First crime committed in space: online identity theft?

[spartaman64]

Quote

Summer Worden, a former Air Force intelligence officer living in Kansas, has been in the midst of a bitter separation and parenting dispute for much of the past year. So she was surprised when she noticed that her estranged spouse still seemed to know things about her spending.

Quote

Ms. Worden put her intelligence background to work, asking her bank about the locations of computers that had recently accessed her bank account using her login credentials. The bank got back to her with an answer: One was a computer network registered to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Quote

Ms. McClain acknowledged that she had accessed the bank account from space, insisting through a lawyer that she was merely shepherding the couple’s still-intertwined finances. Ms. Worden felt differently. She filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and her family lodged one with NASA’s Office of Inspector General, accusing Ms. McClain of identity theft and improper access to Ms. Worden’s private financial records.

Quote

Ms. McClain, now back on Earth, submitted to an under-oath interview with the inspector general last week. She contends that she was merely doing what she had always done, with Ms. Worden’s permission, to make sure the family’s finances were in order.

“She strenuously denies that she did anything improper,” said her lawyer, Rusty Hardin, who added that the astronaut “is totally cooperating.”

Quote

Mr. Hardin said the bank access from space was an attempt to make sure that there were sufficient funds in Ms. Worden’s account to pay bills and care for the child they had been raising. Ms. McClain had done the same throughout the relationship, he said, with Ms. Worden’s full knowledge. Ms. McClain continued using the password that she had used previously and never heard from Ms. Worden that the account was now off limits, he added.

Quote

Ms. Worden filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, accusing Ms. McClain of committing identity theft — though she saw no sign that anyone had moved or made use of the funds in the account.

Quote

The couple’s dispute revolved largely around Ms. Worden’s son, who was born about a year before the two met.

Ms. Worden, who had previously worked at the National Security Agency, resisted allowing Ms. McClain to adopt the child, even after they were married at the end of 2014.

In early 2018, while the couple was still married, Ms. McClain went to a local court in the Houston area to ask a judge to grant her shared parenting rights and “the exclusive right to designate the primary residence of the child” if the parties could not reach a mutual agreement, according to records. She contended that Ms. Worden had an explosive temper and was making poor financial decisions, and she wanted the court to “legally validate my established and deep parental relationship” with the young boy.

source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/23/us/nasa-astronaut-anne-mcclain.html

 

I'm not a legal expert and I don't know if this constitutes identity theft but McClain should have asked her former wife whether or not she is still allowed to access her bank account and it seems by the situation the answer would have most likely been no and McClain would have known that. Also it seems she might also be trying to gather evidence against her former wife in a child custody case and without a court order that would probably be obtaining evidence illegally. And even though this happened in space each astronaut is still subject to the laws of their country including cyber laws.

[Levent]

legal side of this story makes my brain hurt.

[Unixsystem]

15 minutes ago, Levent said:

legal side of this story makes my brain hurt.

Same, although the idea of "the accused has now returned to the Earth" is a pretty rad way for crimes to be discussed going forward. 

[AlexOak]

I thought space was lawless? 

[Flying Sausages]

3 minutes ago, AlexOak said:

I thought space was lawless? 

Thanos says no.

[brwainer]

10 minutes ago, AlexOak said:

I thought space was lawless? 

"space", as in all the area outside of the legal height limits of a country's airspace, has the same legal structure, at least for residents of Earth, as when you are at sea outside of any country's legal jurisdiction (12 nautical miles for sea). That means when aboard a vessel (a ship, spaceship, or space station) you follow the laws of the country the vessel is registered with (and the captain of the vessel has additional authority while at sea / in space). For the ISS, half is registered as US and half is registered as Russian. Astronauts from other countries technically have to follow the laws of the nation of whichever half they are in, as well as the laws of whichever half they are an invited guest of, as well as their own country's laws. If there is a dispute between those laws, it usually gets worked out by the legal representatives of the space agencies, because noone wants that type of issue to become escalated up to the ambassadors or the heads of state.

 

While this may be the first civil crime to happen from space, it really is not noteworthy beyond the fact that the person involved happened to be in orbit. Astronauts are assigned times and specific computers for personal use. The connection only came from "NASA" because the main internet connection for that half of the station is via NASA.

[JohnMc45]

You are going through a breakup with a significant other and you know they have some of your passwords and have used them before. What idiot doesn't change there password? Worked at NSA. Quick someone go see if you can log into the NSA with Password as the Password.  

[Commodus]

2 hours ago, Schnoz said:

Actually, the ISS falls under international law (I thonk). If you live there, you live under international law. So that still means no bank fraud, unfortunately.

 

Living on another planet? The habitat your country's space program set up falls under your law. Once you step out of it, you're in international waters.

