Full Disclosure mailing list archives
Re: Disclose a bug, do not pass go, go directly to jail
From: "Stephen Clowater" <steve () stevesworld hopto org>
Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2003 16:01:36 -0300
The FBI has been giving alot of bullshit in this case. I read the actual court transcripts when it was going down. Bottom line here, the FBI made sure bret was stuck with the public defender with the biggest docket. They presented incoherent and evidence that just plain wasnt possible at trial and it never was challeneged. The charge, and the convition both go way outside of criminal code 18 U.S.C. 1030, wich the original charge was made under. The actuall apeal he is making know is based on inadequet represenation of council, however, I think that he could challenege the judge's decision, after all the United States Surpreme court decisons basically ban this kind of sentance. However, I think this may just be easier to challenge, and Jennifer Granick (his new lawer) dosnt have to go up agianst a judge and make an enemy in the 9th circut. Even if he did spam (wich was not on the original inditement) at the time there was no anti-spam laws that applied, so even if it was trye that he had sent out mass spam, by the law he was indited under, he couldnt have been sent to jail for it. Ironically they say he sent out 14,000 spam messages, and there were 14,000 customers, so basicaly what the FBI did in order to make themselves look just a little better was to change the terminology from "advisory" to "spam" Theres alot of bullshit flying around from both camps on this one, A visit to the courthouse and reading the actual records is really the only way to get the full story of what happened [legally wise] on this one. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com> To: "'Stephen Clowater'" <steve () stevesworld hopto org>; <full-disclosure () lists netsys com> Sent: Friday, August 08, 2003 12:51 PM Subject: RE: [Full-disclosure] Disclose a bug, do not pass go, go directly to jail
I just found this FBI press release on the case which says something a bit different. It claims that Bret set up a Web site that give details of the problem: http://www.fbi.gov/fieldnews/march/la032503.htm The FBI also portrays Bret as a spammer for sending out 14,000 email messages on three occasions. How come none of the real spammers who send out millions of unsolicited spam email messages everyday aren't in jail for overloading email servers? For example, two years ago Verizon email basically stopped working for a week because of a spammer attack. Richard -----Original Message----- From: Stephen Clowater [mailto:steve () stevesworld hopto org] Sent: Friday, August 08, 2003 2:32 PM To: Richard M. Smith; full-disclosure () lists netsys com Subject: Re: [Full-disclosure] Disclose a bug, do not pass go, go directly to jail No, Bret had fears that the bug may be exploited once it was disclosed on a List, so he emailed the customers to only let them know about the bug. In hopes of heading off a mass-owning of the software, while making sure the customers were informed. So that the bug would be fixed Or that was what he testified to when he took the stand, and he maintained it during cross-examniations. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com> To: <full-disclosure () lists netsys com> Sent: Friday, August 08, 2003 11:18 AM Subject: [Full-disclosure] Disclose a bug, do not pass go, go directly to jailDoes anyone know if this Tornado bug was ever disclosed on Bugtraq or any other security list? For the description of this incident, it sounds to me like there might be a civil case against Mr. McDanel, since he worked for Tornado and likely signed some sort of employee agreement, but this hardlyqualifiesas a criminal matter. Richard Jailbird appeals in bug disclosure case http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/32237.html By SecurityFocus Posted: 08/08/2003 at 07:45 GMT Bret McDanel already served his 16 months in federal prison for violating the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Now he wants to clear his record. McDanel was wrongly convicted under the federal computer fraudstatute,criminal code 18 U.S.C. 1030, claims a 62-page appeal filed onMcDanel'sbehalf by his new attorney, Jennifer Granick, clinical director fortheCenter for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School. The criminal code was misinterpreted to bring about his conviction, and McDanel's public defender denied him a fair trial, asserts the brief, filed Wednesday in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Between August 31 and September 5th, 2000, the 29-year-old McDanel, under the moniker, "Secret Squirrel," sent 5,600 e-mail letters to customers of his former employer, Tornado Development, Inc., a Los Angeles-based unified messaging business that provided Web-basede-mail,voice mail and other communications. McDanel's e-mails informed Tornado's customers of a serious vulnerability in the e-mail system which left e-mail login credentials, called Network Identifiers orNIDs,in plain view in their Web browser address boxes, which could then be scooped up by Web sites that harvest surfing information fromvisitors'browsers. According to prosecutors, McDanel intended to cause damage toTornado'smail server by overloading it with too many messages, and caused a costly public relations problem by making public confidential information that was damaging to Tornado's reputation. But the appeal brief claims that the e-mails did not cause a denial of service. Instead, the systems were taken down to repair the security flaw, which McDanel had pointed out a year earlier at Tornado. The government's other argument was that McDaniel impaired system integrity by exposing the vulnerability publicly. Granick says that doesn't fly under existing law. .... _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html
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Current thread:
- Disclose a bug, do not pass go, go directly to jail Richard M. Smith (Aug 08)
- Re: Disclose a bug, do not pass go, go directly to jail Stephen Clowater (Aug 08)
- RE: Disclose a bug, do not pass go, go directly to jail Richard M. Smith (Aug 08)
- Re: Disclose a bug, do not pass go, go directly to jail Stephen Clowater (Aug 08)
- Re: Disclose a bug, do not pass go, go directly to jail morning_wood (Aug 08)
- RE: Disclose a bug, do not pass go, go directly to jail Richard M. Smith (Aug 08)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: Disclose a bug, do not pass go, go directly to jail Stephen Clowater (Aug 08)
- Re: Disclose a bug, do not pass go, go directly to jail Stephen Clowater (Aug 08)