Brian Krebs is a doofus

[MaxDepth]

Brian Krebs ain't the brightest, is he? yeah, it was a photographer that took the picture and didn't scrub the metadata, but then the tech editor for the Post should have caught that, yes?

THE WASHINGTON POST, famous for hiding the name of its Deep Throat source during the Watergate scandal, might have accidentally revealed the name of one of its sources in a less important yarn about a hacker.

Hack Brian Krebs penned a fairly gushing piece about a 21-year-old hacker identified as "0x80" who claimed to have broken into 2,000 PCs around the globe. 0x80 apparently uses the hacked PCs to send out spam.

In amongst detailed descriptions of how 0x80 smokes, which in the US journalistic style is called 'colour', Krebs revealed that his subject lived in a small town in Middle America. "The nearest businesses are a used-car lot, a gas station/convenience store and a strip club," the article said.

All hard to trace, but for the fact that the article ran a doctored picture of 0x80 which when the people at Slashdot had a look at the metadata in the pic it revealed 0x80 lived in the town of Roland, population 2,842.

Since only a third of the population are 0x80?s age, less than half of them are male, and not that many live close to the strip club, he shouldn?t be too easy to find, particularly with Kreb?s colourful description.

When this was pointed out to Krebs in his bog, he said that he was aware of it.

The picture is no longer linked from the article, but it should not be long before 0x80 will be located. Just as well digital cameras were not around during Watergate.

Inquirer article

Washington Post article

Funny comments at the end of Krebs article

 

[TheTony]

I honestly don't think the hacker community will defend someone like the person described in the article, so I'm not sure why they used the term.

 

[FoBoT]

non-computer people are so silly, they don't understand technology, but use it anyway

 

[alien42]

lets go hunt the spammer down

 

[Brainonska511]

Originally posted by: alien42
lets go hunt the spammer down

pitchforks and torches?

 

[MaxDepth]

Originally posted by: Brainonska511

Originally posted by: alien42
lets go hunt the spammer down

pitchforks and torches?

Naw. With burning hard drives and laptops crammed full of spam.

 

[mugs]

How the heck does your camera know what town you're in?

 

[Brainonska511]

Originally posted by: mugs
How the heck does your camera know what town you're in?

Just put on a tinfoil hat and they won't be able to find you.

But on a serious note, maybe someone added something to the metadata after they loaded it onto their computer and then forgot to remove it when it was posted on the internet.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
non-computer people are so silly, they don't understand technology, but use it anyway

and you fully understand, down to the very nitty gritty of every piece of technology you use? i doubt it.

 

[TheTony]

Sure, it's a little suspicious that the metadata retained location information as if to suggest someone "forgot" to remove it.

However, in this case, whether or not the metadata was left on purpose, perhaps it means he'll get what's coming to him. I mean, he said he was expecting it, anyway. No sense it letting the poor chap down.

Honestly, I have no empathy for this guy or outrage for the metadata debacle, as reported on The Inquirer. If he were a white-hat, it might be another story altogether. This guy isn't - his intent was entirely malicious, motivated by greed.