Hacker Deletes 3,000 Photos From Man's Flickr Account
A Flickr user recently woke up to his worst nightmare. His account, to which he had uploaded more than 3,000 photos over five years, was hacked and terminated by someone using a Hotmail account. But that's not all.According to Gawker, Morgan Tepsic, a photographer and student living in Taiwan, spent days sending e-mails and making phone calls to both Flickr HQ and Yahoo! (owner of the site), only to have customer service reps tell him there was no way to recover the photographs, which he says he spent thousands of dollars developing. Tepsic says Flickr should have gone further to protect his account (for which he paid subscription fees) from hackers. He's right on, especially since he never received so much as an e-mail asking him to confirm the account's termination. As it stands, we can only assume that Flickr users pay to use a site that doesn't even backup its data. Gawker tried to get to the bottom of the site's backup procedures, but its e-mails to Yahoo! reps weren't returned.
In the meantime, Tepsic has launched a viral campaign against the photo service. While it's not likely that Flickr or Yahoo! will offer assistance, maybe other users can at least learn from Tepsic's nightmare. Don't rely solely on Web backup. [From: Gawker]
Worlds Most Famous Hackers
1. Kevin Mitnick
Unlike many other hackers, Kevin Mitnick didn't use any computer programs or savvy tech-skills to gain access to networks. Rather, he essentially phished passwords, security codes, and the like by essentially hustling actual people. Still, he was convicted and spent five years in prison for unauthorized access to various computer networks in the late '90s. He was released in 2003 and now runs a computer security consulting firm called, naturally, Mitnick Consulting.
Getty Images
2. John Draper (AKA Captain Crunch, Crunch, or Cruncherman)
John Draper is often seen as a legend from the early days of hacking. His expertise was phreaking -- he used a toy whistle (and later, other custom-built devices) to emulate signal tones that effectively hacked AT&T's phone system into rerouting phone calls around the world for no charge.The original whistle was found inside a box of Cap'n Crunch cereal, hence the name. In 1971, several months after the publication of an article in Esquire Magazine on phone phreaking, Draper was arrested for wire fraud. Steve Wozniak, of Apple fame, noticed the article and hired Draper at Apple Computer. Draper went on to write the first word processing application for the Apple II computer. Draper is still a software developer today and he hosts an Internet TV show, Crunch TV.
3. Jonathan James (c0mrade)
In 1999, at the age of 15, Jonathan James gained notoriety for breaking into the computer systems of the Department of Defense. Once in the system, he installed a sniffer application that allowed him to monitor employee usernames and passwords. He later admitted to the deed, but was able to plead out of the resulting wiretapping charges. A previous computer invasion at NASA was later traced back to James, and he was arrested and sentenced to six months of house arrest in 2000. James' arrest marked the first time a juvenile was sentenced for cybercrime in the U.S.
4. Eric Corley (AKA Emmanuel Goldstein)
In 1984, Eric Corley founded '2600 Magazine,' one of the world's most popular hacker publications. He was named a defendant in the DeCSS (a computer program that could decrypt encrypted DVDs) case in 1999 after the 2600 Web site (2600.com) posted links to the software. The movie industry obviously wasn't pleased, and Corley ultimately lost in court. Corley continues publishing '2600' today and hosts several radio shows.
New York Times
5. Adrian Lamo
Dubbed "the Homeless Hacker," Adrian Lamo backpacked across the country for three years around the turn of the millennium, hitting Wi-Fi hotspots and public library computers, which he used to gain access to the computer networks to some of the world's most well-known companies (Yahoo!, Microsoft, Bank of America, and McDonald's, to name a few). He's probably best known for his 2002 infiltration of the New York Times' internal network -- where altered confidential databases and found the home phone numbers of contributors like Warren Beatty and Rush Limbaugh. In 2003, he was arrested by U.S. marshalls, and pleaded guilty to one count of computer crimes against Microsoft, the New York Times, and Lexis-Nexis. In the end, he was sentenced to six months house arrest for the stunt. Lamo has since become a successful journalist.
6. Vasily Gorshkov and Alexey Ivanov
In a sting operation in 2000, the FBI, operating under the guise of Invita Security (a dummy computer security company) contacted Vasily Gorshkov and Alexey Ivanov, two known Russian hackers. They were lured to the U.S. for an employment 'interview' with Invita, and were arrested and imprisoned on multiple counts of conspiracy, computer crime, and fraud, as they had already stolen over 50,000 credit card numbers from Internet service providers (ISPs) and online banks throughout the late '90s.
