“Security Researcher At The Center Of Emoji-Gate Heading Home After Feds Drop Five Felony Charges - from the good-news-for-one-of-the-actual-good-guys dept.” By Tim Cushing for Techdirt, March 23, 2018. https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180322/18004339483/security-researcher-center-emoji-gate-heading-home-after-feds-drop-five-felony-charges.shtml
As part of the plea agreement, Justin Shafer is forbidden to reveal the name of the dental software vendor who chose to turn Shafer in to the FBI for "hacking" rather than risk a HIPAA violation by admitting they carelessly left patients' identities on an anonymous FTP server – allowing access to ANYONE. Justin simply did the right thing. He reported the breach, and then spent 8 months in jail for it.
Nevertheless, I'm not forbidden to tell you that PATTERSON DENTAL COMPANY – a vindictive, sleazy corporation - tried to ruin Justin's life to hide their carelessness with Americans' privacy.
Most importantly, why did the US Department of Justice choose to protect PATTERSON DENTAL COMPANY at the expense of Shafer’s liberty?
Don’t do business with PATTERSON DENTAL COMPANY, Doc. They are assholes.
It has occurred to me that starting a couple of years ago, perhaps the Department of Justice came under extreme pressure to nail TheDarkOverlord, and Justin Shafer was the closest thing to a suspect they could lean on. Like Justin Shafer, I think the DOJ leadership made bad decisions out of desperation, including the using fruitless early morning raids of Shafer’s home as torture. Justin simply broke. As a husband and father, Justin’s desperate bad decision was to locate and appeal to an FBI Special Agent’s wife. While Justin’s relatively harmless mistake put him in jail on a charge of cyber-stalking, those who made even worse desperate decisions in the DOJ still enjoy being home with their families at night.
Justin was simply trying to make his life whole again – like it was before TheDarkOverlord framed him with innuendo about payments which never happened.
Had Justin’s home not been raided three times, Justin Shafer would have never been charged with cyber-stalking, his family would not have been deprived of husband and dad for months, and perhaps, just perhaps with Justin’s help, TheDarkOverlord would now be in custody instead of Justin.
As a friend of Justin, he shared with me his suspicion of FBI Special Agent Nathan Hopp's (or Hawk's) perceived vendetta as it was happening. I responded, "What an asshole." And that was enough to warrant an unannounced visit to my dental office by two agents, whose questions indicated to me that they really didn't have a clue about the case they were prosecuting. I think they were disappointed that I actually didn't assist Justin in identifying Hopp, that I have nothing to do with TheDarkOverlord, and that no money had been exchanged between Justin and me... Thus went an hour of my life which I'll never regain - Not to mention that my first patient waited in my dental chair for an hour while I was asked pointless questions. I was even warned by one of the agents that "'I don't know' will only go so far." But it is the damn truth.
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Boycott Patterson Dental
Don't do business with Patterson Dental, Doc
“Security Researcher At The Center Of Emoji-Gate Heading Home After Feds Drop Five Felony Charges - from the good-news-for-one-of-the-actual-good-guys dept.” By Tim Cushing for Techdirt, March 23, 2018.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180322/18004339483/security-researcher-center-emoji-gate-heading-home-after-feds-drop-five-felony-charges.shtml
As part of the plea agreement, Justin Shafer is forbidden to reveal the name of the dental software vendor who chose to turn Shafer in to the FBI for "hacking" rather than risk a HIPAA violation by admitting they carelessly left patients' identities on an anonymous FTP server – allowing access to ANYONE. Justin simply did the right thing. He reported the breach, and then spent 8 months in jail for it.
Nevertheless, I'm not forbidden to tell you that PATTERSON DENTAL COMPANY – a vindictive, sleazy corporation - tried to ruin Justin's life to hide their carelessness with Americans' privacy.
Most importantly, why did the US Department of Justice choose to protect PATTERSON DENTAL COMPANY at the expense of Shafer’s liberty?
Don’t do business with PATTERSON DENTAL COMPANY, Doc. They are assholes.
Darrell Pruitt DDS
CC: spamgroup
Re: Re: They broke him
I never said Justin knows the identity of the TDO.
They broke him
It has occurred to me that starting a couple of years ago, perhaps the Department of Justice came under extreme pressure to nail TheDarkOverlord, and Justin Shafer was the closest thing to a suspect they could lean on. Like Justin Shafer, I think the DOJ leadership made bad decisions out of desperation, including the using fruitless early morning raids of Shafer’s home as torture. Justin simply broke. As a husband and father, Justin’s desperate bad decision was to locate and appeal to an FBI Special Agent’s wife. While Justin’s relatively harmless mistake put him in jail on a charge of cyber-stalking, those who made even worse desperate decisions in the DOJ still enjoy being home with their families at night.
Justin was simply trying to make his life whole again – like it was before TheDarkOverlord framed him with innuendo about payments which never happened.
Had Justin’s home not been raided three times, Justin Shafer would have never been charged with cyber-stalking, his family would not have been deprived of husband and dad for months, and perhaps, just perhaps with Justin’s help, TheDarkOverlord would now be in custody instead of Justin.
Justin Shafer
As a friend of Justin, he shared with me his suspicion of FBI Special Agent Nathan Hopp's (or Hawk's) perceived vendetta as it was happening. I responded, "What an asshole." And that was enough to warrant an unannounced visit to my dental office by two agents, whose questions indicated to me that they really didn't have a clue about the case they were prosecuting. I think they were disappointed that I actually didn't assist Justin in identifying Hopp, that I have nothing to do with TheDarkOverlord, and that no money had been exchanged between Justin and me... Thus went an hour of my life which I'll never regain - Not to mention that my first patient waited in my dental chair for an hour while I was asked pointless questions. I was even warned by one of the agents that "'I don't know' will only go so far." But it is the damn truth.