George Hotz

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George Hotz at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2016

George Francis Hotz (born October 2, 1989 in Glen Rock , New Jersey ), also known under the pseudonyms geohot , million75 or mil , is an American hacker . Thanks to his exploits for the Apple iPhone , PlayStation 3 and iPad, he achieved a high level of awareness in the hacker scene and with certain user groups of the respective devices. With the programs written by Hotz, manufacturer-side restrictions of the devices can be bypassed ( jailbreak ), such as blocking the iPhone for software from providers other than Apple . In January 2011, he published the full root key of the PlayStation 3 on his blog. The manufacturer Sony thereupon filed a lawsuit against him for various offenses, including copyright infringement of the software used for the PlayStation.

resume

Hotz grew up in Glen Rock , New Jersey, where he went to school and graduated from high school in 2007 . He has a sister. Even in elementary school he was interested in technical devices, which he dismantled and put back together in a different form according to his own ideas. In 2005, Hotz took part in the competition at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) organized by Intel . He reached the finals with his project “The Googler”. In 2007 his project “I want a Holodeck ” won several prizes in the same competition. In May 2011, George Hotz was hired as a software developer at Facebook . Since September 2015 he has been working on self-driving cars in his company comma.ai.

comma.ai

In September 2015 Hotz founded the company comma.ai and in December he presented the first successes of his software based on artificial intelligence for self-driving vehicles in an interview . However, since he did not have an authorization from the California Department of Motor Vehicles , they required him to refrain from further tests. Hotz tried to sell the software to Tesla , but no agreement was reached.

In October 2016 the comma one should be brought onto the market, which would have enabled extensive self-control capabilities for various Honda models with simple hardware based on smartphone technology. However, the sale was prevented by requirements of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration . As a result, comma.ai released the software at the end of November 2016 under the name openpilot on an open source basis.

In January 2020 the comma two was presented for $ 999, which only works as a dashcam ex works, but which can be easily downloaded from openpilot, which gives cars produced for the US market after 2016 extensive self-control capabilities.

Legal battle with Sony

Because of the cracking of the Playstation 3, Sony filed a lawsuit against Hotz. Hotz is said to have violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act , copyright law, and other federal and California laws against computer fraud, etc. , according to Sony's complaint . In order to collect evidence for this process, the group obtained a far-reaching court order in early March 2011. Accordingly, Sony should get comprehensive data on the visitors of Hotz 'website. The responsible Internet provider was obliged to hand over the log files to Sony, which meant that the group had the opportunity to determine the IP addresses of visitors and their download behavior since the beginning of 2009. Other companies that had to provide information about visitors to websites or files published by Hotz were Google , YouTube and Twitter . Hotz had posted a video on YouTube with instructions for cracking the PS3. The Electronic Frontier Foundation described the court decision on these information requirements as inappropriate and wanted to take legal action against it.

In the meantime, Hotz announced via his website that he was able to pay his legal fees thanks to numerous donations from Internet users. He asked the media and private individuals for support at the same time, in that they should spread their rejection of Sony's actions as widely as possible.

The legal dispute with Sony was terminated at the end of March 2011 by mutual agreement. Hotz accepted an injunction, the content of which remained secret. He donated the US $ 10,000 donations that were not needed to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which had supported him.

At the beginning of April 2011, members of the Anonymous movement shut down several Sony websites in retaliation ("Operation Sony") for the "abuse of the justice system" by means of a DDoS attack carried out with the Low Orbit Ion Cannon .

In June 2011, the hacker group Lulz Security allegedly stole and published one million user data from the Sony Pictures website , citing retaliation for Hotz as a motive.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Playstation 3 allegedly cracked by Hacker Geohot. In: PC Games Hardware . Retrieved January 27, 2010 .
  2. ↑ The PS3 was hacked - an analysis. (No longer available online.) In: next-gamer.de. Archived from the original on March 9, 2011 ; Retrieved February 1, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.next-gamer.de
  3. ↑ Hacked firmware unlocks iPhone in 15 minutes. In: winfuture.de. Retrieved January 27, 2010 .
  4. ↑ Has "GeoHot" released the final hack for the PS3? In: golem.de . Retrieved January 3, 2011 .
  5. ↑ George Hotz Biography: Geohot More Than Just the PS3 Hacker - Article from ps3-news.com accessed on February 19, 2010
  6. ↑ societyforscience.org: Seaborg SIYSS Award ( Memento of the original dated 4 November 2010 at the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link is automatically inserted and not yet tested. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.societyforscience.org
  7. ↑ Time online on June 28, 2011: Facebook hires iPhone and Playstation hackers. Retrieved June 28, 2011 .
  8. ↑ PC-Games.de on June 27, 2011: Geohot: The prominent hacker George Hotz is now working on Facebook. Retrieved June 28, 2011 .
  9. ↑ a b c Peter Bohler: The First Person to Hack the iPhone built a Self-Driving Car. In: Bloomberg Businessweek. Bloomberg, December 16, 2015, accessed December 10, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Danny Yadron: This 26-year-old hacker can make a self-driving car, but can he take on Tesla? In: The Guardian . April 5, 2016, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed March 4, 2020]).
  11. ^ Correction to article: "The First Person to Hack the iPhone Built a Self-Driving Car". December 16, 2015, accessed March 4, 2020 .
  12. ↑ 2016-10-27 Special Order Directed to Comma.ai. Retrieved March 4, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Comma.ai cancels the Comma One Following NHTSA letter. In: TechCrunch. Retrieved March 4, 2020 (American English).
  14. ^ Sean O'Kane: George Hotz is giving away the code behind his self-driving car project. November 30, 2016, accessed March 4, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Emme Hall: We hit the road with Comma.ai's assisted-driving tech at CES 2020. Accessed March 4, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Sony files lawsuit against PS3 hackers. heise online, January 12, 2011
  17. ↑ Electronic copy of the statement of claim (PDF file; 1.1 MB) in the Sony Computer Entertainment America vs. Hotz et al., January 11, 2011, p. 1
  18. ↑ Sony enforces information about website visitors. Spiegel Online, March 7, 2011
  19. ↑ David Kravets: Judge allows Sony to see IPs of those visiting PS3 Jailbreak-Site. arstechnica.com, March 7, 2011
  20. ↑ George Hotz's personal website ( memento of March 8, 2011 on WebCite ), geohot.com, saved as of March 8, 2011
  21. ↑ http://futurezone.at/digitallife/2769-geohot-spendet-10-000-dollar-an-buergerrechtler.php  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. GeoHot donates $ 10,000 to civil rights activists@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / futurezone.at  
  22. ^ "Press release" by Anonymous ( memento of April 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on November 28, 2015 (English).
  23. ↑ http://isc.sans.edu/diary.html?storyid=10654 Message about the DDOS attack at the Internet Storm Center
  24. ^ Don Reisinger: Tupac Hackers to Sony: 'Beginning of the end' . CNET. Retrieved June 3, 2011.
personal data
SURNAME Hotz, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hotz, George Francis (full name); geohot (pseudonym); million75 (pseudonym); mil (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American hacker
DATE OF BIRTH October 2, 1989
PLACE OF BIRTH Glen Rock, New Jersey