Stupid Hacker Tricks - The Folly of Youth 226
N_burnsy points out an article in Computerworld which "profiles several youthful hackers, some still serving prison time, some free, who have been caught indulging in some fairly serious cybercrime, and looks at their crimes and the lessons they have (or have not yet) learned.
Starting with Farid 'Diab10' Essebar, currently a guest of the Moroccan prison system, who wrote and distributed the Mytob, Rbot, and Zotob botnet Trojans. There's Ivan Maksakov, Alexander Petrov, and Denis Stepanov, all guests of the Russian penal system, sentenced to eight years at hard labor for creating a botnet to engage in DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attacks to blackmail online gambling sites based in the UK, threatening to take the sites down during major sporting events. Then there's Shawn Nematbakhsh who was a little too eager to prove a point about the electronic balloting system that the University of California employed to hold student council elections, by writing a script that cast 800 votes for a fictitious candidate named American Ninja." Not everyone on the list is exactly youthful, and the range of offenses shows how lumpy this area is both to the law and in public perception.
Link without 5 pages of ads... (Score:5, Informative)
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It didn't go down. =(
~Jarik
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Student elections? (Score:5, Insightful)
There is no justice in the world. That kid should have been given a fucking medal.
Re:Student elections? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Student elections? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Student elections? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Student elections? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Student elections? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Student elections? (Score:5, Interesting)
Except that he explicitly says he was doing no such thing in TFA:
If he had really been interested in fixing the flaw, he could have brought it to the administration's attention in a much better way that would have avoided him having to do community service, and not screwed up the election.
Your point is still valid, though. When I was an undergrad, a friend of mine discovered that the primary key to the LDAP student/faculty directory was the same number that was encoded on our ID cards, the result being that we could create fake ID cards for anyone in the directory (and thus gain their building privileges, have access to the accounts linked to the card, etc.). He went to the administration with the information, and they reissued cards to the entire student body. Then, they proceeded to start a judicial investigation against him. Thankfully, nothing ever came of it, but it does show the tendency of institutions to punish those who are actually trying to help them.
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That would be responsible. Thousands of votes is somewhere between stupid and vandalism. He even admitted it was nothing more than a prank, with no particular goal of exposing an insecure system.
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Re:Student elections? (Score:4, Insightful)
The point of civil disobedience is not to avoid being caught. It is to be caught in a way that proves the system is corrupt. Punishment is critical to the effectiveness of civil disobedience as a strategy to change the world.
It's also critical for holding back the tide of unthinking self-righteousness in the world. If good intentions were an absolute defense, there would be no end to the crimes people would commit with complete assurance they are on the side of right.
Giving this guy a slap on the wrist is the right thing to do; it serves the purpose of having the rule without doing more damage than breaking the rule did. The rules are there for the guidance of the wise and the protection of fools. The wise might choose to accept punishment in service to a higher cause; the foolish shouldn't be punished more than is necessary to set them on the right track.
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That's an aside though, and your reasoning is strong even without that bit. I'
Ok so (Score:3, Interesting)
If you aren't ok with me going through your things without permission, I'd have to ask why you are ok with with breaking in to someone else's stuff. You can't have it both ways, if your stuff isn't fair game, why is their stuff fair
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Just shows that even moderators have not RTFA
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Re:Student elections? (Score:4, Informative)
Yes, he was such a noble crusader....
That's why whitehats are becoming rare (Score:5, Insightful)
I think that is why there are less reports about benevolent hackers pointing out security flaws these days, but lots of reports about botnets for spamming and DDOS activities.
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When you get cocky you get caught.
also....
and the range of offenses shows how lumpy this area is both to the law and in public perception.
I am not sure how I g
Re:Student elections? (Score:5, Funny)
Blade/face bijection
Halt candidate/follicle
Ninja insurrection
Burma Shave
Another one in the taxalotl tank (Score:2)
Did not read the fine article (Score:2)
One thing that really has hit me in the past however is the inappropriate almost military level responses to computer crime in several cases. For example, a few years back the DVD Jon raid involved an international paramilitary team to catch a single unarmed teenager.
