• barneypiccolo@lemm.ee
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    2 hours ago

    “He is no longer welcome to be alive”

    And

    “We are Luigi. We Are One.”

    This guy is innocent of all charges, but whoever wrote that has a way with words.

  • clonedhuman@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Investigators were alerted to his accounts after finding an unusually high number of log-ins and failed log-ins from an unfamiliar devices, locations, or networks. That information is tracked by Google, per the affidavit. Other unusual activity was traced through Payne’s VPN or network provider.

    So, Google stopped him, and his VPN provider. I’d like to know who his VPN provider was.

    • Hubi@feddit.org
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      24 hours ago

      Investigators were alerted to his accounts after finding an unusually high number of log-ins and failed log-ins from an unfamiliar devices, locations, or networks

      I really don’t get that part. How did they make the connection?

      • tetris11@lemmy.ml
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        24 hours ago

        You try to login to your google account with the right credentials from several different locations? Yeah that’s suspicious.

        1-3 regular locations per account is a bit more normal

        • Hubi@feddit.org
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          23 hours ago

          Suspicious to Google sure, but I don’t see how the authorities would get involved.

          • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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            22 hours ago

            I think the article is telling us in reverse order of discovery which makes it VERY confusing to parse:

            As in:

            Investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Joint Terrorism Task Force retraced the roots of the digital messages Payne allegedly sent to the media outlets.

            Okay, so where did the “digital messages” come from?

            According to the affidavit, Payne used a Proton email address,

            Okay, they knew the source of the message was Proton email. One subpoena of Proton later, they know the IP address(s) of the email client/app logging into Proton. So now they have a whole bunch of IP addresses of VPN exit nodes. So they reach out to the VPN provider:

            Other unusual activity was traced through Payne’s VPN

            So they ask the VPN provider to provide the origin address of the VPN logins, and come back to a cell phone (network) provider

            or network provider.

            So they ask the network provider to provide the info on the owner, except its a burner, so the provider doesn’t know. Hmm, okay so they know its coming from Burner Phone X, but not who owns Burner Phone X. Mr Google, Mr Microsoft, etc, do you have any activity from these Mobile phone company IP addresses at this time?

            That information is tracked by Google

            Ah! So Mr Google does. Anything stand out to you with the activity you’re seeing?

            Investigators were alerted to his accounts after finding an unusually high number of log-ins and failed log-ins from an unfamiliar devices, locations, or networks. That information is tracked by Google, per the affidavit.

            Okay, so its more than just than Burner Phone X accessing these Google accounts/sessions. Yes, the same web sessions/cookies were also used by devices belonging to another Google account, that of Payne.

            Okay we’ve arrested Payne, could this just be an account/device hijacking and Payne be innocent? Well we also seized a rando cell phone with incriminating evidence on it. Could this have been planted?

            Messages from his burner phone, too, matched the number Payne had listed in his personal contact info while applying for unemployment benefits in February.

            So someone texted something at some point to text Burner Phone X. Who was that origin texter sending to Burner Phone X? Payne. So unlikely it was planted and more confirmation it was Payne sending the original threats.

            • Yoga@lemmy.ca
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              14 hours ago

              Since we know all of the detailed steps it allows us to create a mastermind plan to get away with posting whatever you want…

              Shut up.

          • tetris11@lemmy.ml
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            22 hours ago

            Oh fair. I guess Google peeked into a suspicious account, saw messages, and alerted the police. Yeah dark.

        • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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          22 hours ago

          My guess is that he was using his phone for tethering to a laptop, and he had a google account associated with his browser. So even though he was going through a VPN, it would show THIS SET OF CREDENTIALS logging in from all the different exit nodes of his VPN provider.

          Alternatively, he could have logged into his Google account from the burner phone (not a good idea), or even just created a new Google account, which again, would show logins from a bunch of different exit nodes of his VPN provider.

        • Dem Bosain@midwest.social
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          22 hours ago

          Are you saying we all need to install a continually rotating VPN when we’re surfing the internet? As chaff?

          • Sixty@sh.itjust.works
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            21 hours ago

            Yeah but I think Tor and…not using big corporate USA internet services to begin with would help.

            Would mullvad VPN have given up that information? Which VPN matters too.

            • Monstrosity@lemm.ee
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              20 hours ago

              I was under the impression most Tor exit nodes are suspected of being run by government entities.

              Also, does Tor protect anonymity when browsing the Clear Web, or only while fetching .onions?

              • Sixty@sh.itjust.works
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                19 hours ago

                I don’t know enough to know how severe a problem that is. Mainly I just see it as another added layer of obfuscation, nothing is perfect if it connects to the internet.

          • tetris11@lemmy.ml
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            22 hours ago

            If you use a VPN for official or login services, access those services from the same VPN endpoint.

            If you use it for anonymous stuff, go nuts.

  • blakenong@lemmings.world
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    21 hours ago

    through “killings” of “owners, drivers, and occupants of Tesla Swasticars,”

    So if you got one before he went crazy, you’re dead. I don’t think we should be killing the consumer. Teasing relentlessly, sure.

    • UCIL19841202@lemmy.caOP
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      20 hours ago

      The consumers and non-voters are responsible for Trump though. They’re just as guilty as their fat orange cult leader.

      • kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world
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        19 hours ago

        That’s an unhinged stance. People that bought a car without knowing what Elon was or would become are not morally responsible for enabling him. Intent matters. Most of them, im sure, just wanted an electric vehicle… the end. They do not deserve to be punished for Musk and Trump’s evils.

          • kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world
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            18 hours ago

            We didn’t distinguish “good” Germans from bad Germans during WWII,

            Yes, the fuck we did.

            and we don’t distinguish “good” Russians from bad Russians.