7. Kevin Poulsen
Kevin Poulsen's most famous hack involves taking over all of Los Angeles radio station KIIS-FM's telephone lines in order to ensure his place as the 102nd caller. The prize? A cool new Porsche 944 S2. In 1991, the feds tracked Poulson down for the Porsche stunt and other cybercrimes, and he was sentenced to four years in prison, a three-year ban on computing after release, and a $58,000 fine. Following hid release from prison, Poulsen began a successful career as a journalist and now works at Wired Magazine.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
KelehC said 9:44PM on 8-05-2009
It's getting infuriating with all the bots on the comment boards. Anyway, as far as the story goes, Flickr definitely should have sent an email asking for confirmation of the account's deletion. Furthermore, this hacker, as with all hackers, should be at very least, fined severely.
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Fairey said 9:45PM on 8-05-2009
Why don't some of these websites that run articles like this have someone monitering the responses so they can delete these SCUMBAGS that advertise their crappy, pathetic, loser sites??? 3 responses here and they all come from morons advertising their pathetic, desperate piece of crap sites. I see it happening more and more....freaking losers.
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practicalone said 10:51PM on 8-05-2009
He's a moron. Any real photog or anyone over ten years old knows to keep and maintain a personal backup. He has all these photos, if he did develop them, and should have not relied on a website to store his stuff. I'm glad that yahoo and flickr do not store, because I bet if they were able to restore, then yahoo and flickr would have been accused as to what they are doing holding on to another's property, that photo rights b.s.
So I have zero pity for the moron and he's a double moron for going on ranting publicly. He must've p-o'd someone on flickr because he thought his photos were so precious. If he thought they were precious, the moron would have had a personal backup. It's called a backup hard drive, sweetie student, BUY one. Ebay has 'em for cheap if you are dirt poor.
Good riddance and hooray for yahoo and flickr for not responding to this nonsensical moron.
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Handsome said 10:32PM on 8-05-2009
Maybe the hackers punishment would be to develop a posting bot destroyer.
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Spider Loc said 10:44PM on 8-05-2009
If these photos were worth so much, why didn't he back them up to someplace besides flickr in the first place? And if he cared so much, he shouldn't have just assume that where he is placing his work provides backup as part of its fees. If it isn't in the terms and conditions or features list, it isn't included in the price.
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Chuck said 10:48PM on 8-05-2009
They guy couldn't afford some CD's or a flash drive? Sorry, no sympathy.
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ZacsTayles said 12:08AM on 8-06-2009
I had a bad experience with ebay and yahoo a few years ago. Some hacker got my ebay, put up fake listings for computers. Also got into my yahoo account and changed the password. I found out when someone from another state called my house wondering where his computer was. I spoke with ebay, they were great, got it all taken care of. Yahoo on the other hand was horrible. I couldnt remember the answer to my security question and they told me they would no longer discuss the matter with me. I am unable to access that account to this day. A simple verification of my state ID would have been a good idea maybe, had they allowed me to do that in some way.
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Keesta said 12:34AM on 8-06-2009
No one on here can probably remember the world before all this hideous techy crap. Just amazing that we're all spending so much time talking to no one about nothing.........and getting no results, just lessons.......and lessons are just what we all get when we don't get what we want............or need. What a bankrupt society. Glad I'm on my way out and not in. It was much more fun when I was a kid.
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metalgddess said 1:27AM on 8-06-2009
If he spent THOUSANDS of dollars on these pix, then should have made a backup disc/discs.. End of story. Its no ones fault but his. I am tired of ppl placing blame on everyone else except themselves... I think he is looking for an opportunity to sue them.
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Lita said 3:05AM on 8-06-2009
It would be nice if the "Report!" button actually did something. "They" should have people who go from site to site, monitoring for these annoying posts and removing them ASAP. Or a follow-up post saying that the web site will infect your computer and possibly steal info from your computer--whether it does or not.
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G in Orlando said 4:59AM on 8-06-2009
Dear Dudley Haas (Wrinkle Faced Betty's Husband): I would suggest that you learn how to spell. Privileged has only one "d" -- that's all.
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GraceCFL said 7:00AM on 8-06-2009
I have friends who have said, get on Facebook or get on flickr, or become a twit (users of twitter to me are twits, not tweeters). Then you hear of things like this. First of all, no back up? Sorry, no sympathy here, but to upload thousands of your personal photos to flickr? Why? Why are you so interested in telling the world about your personal business? Facebook for me? NO WAY. flickr for me? NO WAY. And I refuse to become a twit. People are stupid. Keep your private stuff private, why didn't he just create a website and show off his stuff? But flickr should implement more security....
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Tuck Steelman said 12:26PM on 8-10-2009
I would think sites like this would only be for sharing. Implying the originals are backed up in several places. The greatest long term problem is hardware becoming obsolete rendering your backups useless. How many of you still have "floppy" backups in the closest?
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Blaise said 5:47PM on 9-02-2009
I can understand his frustration because flickr purports itself to be a STORAGE solution.
The point is that you can upload huge amounts of images and they'll be stored safely at their original quality.
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