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Its pathetic, save jail for people who are a threat to society not somebody who 'cracks' a router.
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The blackmailer maybe, but locking the guy up for scanning cisco routers for default passwords, hes no danger to society hes just wasting taxs by being locked up.
If you find an unlocked door, are you in the habit of walking inside and lifting any credit cards or cash you find lying about? I mean, you totally shouldn't go to jail for THAT, you don't know how to pick a lock, you're no danger.
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If you find an unlocked door, are you in the habit of walking inside and lifting any credit cards or cash you find lying about? I mean, you totally shouldn't go to jail for THAT, you don't know how to pick a lock, you're no danger
In this country (UK), im fairly sure i wouldn't you have:
be a flight risk
be a danger to society
refuse to do other punishments
to waste taxes on your ass. But then again IANAL and this is just what a friend told me.
If your dumb enough to leave your door unlocked it doesnt make my actions legal but it does make them a lot less malicious, i mean if you find a $100 note in the street do you go to the station and hand it in?
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My point with the last section is where do you draw the line between locking somebody up and slapping them on the wrist.
I really dont thing that locking on to some server is that bad, give the kid a fine and get him to do some community service instead of locking him up where
1) He's costing you money
2) He's mixing with criminals
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"Getting caught was kind of a wake-up call, that the Internet was not some kind of playground and I couldn't do what I wanted to all the time. I had to obey the law. The prank was not well received by a lot of people at the school."
He acts as though what he did was actually traced back to him via the Internet... he didn't get busted as part of some kind of brilliant cyber-sleuthing... he got busted because he bragged about it and word got out. If you want to do that kind of thing you're better off keeping your mouth shut.
The whole thing is silly anyway... they're student elections. At a big school they're just a contest to see who has the most friends / friends of friends.
Typo in TFA (Score:4, Insightful)
So what's the new word for someone who writes quick and dirty code that actualy runs, or changes a transistor radio into a guitar fuzzbox?
BTW, if you wrote TFA shame on you! the proper word is "script kiddie", cyberglar, cyber burglar, "computer criminal". Not "hacker" for God's sake. Just because Joe Sixpack thinks a "hacker" is a criminal and RAM is a brand of truck doesn't mean we should share in their ignorance.
"I used to be a gay hacker, now I'm only a happy nerd"
-mcgrew
*Yes, I just coined that word. So sue me.
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Let's do a quick headcount. "Who here is The One." *counts about 50,000 slashdotters before giving up*
That's alot of The One(s). Next we need to somehow semantically link "The One" with 'There can be only One" and munch popcorn as the epic geek-fight (with interesting gadgets!) ensues.
Good idea somersault, have some of my imaginary popcorn for your efforts.
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There can only be one one - though one squared is still one, and 1 ^ 50,000 is still one, so I think we'll be okay, somehow. The geek fight is a good idea though. My weapon of choice is an Amiga A1000, maye with a 21" CRT for backup (only really good for when you're above your opponent of course)
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That bit down there that looks like Darth Vader's colostomy bag? That's just to show that I've faced greater challenges than slashdot (and as a timing circuit in the teslas' discharge regulators. (that dude didn't need no stinkin' Metamucil, he 'went' like clockwor
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On3s and zer0s. You have my vote!
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I have mod points and I didn't know what to do. I thought I'd give advice instead of modding:
Stick to the point.
I know I'm off-topic.
Re:Typo in TFA (Score:5, Insightful)
That was the point. Like it or not, people who used to be "gay" in a non-homosexual sense are no longer able to use that word that way. "Dick" was a common name when Batman and Robin came out in the 40s (and Dick Tracy), now nobody would call their child "Dick". Language changes whether we want it to or not.
"Hacker" has become something that benevolent hackers can no longer call themselves, no matter how we feel about it.
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"Gay" doesn't bother me so much, because it has synonyms. I can still call myself "happy", "merry", "gleeful", "cheerful", etc, depending which is appropriate.
