from Hacker News

HackerOne takes $25,000 from Belarusian hacker in response to sanctions

by phwd on 3/13/22, 2:38 PM with 10 comments

  • by OrlandoHakim on 3/13/22, 3:55 PM

    It makes me sad that we have de-humanized everyday Russian and now Bellorussian citizens for the crimes of their totalitarian governments.

    I could see an argument if these were functioning democracies but they are not. Imagine if everyday Americans had to face punitive sanctions or like in this case outright theft because their democratically elected governments chose to invade a country (like Iraq) on false pretenses and proceed to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians (again, speaking of Iraq)

    What Russia is doing in Ukraine is unconscionable, but in a totalitarian government, individual citizens have infinitely less agency than they do in the west. Even in the US, remember how little agency everyday Americans had to fight the governments decision to invade Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11.

    This ethical hacker did nothing wrong. The funds should have been frozen, not stolen without due process. It’s almost like HackerOne is begging for retribution. Let’s hope they don’t reap what they sow.

    Cyberwar sounds pretty scary right now.

  • by rvz on 3/13/22, 3:27 PM

    Very unfortunate for HackerOne to take away the reward of a hacker because they are from Belarus, even though they disagree with their government and are under sanctions.

    The whole point of HackerOne is to reward and incentivise hackers for finding vulnerabilities to make software services safer. In this case, the incentive is gone.

    But it is yet another example of a private platform doing private platform things and now it sets another precedent of what they can do if you cross the line, with or without sanctions.

    They might as well go elsewhere or even the dark web.

  • by sp332 on 3/13/22, 3:15 PM

    Yeah I don't think this is right. Not being able to do bank transfers temporarily doesn't mean you can seize the contents of accounts.

  • by zelon88 on 3/13/22, 3:04 PM

    > We are powerless. I'm sorry. 8/9

    This is such a frustrating outlook. Your are powerless because you believe you are powerless. You believe you are powerless because your government recognized your power long ago and actively works to subvert it.

    The police telling you to break into smaller groups is why you are powerless. Your cooperation with tyranny is all that makes you powerless.

    We aren't even in your country and we know we are going to stop your government. We want to, and we will.

    It's too bad we want it more than you, and sad that other people have to pay with their lives because you want to live on your knees.

  • by sp332 on 3/13/22, 7:36 PM