[CommunityDiscussion] We should stop giving /u/hacks4what such a hard time.

because if he's not lying about everything, which is seems like he isn't, then we need people like him to expose insecure marketplaces. It doesn't take a fucking PHD in rocket science to figure out why we need this. We're hurling insults his way, yet we all post in a community that will literally, tangibly BENEFIT from his actions. This is absolutely fucking ridiculous and makes everyone on this subreddit seem extremely ignorant. Disagree with his methods? Sure, that's understandable. Think about it though, I mean, reaaallllyyyy think about it. If the Havana/Absolem crew had everything on the up and up, this sort of drama wouldn't occur in the first place. I absolutely appreciate what /u/hacks4what is doing, and I think we need to take a step back as a community and realize that these sorts of dirty tactics are sometimes necessary in the pursuit of actual security, as far as DNMs are concerned. We're all criminals here, so let's not act like we're on some sort of moral high ground compared to someone who is just trying to secure their pay for work that they have already completed. I could be COMPLETELY wrong here, but if you read past all the drama and bullshit, it seems like there is a lot of truth to the whole situation.


Comments


[18 Points] havana_fidel_castro:

We never hired him as a security consultant. As we have stated before we paid him for stopping his initial attack and letting us know what was causing the vulnerability. We owe him no further bitcoins because we never hired him to do anything at all. As soon as he moved from DOS'ing to extortion and threatening doxxing, his contributions to the community, which are debatable at best, ended. I have not had a lot to say in this matter because it just seems to make it worse. So yes, Absolem and Havana have, for the time being, gone back to invite only and added captcha requirements to send messages and added other restrictions to the functionality of the market stop him from disabling the market. How is that a contribution? He'll probably continue with this for a while. We fully expect it. It's not that we don't have money to pay him. We just refuse to pay extortion. It will just encourage him and people like him need to be discouraged, not encouraged. We will never pay extortion.

And for the record, the "email address" he claimed to have was an ID for OTR encrypted chat over Tor. It may look like an email address, but it isn't one. You can create ID's like that instantly with no personally identifiable information with Pidgin for XMPP encrypted chat. I never used it for email and never used it without Tor and the off-the-record Pidgin plug-in. He has nothing. Don't encourage him.


[12 Points] dnmbcb5456:

Absolutely not. He is exactly what we DON'T need in this community.

You're correct, we are all criminals on the DNM's. Being a criminal doesn't automatically make us all slimy, scumbag, pricks. That was a personal choice he made, which is why he's regarded as a fuckhead. There are countless guys like us that have a firm grasp on netsec/opsec.. and taking down the site with a DOS attack was perfectly within his rights. They paid him for his services, but he's a greedy fuck, and demanded more.

When they refused to give in to extortion, he proceeded to release personal communications and information that could lead to the exposure and DOXing of not just the market owners, but also put countless other vendors & buyers alike in jeopardy as well.

THAT is the problem here. Threatening to expose, and incriminate the very community he claims to be trying to help. He's not special. And NOTHING he did, or discovered was worth .5 BTC.. let alone 5 BTC. The recoding necessary to stop him took all of 10 mins total. Now he's gone quiet, as he has no access to the server any longer, and I made it very clear I have no plans of letting up on him. I've been scouring comm's, and logs for the last few hours, and I've dedicated my 3 day weekend to putting his picture on the front page.


[8 Points] noonehear:

He crossed the line with the DOX threatening. Fuck /u/hacks4what whatever he has to say. How would he like to be doxxed threatened should someone find a vulnerability in his netsec?

If anything scum like him will scare people away from starting marketplaces...


[8 Points] samwhiskey:

Sounds just like something hacks4what would say.


[0 Points] gramsadmin:

redditor for 1 hour ?? I think /u/drogasdrogas is /u/hacks4what


[2 Points] Gratefulstickers:

The fact this hacks guy is threatening to DOXX people is sad. Fuck if he's even right, he's a fucking scum bag for even bringing it up, I do hope you're market fixes any mistakes tough.


