http://www.unrealaddicts.com/forums Serious topics and discussions only please. Keep it real, but be respectful. Spamming, flaming or personal attacks will be removed. en Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:50:40 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.unrealaddicts.com/forums/images/visionsred/misc/rss.jpg http://www.unrealaddicts.com/forums http://www.unrealaddicts.com/forums/serious-topics/23397-max-ray-vision-letter-sentencing-judge.html Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:08:12 GMT PITTSBURGH — A skilled San Francisco computer intruder was sentenced here 2/11/10 to 13 years in federal prison for stealing nearly two million credit card numbers from banks, businesses and other hackers — in what is the longest hacking sentence in U.S. history.
Max Ray Vision, 37, was also ordered to pay $27.5 million in restitution, and to serve five years under court supervision following his release, during which time he’ll be allowed to use computers only for legitimate employment or education.
Prior to sentencing, Vision (who changed his name from Max Butler) wrote a lengthy letter to the judge:

February 11, 2010
Honorable Judge Cohill:
I am writing this letter with hope that I can explain a particularly sad chapter in my life. Maybe by trying to explain what I did it will start to make sense, or at least show you a little of why it made sense to me back then. I've been in custody for about 30 months now, and as much as I'd like to put this all behind me, it continues to be a profound embarrassment and ongoing source of shame in my life. I want very badly to move forward and somehow use my talent for good and rejoin the society I abandoned so many years ago. I'm honestly not sure exactly how that's going to pan out since I'll likely be in prison for many months and years to come, but I'm not going to give up.
Please don't mistake my upbeat demeanor as any reflection of how I view my crimes -- I am a naturally happy person. Soon after I agreed to the plea deal, my fiance decided it would hurt too much to wait for me, and called off our engagement. I am homeless, I have no property or assets, not even my clothes. Just the colorful pajamas the U.S. Marshalls have provided. Each day I wake up in a concrete cell and normal society is a distant memory. But despite it all, I find joy in what I have and I am thankful for my family and friends. I also don't mean to justify my behavior or minimize the seriousness of what I have done -- as I try to explain what went through my head. I know very well I was wrong and I'm not trying to excuse what I did.
I'll start at the beginning. In 1998 I was a computer security consultant with a good reputation. I was hired by corporations to evaluate their security and implement defense technology such as firewalls and intrustion detection systems. I loved helping people, and I spent a large amount of time sharing my security research through a website I created called "WhiteHats." I created a freely available database of intrustion detection signatures called acacNIDS that many people in both the private sector and government used to improve their network security. I was working with the FBI's computer crimes division on a volunteer basis, advising them on new security technologies.
In mid-1998, I discovered a worm that was able to exploit a security hole that affected nearly every network on the internet. I advised the FBI about my idea to "proactively scan and patch" government and military networks -- but I didn't wait for their permission to get started. I modified the worm to cause it to download a security fix then launched it against all of the gov-mil networks. I fixed 100's of machines but I had gone about it all wrong -- I had no right to fix other people's computers without their permission. My altristic act was badly tarnished by another error in judgment which was that I had left a back door in the worm code which only I could access. To this day, I'm not sure why I left that back door open. I got carried away and greatly overstepped my bounds.
The Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the FBI came to me and I showed them everything I had done. Two years later I was indicted and self surrendered to prison to serve an 18-month sentence. As it says in the Criminal Complaint it was while in prison that I met Jeff Norminton. Jeff wanted me to help him hack a financial place so he could make millions. I had never committed such a crime and rejected the idea. I didn't want to ever break the law again -- but we continued to talk. He had built the idea that I could somehow tell him what to do so I wouldn't be the one doing it yet he could pay me to teach him. It didn't sink in that even this could be conspiracy. We each got out and I figured that was the last I'd hear of him.
After my release in 2002, I was homeless, staying on a friends couch. I couldn't get work and there were even newspaper articles about my unusual situation -- how a highly skilled security expert with decades of experience couldn't find minimum wage work. Both myself and my girlfriend had bad dental problems. Neither of us could afford care and didn't have insurance. I did have the good sense to reach out to family for help -- at times I went to live with my mother who also took me to her dentist. Unfortunately a confluence of events led to a dark path. My girlfriend's tooth infection got worse and pain intensified, and when I'm at my most desperate, Jeff Norminton contacts me. He tells me he can fix all my problems -- provide a place to live, and provide the thousands of dollars needed for the dental work. All I had to do was meet him at a hotel and show him what to do. I went. I was desperate and felt like I was the bottom, but I can see, from here, that I was nowhere close.
