Ten-Year-Old Hacker Reveals Mobile Gaming Exploit at Defcon

[EternalFacepalm]

Why are people saying it's amazing because she's a girl as well? It just sounds sexist and stupid, I mean, sure, it's good with some female presence on the stage, but it's not cool because she's a girl, that's just blatantly missing the point.

 

[Andy Chalk]

The internet is not a nice place. Figuring this out is like saying "hey guys I learned how to walk" and claiming its somehow special on a forum. The internet criticizes religions, laughs in the face of whole governments, and tears down any societal habit such as child worship.

You're just flat-out determined to talk down the accomplishments of a ten-year-old girl, aren't you? I can't imagine why that is and I honestly don't care, but it's kind of sad.

 

[PoweD]

Honestly, this isn't anything new.
At the age of 10, i knew how to use internet and all of its features.
And about being a huge exploit, it honestly isn't much.Most games that could be exploited this way have no real reason to do so, unless you spend your whole day on it.

 

[KingofallCosmos]

Who gave her those wayfarers? Those are more provoking than either the female or 10 year old part.

 

[Asehujiko]

I dunno, I thought it was pretty funny. Besides, when you're the first person posting on an article and all you have to say is "pssh, that's all she did? I could have done that so easily" never mind the fact that the person in question is TEN, then you deserve to get knocked down a few pegs.

Not really. When the headline claims "A ten-year-old hacker who discovered an exploit that allows easy cheating in iOS and Android games has presented her findings to this year's Defcon hacking conference." and you find out that the "hack" is just changing the system clock, something that has been possible in games for years before anyone even thought about smart phones and games on them, people are going to be unimpressed because it's not a hack at all. As for disconnecting the device from the internet, that's also something that's been done for a few years as well (Xbox 360 will try to auto-sync the date and time if you're connected to Xbox Live, so changing the system clock requires signing out of live and/or disconnecting your ethernet cable first), which is also not hacking.

The age of the person in question has nothing to do with it. 10 years old or 30 years old, changing a system clock is not hacking. The reason for people being unimpressed is the same reason people get upset when someone claims there is "hacking" going on Xbox Live, PSN, or anything else and then tells a story about how they got tricked by phishing.

Then blame the person who incorrectly put "hacker" in the topic title, not the person this is about, she didn't write this.

 

[w00tage]

Wow. You guys must be in the friggin Dark Ages if you think the fact that this person is A GURL OMG somehow makes it even more impressive. The first computer programmers were women.

Specifically, the first programmer ever - https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Ada_Lovelace - and the first "working" programmers - https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/ENIAC#Programming.

Note that this post is not about the person in the article, it's about all the reactions I saw saying how awesome it was that a GURL could do this. Sheesh.

 

[ShindoL Shill]

so basically... how i got millions in Fable 2. gotta say, i was expecting something more. but its a good place to start: i found out how to do it from the internet.

 

[Xannieros]

Sure, changing the system cock to cheat at games is a really old trick.

But this 10-year old girl came up with the trick independently of anyone else. That's gotta be worth some kudos and shows she's a smart kid with some good potential.

Not quite sure if it warrant's any praise.. Many people do those sort of things by themselves. Heck I figured it out with Fable 2 and Animal Crossing without looking up any sort of guide. I see this up there with finding the secret levels as a kid in Mario games. Not too special.

This sort of trick isn't what I'd call hacking either.

 

[fanklok]

I was too busy rewriting the experience values you got from quests in Soulbringer (that game that came with Planescape: Torment) so I could hit max level 5 minutes into the game. I think I win.

 

[samsonguy920]

I have a bunch of respect for the kid. Her knowledge is revolutionary for her age group. What really makes me shake my head is this:

CyFi's mother said that following her daughter's presentation, identity protection company AllClear ID [the folks contracted by Sony to provide a year of free identity theft protection to PSN customers] would offer a $100 reward to the "young hacker" who discovered the most games vulnerable to the exploit in a 24-hour period. Isn't that just the sweetest thing ever?

PSN clients? I hope you aren't letting your guard down.

 

[Ziadaine_v1legacy]

Wow, clock acceleration. because that hasn't happened before. /sarcasm

ALOT of games have had this bug (rather then exploit), it's just so happened she thought of a simple logic "what if it cant connect"

I'll give her credit for thinking logically at only 10 though.

 

[Rawne1980]

While it is impressive doing that at 10 year old she needs to lose those sunglasses.

Not only are they stupidly large and daft looking only 2 kinds of people wear sunglasses inside ..... blind people and idiots.

Other than that, well done lass.

 

[ImprovizoR]

Actually, 10 year old kids are more likely to think outside the box than older people. Their creativity is still unharmed. It's not really that surprising that she found that exploit at her age. When I was 10, I build my first LED lamp and I did awesome stuff with magnets and electronics. But as you get older you have more responsibilities, and most of your interests have to be put aside, limiting your creativity.