"Hacker", or "hack", in the proper usage, really has no synonyms. "Codemonkey" doesn't fit, because hacking isn't limited to programming -- there are hardware hacks. "Modder" doesn't fit, because a hack can be an entirely original creation. And neither of those give the sense of slapdash/gen
Holy Hackers Batman!!! (Score:2)
No thank you, I'll continue to call myself a hacker and continue to hack radio controlled cars into drinkbots, collect, demolish and reconstruct all manner of mad science electronics and yes, even hack my computers. What do I care what the ignorant masses think, and if they fear me, then so much the better. I've been hacking for nearly 40 years, and I'm not going to give up the word so easily.
And yes I tilt at Windmills.
I don't care if I
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As to gays themselves
Re:Typo in TFA (Score:5, Insightful)
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What does skin color have to do with technology?
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BTW, if you wrote TFA shame on you! the proper word is "script kiddie", cyberglar, cyber burglar, "computer criminal". Not "hacker" for God's sake.
I never understand this strange attachment people have to word definitions. Give it up, the word also means "computer criminal".
Just because Joe Sixpack thinks a "hacker" is a criminal and RAM is a brand of truck doesn't mean we should share in their ignorance.
This is the thing I also don't understand. "Joe Sixpack" is the guy defining the language, not people
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There are many institutional gatekeepers in this world, and we use the mastery of standard English as a basis for making distinctions about who gets to
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not as long as people in universities and members of the upper-middle and upper classes get to exercise preferential treatment toward people who speak like them.
Heh. This just kills me. If you really want to know who has the most control over language, it's the writers and people on television. Those people are sometimes the "upper classes" and sometimes the "joe sixpack". They're rarely a University instructor, or "expert" on the subject at hand. My point is simply to refute the idea that More Knowled
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Hetero, and fairly content, btw.
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So I am unclear; are you for or against the evolution of language?
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GP is absolutely correct in his rant, and if he's guilty of ANYTHING it's bringing up something WE ALREADY ALL (should) KNOW.
If you think the GP is incorrect in his assertion that the word 'hacker' has been used out-of-context by a source that should know better, then you've reached a new level of fail on slashdot.
Personally, I'm offended by the constant creep of middle managers and o
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A fellow named "Fydor" wrote a program named "nmap". You probably saw it running in that one Matrix movie. Fydor is a hacker. Someone using nmap to gain unauthorized acces to a computer system is just a criminal.
All I can say is (Score:2)
"catch me if you can" (Score:5, Interesting)
1. convict them and put them in prison
2. take them out and convert their sentence into useful work for the federal government. if they f**k up, back in the hole they go
when some guy finds a chink in a voting system and exploits it, yes, he's done wrong, but he's also done society a service, no matter what his intentions were. this doesn't necessarily need to be rewarded, but it does need to be recognized as useful work in pursuit of a useful goal for society. these individuals, however morally and ethically flawed, still have use to society
what they need is supervision, like frank abegnale, and skills that previously went to petty vandalism and self-indulgence at the expense of society can instead be converted into useful work for society. these individual must be supervised, since their ability to form ethical and moral decisions has obviously been shown to be severely compromised, but you will note that frank abegnale today is currently very wealthy and quite the free man, and all of his current wealth accumulated through honest work. rehab is not only possible, but it is also profitable, for the individual who needs an ethical and moral correction, and society at large
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4. The other half million blokes in prison still get to rot.
Perhaps it might make more sense to attack the problems in the prison system at a lower level?
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Cripes you Should also know how counterfeiting is done so you can look to see if you are getting passed bad $20's and $100's.
Being an uneducated dork is not way to go through life.