[2 Points] noonehear:

He is a fucking dickhole. If he could exploit the site he would have stolen all the BTC already. All he can do is slow it down. Is this the era of 14.4kbs dialup modems or what?


[2 Points] noonehear:

Hacks4cracks= soakhisdick = hacksforcrack. This guy is plague to darknetmarkets...


[1 Points] BahWhatever666:

gets 2 buckets of popcorn and some jujy fruits


[1 Points] alwayslookingformore:

I wholeheartedly agree that testing the markets and helping them in a non public manner is a good thing overall for the markets.

Opening statement aside, the way the whole thing is playing out is ridicules. Im all for being open about the generalities of the situation. But the sheer amount of information the hacks accounts are spitting out is stupid. And then it all comes in minute little posts replying to himself. If all that info is really necessary, just put it in one post and call it good. Separate comments/ posts with different topics and such are okay imo, but the way he is putting it all is like taking one well written paragraph and breaking it into 1-3 sentences that are unneeded.

/rant


[1 Points] Clix828:

This comment has been overwritten by an open source script to protect this user's privacy. It was created to help protect users from doxing, stalking, harassment, and profiling for the purposes of censorship.

If you would also like to protect yourself, add the Chrome extension TamperMonkey, or the Firefox extension GreaseMonkey and add this open source script.

Then simply click on your username on Reddit, go to the comments tab, scroll down as far as possible (hint:use RES), and hit the new OVERWRITE button at the top.


[1 Points] letsbebuns:

Just a side note, you're not a criminal unless you bring harm to another individual.

Source: Black's Law Dictionary


[1 Points] noonehear:

How do you know he isnt lying? All he exposed was a way to mass message people within the market.... duuuurp my kid could do that. Wait I dont have a kid.


[1 Points] havana_fidel_castro:

I think if there's one thing most can agree on it's that this topic has been talked to death over the past few days. Absolem/Havana team is officially giving notice that we will be not responding (or reading for that matter) any further posts on this topic. If hack4what wants to continue arguing with himself he is free to do that. We have said all we intend to say.


[0 Points] None:

Actually, I'm not a criminal and I just like to read about this community and research. Here's what I've found out.

Mostly bratty UK teenagers who don't know shit about netsec, constantly talking about netsec and these things they do online. I had someone send me an IP "tracer" javascript page and then play dumb when I told them they could have just asked for my IP. Most of you don't even realize how kiddie you look, and probably won't for some years, when people smack you around and you have real challenges to face at some point.

People are dumb as rocks on here. Everyone. People shipping, people selling, people monitoring, buyers. You're all barely-functioning. It's clearly survival of the advantageous. The majority of you are not old enough to have the maturity or executive functioning to realize some of your mistakes and habits as you do them and then the rest are on a weird power trip/actual trip.

The few people that are of age to be taking advantage of mind-altering shit and have been alive long enough to understand that pretending gets you no-where, hard work is the only thing that works, those people are few and far between on here.

And if you know anything, you know the majority grows and speaks the loudest. As a redditor, I've watched every sub get ruined by population density. This one will too. It is, by far, the least organized, dumbest, most arrogant sub I have ever seen and it will fail as a community. I promise. Just give it time, stop worrying about it and keep shit to yourself. I cannot believe how much people talk through their ego, only to appear foolish to those that matter.

You'd think it was a bunch of druggies without educations, commenting on the internet. If you're smart, you'll assume I'm an assigned LE and start sweating right now.

EDIT: The reason he didn't threaten to DOX me even though I was the first person to argue with this kid is because unlike the vast majority of you, there is 0 incriminating evidence on my entire profile, even if you find my ID. This is a non-issue created for dumb people. It's like a tailgate party fighting over which team wins. No one gives a shit, you're all mentally dull.