Keep in mind McClain went through a NASA network and accessed info in the US.  Now, if it had been a crime committed solely in space (say, one astronaut killed another), then you'd have greater ambiguity.

[Salv8 (sam)]

space core's vocabulary will increase when he sees this...

SpACE

Space Crime!

 

S P A C E !

[rcmaehl]

 

(obvious sarcasm)

[Andreas Lilja]

How dumb do you have to be to do this at work?

[TempestCatto]

It's that damn unsecured space wifi. Speaking of unsecured, I bet you're wondering if this segway is secure. And thanks to PIA, it is. PIA, Private Internet Access, lets you browse the web anonymously, and safely. Using military grade encryption to keep your internet traffic safe and secure. Learn more at the link below: https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/linus-tech-tips

 

 

(i'm sorry plz don't ban me ;-; )

[brwainer]

26 minutes ago, Andreas Lilja said:

How dumb do you have to be to do this at work?

If you're on the ISS for 6 months, then every connection you make will be "from NASA" (or "from RosCosmos"). She didn't do it while "at work", she did it during the regularly scheduled personal time. Astronauts on orbit are scheduled to work "normal" hours - more than 40 per week, but not much more.

[MoonSpot]

Why didn't she change her account passwords?  If we're being real and they're both accustomed to managing the finances, this is precisely what one should expect to happen until a divorce is finalized.  Especially when there are children, mortgages and property taxes in the mix. 

 

Wreaks of sensationalism and mud slinging drama.

[LAwLz]

7 hours ago, MoonSpot said:

Why didn't she change her account passwords?  If we're being real and they're both accustomed to managing the finances, this is precisely what one should expect to happen until a divorce is finalized.  Especially when there are children, mortgages and property taxes in the mix.  

 

Wreaks of sensationalism and mud slinging drama. 

Not sure I agree here.

If me and my partner broke up, and I still had the key to their apartment, I wouldn't just go into it and then claim ignorance. "What, you never took back the key so therefore I assumed I was authorized to walk into your apartment while you were at work to snoop around".

I don't think the argument that "she didn't know" holds water.

 

Once you break up, it should be on both people to establish what they can and can't do. I know my partners phone password, but if we broke up I wouldn't just assume I was still allowed to log into it, even if they didn't change the password. Especially not if I did it secretly without their knowledge.

[Commodus]

3 hours ago, LAwLz said:

Not sure I agree here.

If me and my partner broke up, and I still had the key to their apartment, I wouldn't just go into it and then claim ignorance. "What, you never took back the key so therefore I assumed I was authorized to walk into your apartment while you were at work to snoop around".

I don't think the argument that "she didn't know" holds water.

 

Once you break up, it should be on both people to establish what they can and can't do. I know my partners phone password, but if we broke up I wouldn't just assume I was still allowed to log into it, even if they didn't change the password. Especially not if I did it secretly without their knowledge.

A jointly-held financial account is something different, though.  Those are partly your resources, not just theirs.

 

While I wouldn't presume to know every little detail of the situation, it sounds like Worden didn't quite understand that a joint account means... the other person has access.  (And they're entitled to it, too.)  McClain wasn't pilfering money from the account, she was apparently checking in like any adult curious about their finances.  You can't maintain a joint account and then complain that the other person knows about your major spending patterns.

[The King of the Undead]

wait can I use a vpn to the ISS? That would be epic!

[Brooksie359]

This seems like a stupid dispute between two people going through a breakup the fact that one is acusing the other for identity theft for accessing an account they both used regularly seems like there might be ulterior motives. I think a good password change and telling them they can no longer access the account would have sufficed in resolving this issue. 

[Bcat00]

On 8/25/2019 at 12:50 PM, Levent said:

legal side of this story makes my brain hurt.

Can’t say it any begter

[Derkoli]

1 hour ago, will4623 said:

wait can I use a vpn to the ISS? That would be epic!

Must get NordVPN now to try this.. Would be cool if you could

[The King of the Undead]

Just now, Derkoli said:

Must get NordVPN now to try this.. Would be cool if you could

mention me and tell!

[spartaman64]

1 hour ago, will4623 said:

mention me and tell!

10 kbps vpn PogChamp

[cj09beira]

not gonna lie the Ms. Ms. thing threw my head around way too much, guessing the child is adopted then

[Energycore]

Just now, cj09beira said:

not gonna lie the Ms. Ms. thing threw my head around way too much, guessing the child is adopted then

We'll get used to it given enough time

[spartaman64]

1 hour ago, cj09beira said:

not gonna lie the Ms. Ms. thing threw my head around way too much, guessing the child is adopted then

the child is worden's she had him before they got married