Linux Developer Swatted and Handcuffed During Live Video Stream (tomshardware.com)
(Sunday September 15, 2024 @04:56PM (EditorDavid)
from the error-messages dept.)
- Reference: 0175002671
- News link: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/24/09/15/2052213/linux-developer-swatted-and-handcuffed-during-live-video-stream
- Source link: https://www.tomshardware.com/software/linux/linux-dev-swatted-live-during-a-development-video-stream
Last October Slashdot reported on René Rebe's [1]discovery of a random illegal instruction speculation bug on AMD Ryzen 7000-series and Epyc Zen 4 CPUs — which Rebe discussed on his YouTube channel.
But this week's YouTube episode had a different ending, [2]reports Tom's Hardware ...
> Two days ago, tech streamer and host of Code Therapy René Rebe was streaming one of many T2 Linux (his own custom distribution) development sessions from his office in Germany when he abruptly had to remove his microphone and walk off camera due to the arrival of police officers. The officers subsequently cuffed him and took him to the station for an hour of questioning, a span of time during which [3]the stream continued to run until he made it back ...
>
> [T]he police seemingly have no idea who did it and acted based on a tip sent with an email. Finding the perpetrators could take a while, and options will be fairly limited if they don't also live in Germany.
Rebe has been contributing to Linux "since as early as 1998," according to the article, "and started his own [4]T2 SD3 Embedded Linux distribution in 2004, as well." (And he's also a contributor to many other major open source projects.)
The article points out that Linux and other communities "are compelled by little-to-no profit motive, so in essence, René has been providing unpaid software development for the greater good for the past two decades."
[1] https://linux.slashdot.org/story/23/10/14/2151247/t2-linux-discovers-now-patched-amd-zen-4-invalid-opcode-speculation-bug
[2] https://www.tomshardware.com/software/linux/linux-dev-swatted-live-during-a-development-video-stream
[3] https://youtu.be/FIEwcTKUFCA
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T2_SDE
But this week's YouTube episode had a different ending, [2]reports Tom's Hardware ...
> Two days ago, tech streamer and host of Code Therapy René Rebe was streaming one of many T2 Linux (his own custom distribution) development sessions from his office in Germany when he abruptly had to remove his microphone and walk off camera due to the arrival of police officers. The officers subsequently cuffed him and took him to the station for an hour of questioning, a span of time during which [3]the stream continued to run until he made it back ...
>
> [T]he police seemingly have no idea who did it and acted based on a tip sent with an email. Finding the perpetrators could take a while, and options will be fairly limited if they don't also live in Germany.
Rebe has been contributing to Linux "since as early as 1998," according to the article, "and started his own [4]T2 SD3 Embedded Linux distribution in 2004, as well." (And he's also a contributor to many other major open source projects.)
The article points out that Linux and other communities "are compelled by little-to-no profit motive, so in essence, René has been providing unpaid software development for the greater good for the past two decades."
[1] https://linux.slashdot.org/story/23/10/14/2151247/t2-linux-discovers-now-patched-amd-zen-4-invalid-opcode-speculation-bug
[2] https://www.tomshardware.com/software/linux/linux-dev-swatted-live-during-a-development-video-stream
[3] https://youtu.be/FIEwcTKUFCA
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T2_SDE
The rumour is this is RUST related (Score:1)
by ClueHammer ( 6261830 )
As René Rebe has public stated he is not going to embrace it, at least not yet.
Can someone translate the summary into english (Score:2)
So this guy found a bug in a cpu, and then while streaming (streaming what?) his place was raided and he was arrested (for what?)
Any chance of a few basics here like what, why, and how?
Re: (Score:2)
Okay, a fairly minor SWATTING story, as apparently the cops didn't come in with a battering ram like US cops often do.
The bug was mentioned as a hook for why he's important enough to slashdot to report it. Basically, Slashdot had a previous article on him, about the bug.
We don't know why or for what he was swatted for, apparently it was an "anonymous tip" email. It's not even in the source article.
Re: (Score:2)
If the accusation was unfounded, and only planted to cause him trouble, then there is no point in continuing the lie by publishing it.
Re: (Score:3)
Okay, the newsworthiness angle is that it's already well-known that contributing to open source efforts can be [1]thankless [xkcd.com], but now it also got someone [2]swatted. [wikipedia.org]
This is why we can't have nice things.
[1] https://xkcd.com/2347/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatting