The Inevitable Ending for Addicted Hackers

In July of 2016, I wrote a blog piece called "Hacking, Carding, SWATting and OCD: The Case of Mir Islam" in which I discuss the travesty of the American criminal justice system that takes mentally ill hackers, ignores all of the minimum sentencing guidelines, gives them a slap on the wrist and lets them run along. You can read about how the judge ignored all guidelines and gave Mir, AKA "Josh The God", far less than the minimum sentence and let him skip the country after serving one year. Josh was part of "UGNazi" the hacker group that went on a campaign of credit card fraud, social engineering, and SWATting.

The update today? Mir and one of his hacking friends "TJ" AKA Brian Kush, Troy Woody Jr., both having violated parole and fled to live in the Philippines, were arrested by the Manila police for dumping a dead woman's body in a river.  At 2:00 in the morning, they hailed a ride-sharing service (Grab) from TJ's condo, loaded a huge box in the trunk and instructed the driver to take them to the Pasig River. They dumped the box in the river, and then returned to TJ's apartment. Afterwards the driver reported the incident to the Police, who recovered the box and the body, including her ID card that was in her pocket.

As I wrote in "The Psychology of Hackers" there are some hackers who are feeding an addiction where "the success of small hacking activities and the lack of punishment for each, serves as an incentive to move on to bigger and bolder things." This was inevitable in Mir Islam's case.  Had the prosecutor's followed the sentencing guidelines instead of being swayed by the romantic ideas that "such a powerful hacker can use their powers for good" the dead girl, Tomi Michelle Masters, from Indiana, would still be alive today.