17-Year Old Behind Twitter Attack

[teko]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheat-sheet/?cid=hp:cheatsheet4#cheatrow_20150

9/22/10


17-Year Old Behind Twitter Attack

After a massive Twitter attack sent users to Japanese porn sites and took out Robert Gibbs’ feed Tuesday, a culprit has emerged: a 17-year-old Australian high schooler. Pearce Delphin, who goes by @zzap, first pounced on a security flaw when he tweeted a snippet of “mouseover” code, which opens pop-up windows. "I did it merely to see if it could be done ... that JavaScript really could be executed within a tweet," he said. "At the time of posting the tweet, I had no idea it was going to take off how it did. I just hadn't even considered it." Hackers quickly picked it up and began redirecting millions of users to porn sites, creating havoc for some five hours. "I discovered a vulnerability, I didn't create a self-replicating worm,” he said. “As far as I know, that isn't technically illegal. Hopefully I won't get in trouble!"

[Sarajmt]

Somehow, I hope he doesn't get in trouble.

[narla]

They don't even know if he can be charged with anything,apparently whatever it was he did isn't illegal at this stage,our criminal laws haven't kept up with technology.

[teko]

When I heard this, I had to laugh! I think we need to put him in office of homeland security myself. Goes to show how if someone really wanted to, it is sooo easy to manipulate our systems. lol

[Sarajmt]

If this were my teen, I don't know if I'd be furious with him for doing this and causing so much trouble.  OR if I'd be proud of him for his technological savvy????  If nothing else,  you have to admit he's one smart kid.