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Comment by ggreer | Hacker News Reader

Cloudflare's post doesn't mention it, but the Twitter account that claimed credit for the hack (and made all kinds of ridiculous boasts like "we could have owned half the internet") has been suspended.[1] Before that the owner of the account posted plenty of personal information, including selfies.[2] A Mastodon instance is where they're posting stuff now.[3]

It really seems like this person is mentally ill and it's only a matter of time before they get in trouble with law enforcement. I mean, it's standard opsec to avoid posting your mailing address on your l33t h4x0r account.[4] I realize the address is a PO box, but this is practically begging the authorities to intervene.

1. https://twitter.com/nyancrimew

2. https://archive.is/8IJ8G

3. https://notbird.site/@deletescape

4. https://notbird.site/@deletescape/105548475573915843

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While I agree that the opsec here is bad if nyancrimew doesn’t want to get arrested, I think you should disclose here, as you do in your twitter bio, that you work at Okta. Accusing the person who just breached your company of having a mental illness is not great form.

Not to mention the ethics of spreading the PII of someone who you suspect to be mentally ill (who claims to have hacked your company).

Pretty sure that his opinion and poster is not the threat actor’s doctor.

That's fair. I mean that if this person's claims are truly dubious and they seem to be seeking the spotlight, then giving them the spotlight could exacerbate their derangement. That's useless for Okta, sad for this person, and dangerous for others.

This episode brings up the psychological issues that transgender people face. It is not inappropriate to call it mental illness. This acting out against the world is a cry for help. This person admits the connection with their quote "be gay, do crime". It is possibly a response to being visibly transgender, and coping with everyone constantly reacting to you. None of this is helped by the egging-on in their social media bubble. It is not good optics, but it needs to be addressed.

To clarify, I think (or hope) this is what you're trying to say; being transgender is not a mental illness. The effects of either pretending to be cisgendered, or attempting to live life as the gender you identify can definitely lead to mental illnesses (depression, low self-worth, anxiety, etc.). I can't think of one trans person in an unaccepting household who didn't develop a few bad coping mechanism for their gender dysphoria. Luck decides if that coping mechanism leaves you scared for life (physically, mentally, socially), or if you're able to eventually unlearn it after you've gotten away from your toxic childhood environment.

This is the same person Till Kottmann who started Lawnchair Launcher, a very popular Android launcher? https://github.com/deletescape

The same person who leaked 20GB of Intel data? https://securityboulevard.com/2020/08/intel-leak-20gb-of-sec...

He isn't even trying to hide and does everything in the open. Like this IG https://instagram.com/deletescape

He lives in Switzerland. Does Switzerland not care about shady internet things like this?

Looks like this was the straw that broke the camel's back.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-12/swiss-pol...

Was there a AWS security incident relatively recently where the perpetrator also seemingly wanted their identity to be known?

I suppose any attention getting action can also be a cry for help. It is of note of a pattern emerges in conjunction with hacks of political intent / hacktivism.

Having had a hand in plenty of investigations, it is premature to assume these photos or details are of the actual attacker.

It could be from a rival hacker, an innocent doxxed third party, or just completely fabricated to send investigators down a rabbit hole.

Sharing potentially personal details at this point is irresponsible and just leads to witch hunts.

Maybe, but occam's razor and all. This grand genius of deception and misdirection is more tv show and movie than real life.

I would presume there's some protection in the fact that they went to the press, rather than trying to cause damage, ask for ransom money, etc. but it certainly wasn't an example of responsible disclosure either. It looked like they generally obscured faces in leaked shots.

We're posting on the internet, buddy. We're all mentally ill.

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