I was already reaching out to family -- if I had to do over, I'd have done the same for my girlfriend, reached out to our friends, swallowed our pride, and been more patient and tried harder to find gainful employment. Once in the hotel room, I was like the invisible man. No one knew where I was and I could hack anonymously using wireless connections. I gave in to temptation and ego and instead of teaching, which is bad enough, I was soon at the keyboard. Jeff introduced me to the man providing the money, Chris Aragon, who ultimately is the one who turned me in after he himself was caught. Aragon paid my bills,gave me places to live, and immediately paid for the dental emergency. I started in their debt and so had to hack to pay them back -- I say "had to" in the sense that it was the deal at the time. I know now I had many options.
At first I didn't really know what to do because I had never done financial crime so I started by hacking other people. I watched a lot of them, learned their methods, and started stealing their information and giving it to Aragon. My justification was that a crime was happening with the info, and I was just shifting it so instead of some random criminal doing it, it would be "my" criminal who would do it -- and he would pay my bills. I convinced myself I wasn't causing harm because a given credit card was about to abused by someone regardless. Well, sadly, that part is true -- but it doesn't make it o.k. to be involved. I never wanted to hurt anyone. I had other justifications as well. I remember thinking credit wasn't money. It's just an abstract borrowed debt -- numbers in a system, not dollars in a pocket. I would never take from a person -- I find that despicable. I thought I was only causing inconvenience. Turns out that the cardholder has to go through a terrible ordeal while the bank sorts it out. So my victimless robin hood fantasy was yet another self delusion. I was greedy, I guess. But more than that, I guess I wanted to keep it going. I was addicted to the lifestyle of being able to hack without limits or concerns for permission. I also lived in one of the most expensive cities in the country, San Francisco.
I've had a lifetime of technical experience that I have used to help people. Unfortunately, I started to play a supporting role in an online community of people who discussed (and committed) financial crime. Most of the people were involved in some aspect of identity theft and looking at it now I am unsure how to describe it. It was social. There were all these special interest groups who, instead of discussing auto mechanics or computer games, discussed credit card fraud and all its peripheral topics. Aragon and I deciced to start our own forum online to put ourselves in the middle of the existing scene. We copied the layout and function of other forums such as Darkmarket, which was operated by the government, actually NCFTA in Pittsburgh. I wanted to call it "Sherwood Forest" but Aragon wanted "Carders Market" and he was the boss.
So I had built a web forum and ironically this was the first legal work I'd done in awhile and it felt really good. It was all technical -- programming and configuration and security. Even some graphic design. Though the forum held discussions about crime, it was legal (as far as I knew) so long as no stolen data was posted or any commerce happened through the site. Don't get me wrong, I regret this whole thing and I truly wish I'd been on an entirely different path, but in a very narrow view of what I was doing, at least the creation of the forum was constructive technical experience. The effort was good, it was just for the benefit of the wrong people -- I was misdirected.
In the months before my arrest, I had turned the forum over to someone else and started to distance myself from that community. I was starting to look for legal work and I had an opportunity lined up. I remember thinking that the Secret Service must have rushed to get me quickly while I still had the computers that were used for crime. because they probably know I was clearly on my way out of this activity.
Since I've been in custody these pats 30 months I have offered my expertise to the Government. This expertise is needed because there is still so much to be done to tighten the security of financial institutions.
I don't believe further prison time in my case will help anyone. I don't think it is necessary because all I want to do is help. I disagree with the blanket assessment of the sentencing guidelines. Unfortunately, I am facing such a horrible sentence t hat even 13 years seems "good" in comparison. But I assure you it is overkill as I am the proverbial dead horse. That said, I plan to make the most of the time I have left on this earth be it in prison or otherwise. I am a voracious reader and I intend to apply myself and earn a degree in the sciences, most likely physics or math. I will have to see what is available to me wherever I end up.
I have a lot of regrets, but I think my essential failing was that I lost touch with the accountability and responsibility that comes with being a member of society. A friend of mine once told me to behave as though everyone could see what I was going all the time. A sure way to avoid engaging in illegal conduct, but I guess I wasn't a believer because when I was invisible, I forgot all about the advice. I know now that we can't be invisible, and that it's dangerous thinking.
Besides furthering my education, I have been offering my help to the government -- Homeland Security and the military or intelligence communities -- whoever can use me. I sincerely hope someone takes me up on my offer because I can do tremendous good and it seems a waste for me to be simply warehoused.
Max Butler ]]> Serious Topics Ludicrous http://www.unrealaddicts.com/forums/serious-topics/23397-max-ray-vision-letter-sentencing-judge.html