            Yes the fuck we do.

            This is the mentality that leads to war crimes.

      • blakenong@lemmings.world
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        16 hours ago

        I have a bumper sticker that says, “Have the day you voted for,” so I’m like half in your court. But the real enemy are the MAGAs.

  • frustrated_phagocytosis@fedia.io
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    24 hours ago

    Feels a bit disingenuous after pardoning January 6 convictions for people who not only made the threats, but showed up to do the job. Is threatening politicians not cool anymore? Does he need to make a choir sing patriotic songs or what?

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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    24 hours ago

    Messages from his burner phone, too, matched the number Payne had listed in his personal contact info while applying for unemployment benefits in February.

    If you put your real name on it or associate that phone number with your name, then doesn’t that stop meeting the definition of a burner phone?

    EDIT: I re-read the wording of the article, and I don’t think he used the burner phones number associated with his name as I posted before. The article says this:

    "Messages from his burner phone, too, matched the number Payne had listed in his personal contact info while applying for unemployment benefits in February. "

    It sounds like he used is REAL phone/number to apply for unemployment, but then at a later time he used is REAL phone to text a message to his burner phone. So the article is saying the “messages found on his burner phone” contained his REAL phone number. This would mean authorities would have had to have the burner phone in hand. So this wasn’t the way he was found, simply a way that it was confirmed it was him.

    • a4ng3l@lemmy.world
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      24 hours ago

      Sure he’s dumb but his failure gives an interesting insight into how wide the US dragnet on its citizens is. A mail address used to apply for unemployment has been indexed somewhere « just in case ». Nice.

      • sbv@sh.itjust.works
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        22 hours ago

        Storage and indexing is cheap. From a usability perspective indexing makes sense: call centre staff can tell someone why their unemployment application has been denied/delayed etc.

        From a security perspective, Google, Proton, and friends want to track failed login IPs so they can assign (internal) reputation scores to incoming requests.

        • a4ng3l@lemmy.world
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          11 hours ago

          It’s the sharing & cross enrichment that would bother me. That your unemployment office keeps a CRM with the info makes sense. That LEA has it all and more together with the gods know what else is what I would object to. Same for how service providers store that info; there’s a fine line between storing enough and too much. Or too long. And not everything needs to be tied forever to the customer ; sometimes a hash or whatever does wonder for the legitimate purpose. Storing more is often « just in case I can market the data later » which I’m personally not agreeing with.

    • NigahigaYT@lemmy.world
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      24 hours ago

      “No b-because he was a bad guy so we can accuse him of other bad guy stuff too!”

      Inb4 police find “a mysterious white power” and never mention it again

      • naeap@sopuli.xyz
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        22 hours ago

        I guess you mean white powder

        White power is clearly very openly rampant in police institutions worldwide - although, I guess, the white powder isn’t far away either…

    • Yoga@lemmy.ca
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      14 hours ago

      Remember to declare your terrorist attacks to the FBI beforehand for a tax break on supplies

  • peregrin5@lemm.ee
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    24 hours ago

    His desire to execute Tesla owners, while understandable considering how they drive, is a bit extreme. His other goals though. 👌

  • hansolo@lemm.ee
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    24 hours ago

    There’s not enough info in here to know how Google was involved if he sent the emails from Proton. Proton absolutely does not cotton to illegal shit, and actionable threats would be up there with LEO compliance.

    My guess is he was on a VPN and had logins from a Proton account, validated with a burner phone he kept, and was also logging on to a personal Gmail or using some Google service that identifies him while in the same VPN location. Proton and the VPN give up an IP address that corroborates to what Big G tracks to him.

    Edit: even a no-log VPN would likely be compelled to confirm a user at an IP address at a certain time. That’s not a a “log” per se…

    Idiot should have known to change his VPN location between instances and/or use TOR like a big boy, but mental health issues seem to be there driving force, not rationality.

      • hansolo@lemm.ee
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        16 hours ago
        1. Don’t do illegal stuff that makes people paid to find you come looking for you.

        2. Nothing done online is anonymous enough that you should do or type anything you wouldn’t want to read out loud in a court.

        3. Privacy subreddit and privacyguides.org both are good starting places.

        • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          6 hours ago

          Don’t do illegal stuff that makes people paid to find you come looking for you.

          The thing is, the definition of “illegal” will continuously shift until it includes things that you consider innocuous.

          “First they came for,” and all that.

          • hansolo@lemm.ee
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            6 hours ago

            This is the laziest excuse possible for ceeding responsibility to everyone else.

            Know the law in the jurisdiction in which you are physically located. Know the reasonable expectations of internet privacy.

            If the law and you end up crosswise, and lawyering up isn’t a viable option because it won’t matter, that means you were fool enough to tempt fate in a place with no rule of law, no civil rights protections, and likely no reasonable expectation of privacy in the first place.

            Zero trust means the only person responsible for you is you and anyone else you trust with your life. Whining about it doesn’t change anything.

  • djsoren19@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    24 hours ago

    Seems like this might be one of the first ones that actually was a bit of a leftist, considering the use of the term “Swasticar,” which is a little interesting. Funny how the crazies on the far right seem to consistently get to the point where they’re able to obtain a firearm.

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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      22 hours ago

      Whats missing from the article is any kind of seized evidence that would show he had the means to actually carry out any of this threats. As in, could this just be a “talking tough” keyboard warrior? I’d expect they’d need to find lots of guns, poison, explosives, etc. There isn’t any mention of that kind of thing in the article.

      • LesserAbe@lemmy.world
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        18 hours ago

        Yeah, it says they’re charging him with something that has a max sentence of five years, seems like it would be a lot heavier if they could show he was planning to take action.