Teen sentenced to 11 months for hacking Paris Hilton's phone

Alexander Turcic · 09-14-2005, 07:50 AM

Remember when the world reeled from the shock and empathetic pain when a hacker broke into Paris Hilton's Sidekick and revealed disturbingly personal information? Turned out the culprit was a 17-year-old kid who got sentenced yesterday to 11 months' detention at a juvenile facility, and as an adult he won't be allowed to use a computer or cell phone for two years.

In January, the teen hacked into the telephone records system of T-Mobile International. He used a security flaw in the company's Web site that allowed him to reset the password of anyone using a Sidekick, a pricey phone-organizer-camera device that stores videos, photos and other data on T-Mobile's central computer servers. A month later, the teen would use that flaw to gain access to Hilton's Sidekick files, according to corroborating information and screen shots he shared with washingtonpost.com.

More in today's Washington Post.

Pride Of Lions · 09-14-2005, 12:14 PM

This kid needs a better lawyer. Most first offenses are suspended sentences and, as an adult, his juvenile record should be sealed and not carry over to haunt him.

Yeah, so what he did was wrong. Also, T-Mobile was wrong to repeatedly ignore these security flaws. Two wrongs don't make a right, but how much of this sentence is intended to "scare" other would-be hackers into not following up on their curiosity.

If I were someone with sensitive information on my smartphone (celebrity, businessman,...) I would have dropped T-Mobile and the Sidekick in a heartbeat. T-Mobile and the Sidekick have proven inept and unable to keep "confidential" information confidential.
POL9A

pitcher23 · 09-14-2005, 04:49 PM

The kid actually had a great lawyer. He cut a plea deal and admitted to making two bomb threats to schools, setting up phony cell phone accounts for his friends and helping in attacking LexisNexis and exposed 300,000 consumers' information. His crimes have cost an estimated $1 million in damages among his victims.

His sentence should have been more for the bomb threats alone.

09-14-2005, 07:50 AM	#1
Alexander Turcic Fully Converged Posts: 18,163 Karma: 14021202 Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Switzerland Device: Too many to count here.	Teen sentenced to 11 months for hacking Paris Hilton's phone Remember when the world reeled from the shock and empathetic pain when a hacker broke into Paris Hilton's Sidekick and revealed disturbingly personal information? Turned out the culprit was a 17-year-old kid who got sentenced yesterday to 11 months' detention at a juvenile facility, and as an adult he won't be allowed to use a computer or cell phone for two years. In January, the teen hacked into the telephone records system of T-Mobile International. He used a security flaw in the company's Web site that allowed him to reset the password of anyone using a Sidekick, a pricey phone-organizer-camera device that stores videos, photos and other data on T-Mobile's central computer servers. A month later, the teen would use that flaw to gain access to Hilton's Sidekick files, according to corroborating information and screen shots he shared with washingtonpost.com. More in today's Washington Post.

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09-14-2005, 12:14 PM	#2
Pride Of Lions just kinda geeky Posts: 381 Karma: 30 Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Oakland, California Device: iPhone	This kid needs a better lawyer. Most first offenses are suspended sentences and, as an adult, his juvenile record should be sealed and not carry over to haunt him. Yeah, so what he did was wrong. Also, T-Mobile was wrong to repeatedly ignore these security flaws. Two wrongs don't make a right, but how much of this sentence is intended to "scare" other would-be hackers into not following up on their curiosity. If I were someone with sensitive information on my smartphone (celebrity, businessman,...) I would have dropped T-Mobile and the Sidekick in a heartbeat. T-Mobile and the Sidekick have proven inept and unable to keep "confidential" information confidential. POL9A

09-14-2005, 04:49 PM	#3
pitcher23 Zealot Posts: 138 Karma: 12 Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: New York USA	The kid actually had a great lawyer. He cut a plea deal and admitted to making two bomb threats to schools, setting up phony cell phone accounts for his friends and helping in attacking LexisNexis and exposed 300,000 consumers' information. His crimes have cost an estimated $1 million in damages among his victims. His sentence should have been more for the bomb threats alone.

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