's end) is in another language, which would be a weird thing to include if someone was trying to make as convincing a fake as possible. It would also be weird for a hoaxer to have the original email to the cops be sent mid-day on Jan. 27, while the cop's reply only came tonight, with an apology for the late reply because their system had marked Zay's email as spam.
I have no idea why the cops allegedly leaked Alan's name when he's still a minor and apparently isn't even extradited yet, but I don't really see anything to necessarily indicate this is faked. Would still love to have someone who knows what they're doing look at that email header Zay posted, if it can even offer us any info.
I have no idea why the cops allegedly leaked Alan's name when he's still a minor and apparently isn't even extradited yet, but I don't really see anything to necessarily indicate this is faked.
Yeah but still, it's surprising nobody else involved with the case has leaked the name yet, and it's equally surprising that you're seemingly the first one to obtain it.
Yeah but still, it's surprising nobody else involved with the case has leaked the name yet, and it's equally surprising that you're seemingly the first one to obtain it.
Me and Zay are frens so I can vouch for this being legitimate. Journos tend to moralfag when it comes to the names of minors so that's probably why. I assume most of the other people interested are too worried about their privacy to contact government employees
I have no idea why the cops allegedly leaked Alan's name when he's still a minor and apparently isn't even extradited yet, but I don't really see anything to necessarily indicate this is faked.
They're trying him as an adult and while the press often doesn't name juveniles, there's no law about it in Florida that I know of. Wired just chose not to name him. Anyone else including the cops can.
It's more common for there to be an actual rule in sex abuse cases involving minors than when minors are the perps, especially when this guy is apparently going to be tried as an adult and sent to big boy prison for his big boy crimes.
Is it possible he just set this up as a deadman's switch to replace the site with the taunting message after x amount of days of inactivity on his end?
Is it possible he just set this up as a deadman's switch to replace the site with the taunting message after x amount of days of inactivity on his end?
It's the sort of Death Note nonsense a 17 year old would come up with to establish his innocence in case he ever gets caught. I'm not convinced that this is really what happened though, it seems overly elaborate for him.
Age probably really is part of it. That age you think you're a genius and everyone else is an idiot. You also don't think of the consequences your actions might have. The whole method reeks of somebody who wasn't thinking too much about securing all his bases. I also think it's unlikely he did all of this alone and I'm sure he'll sing. (and seeing the modus operandi I doubt these people have amazing opsec, as in, not knowing too much of each other in case somebody gets arrested, if they're all american or from countries with extradition agreements of course is another question)
Back in the mid-late 2000's, practically everyone that frequented /i/ affiliated irc's were teenagers or in college. Lot of them were hotheads, egotistical, smarter than thou, and some incredibly gifted, all willing to test the waters, in some cases to very dangerous degrees. Nothing new has happened outside the fact that the age demographic of these particular habitats on the internet as a whole has changed, or rather, expanded upon as the internet grows older and the first generation that grew up with the internet as kids are now in their early 30s. If someone was known to be over the age of 30 back then on gaming forums or communities like SA/*chans/YTMND/Newgrounds/ect and their offshoots, they were a peculiar outlier. The type of age group that people like Maddox and Lowtax belonged to were far more sparse and you were open to a stigma or jokes relating to being an old timer. I know a lot of people protest the idea of underage fags, but remember people like moot founded 4chan at the age of 14. I'm not surprised this hacker was a 17 year old whatsoever. Though I will admit that it does feel very surreal (in the matter of how fast time passes) that a kid who wasn't even born yet when I got out of high school committed this much mayhem.
This. Serious crimes that involve 17 year olds usually are tried as adults. Since he's going to Florida, thats an absolutely what will happen. Now will it set an example? Probably not, after all Tyler Barriss was sentenced to 20 years in prison and it hasn't phased other swatters. But considering Torswats went after elected officials along with government buildings, he's probably going to get a far larger sentence even if he didn't get anyone killed in the process. I just hope the people who hired him for his craftwork are tossed in the fire as well.
Here is the current cowbin.net pgp signed message
"Ne nanwuht ne byð yfel, ær mon wene þæt it yfel seo" is an old english phrase that translates to "Nothing is misery unless one thinks it is misery."
Its possible but I dont tknow if thats likely. It doesnt seem like a usefull deadman's switch
Me neither. Not at all. I just think somebody older would've been less stupid, as in less underestimating others while overestimating himself.
By now the dude was locked up for a bit. (Is there any chance he'll get out on bail? I can't imagine but I'm not familiar with the US) You gotta consider he went from feeling being an invincible super hacker the entire of the US of A couldn't catch to getting put in handcuffs by some very scary people and disappearing into a concrete tomb. He's 17 and since he's had time and energy for shit like this I assume at least from a middle class where daily survival is not a topic. It stands to reason that not once in his life was he or somebody he knows on the receiving end of the law in any serious manner beyond a traffic ticket, nor did he ever interact with "characters" like the ones he'll meet in custody. I'd bet money on it. This is not some hood rat that was already a hardened gang banger by 12. My guess is he's scared out of his mind as the consequences of his actions sink in and the lawyer he talked to by now or will talk to has told him/will tell him that this is some serious shit, crushing his unrealistic hopes that he'll be home soon. If they want him to sing all they gotta do is let him stir a little in his own juices there. The situation itself will no question wear him down.
Singing probably involves access to his computers and other electronic devices which I would assume are encrypted if he isn't a complete idiot. There's a chance they caught him red handed and that they got their hands on the devices in an unencrypted state, maybe, maybe not but I want to give him that much credit. I don't think he's seasoned enough or ever thought that much about getting caught to have them "booby trapped" in a way that moving/using/opening them in a non-specific ways looks them up/destroys them forever. (This is not hard to do nowadays. With some electronics knowledge and a few cheap parts you could wire up a desktop to basically self destruct if the power cord is disconnected or the case is moved, the computer itself doesn't even need to "know" about it) So it's probably all about these passwords now. I don't know about the US but in my country the worst mistake he could do is tell them these passwords, no matter what they pretend to offer in return. Over here, they also can't force somebody to part with these passwords. Most people here that commit similar crimes usually do though, because they've been locked up for months at that point and fall for the promises because they just want to go home, usually making sure all their accomplices go to jail too and making their punishment much worse because there's a lot more evidence now. This happens because people think it's like on TV and these deals are some magical contract "the law" is honor-bound to follow, but usually not only are they meaningless but often they're straight up lies. The people they talk to usually don't have any power to make any "deals". I don't envy him.
If he locked his devices with face recognition or fingerprint, he's fucked though. They don't count as passwords in the eye of the law and he actually can be forced to unlock his devices. Then they probably already gathered all there was to gather. Either that or they really caught him with his pants down. Time will tell.