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you don't understand the issues (Score:2)
a crook can't steal a job from an honest man if the job in question doesn't exist. the crooks in question here are doing jobs no one else is doing. otherwise, their exploit wouldn't exist
"4. The other half million blokes in prison still get to rot."
yes, which is exactly what they deserve. robbing banks and raping women isn't very new or very interesting. discovering a technological exploit no one else is doing IS interesting and useful
no (Score:2)
those who don't seem bothered by it usually also don't have a stick up their ass, their minds are more supple. brittle minds need the rigid formatting conformation to prop themselves up. the lack of formatting drives them nuts, simply because their minds are so feeble, not for any valid reason i should actually recognize and accomodate
so i've come to depend upon m
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e.e. cummings is dead, and you are raping his corpse. What the hell is with twats who think, "I must do something different and obnoxious; people will pay attention to me and if they complain, I can just call them conformist sheep!"
You say brittle minds need rigid formatting conformation to prop themselves up, but aren't you being equally brittle with your dependence on another formatting convention--that of never touching the Sacred Shift Key? It doesn't make you special, it doesn't show what a unique and
i dont do it (Score:2)
i do it because of the kind of people i piss off by doing it
i don't think i am special or unique or notable
but i do think i annoy you (and i obviously do, by your post), and that is the source of pleasure which drives my behavior
because the kind of people i annoy by doing it, are the kind of brittle asshole i hate
so thanks for feeding me
xoxoxoxoxox
i am being childish and petty, yes (Score:2)
i am entirely aware of all of that
one wonders why you think that matters
"If anything, you have only served to reduce yourself to the level of the so called 'feeble minds' you complain about by resulting to childish defensive name calling."
a feeble mind is a brittle, inflexible mind. asperger's type people. anal retentive. minds set in their ways, compulsively fixated on form, such as grammar, complet
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completely miss the point (Score:2)
yes, if he didn't pursue a life of crime, he wouldn't have a penny today. but that's only half the story
equally true: if he wasn't caught and rehabilitated, he would be living dishonestly off of his ill-gotten gains in a pension house in rio de janiero, or, more likely, be rotting in prison in france or somewhere else
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that tom hanks/ leonardo decaprio movie about frank abagnale serves up the most useful point about guys like these: 1. convict them and put them in prison 2. take them out and convert their sentence into useful work for the federal government. if they f**k up, back in the hole they go
So he saw an issue in the voting system. He could have sold the election to the highest bidder, but instead, he demonstrated the flaw to everyone. His reward? We stick him in prison and use him for slave labor.
which is wrong (Score:2)
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I'm sorry, but government has no place converting people to "useful" work or "supervising" them. Further, government isn't ethical or moral. No organization is ethical or moral, because these are qualities of human beings - qualities that more frequently get subverted by government than they are by "petty vandalism" or "self-indulgence".
Example: How many teenagers would know the experience of killing someone if they weren't engaged in doing so for the military?
Thanks, but no thanks. I can do without th
are you serious? (Score:2)
i can't conceive that you would actually think like that
"Example: How many teenagers would know the experience of killing someone if they weren't engaged in doing so for the military?"
uh, PLENTY, moron
ever hear of a gang?
do you live on this planet?
if you are just trolling me, i have chomped hard
please tell me you don't actually believe what you say:
"No organization is ethical or moral, because these are qualities of human beings - qualities that more frequently get su
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The incidence [fbi.gov] of murder in the United States was 16,528 in 2005 of 5.5 per 100,000 inhabitants. As you can see from the charts, less that 1,000 of those have known connections to gangs. If we assume this is an average, we are talking about ~100,000 in a population of more than 300 million.
Contrast with conservative Iraqi war casualty [csmonitor.com] estimates. We have 151,000 people dead and an estimated 9 out of 10 as a result of U.S. military combat operations or ~135,000 in a population of slightly more than 28 millio
well then (Score:2)
1. it is an absolutely inherent aspect of human nature to form organizations. you will never stop human beings from doing this, short of fundamentally altering human nature itself (thats scifi, btw, not reality). if you destroyed every government, religion, or other organization on the planet, new governments, religions and other organizations would spontaneously form to fill the vacuum. its completely unavoi
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Actually, a number of prominent hackers (yes, real Hackers), were made to do exactly that.
I seem to recall some Real Big Guys were forced to tour schools and tell the little kiddies that Hacking is Bad.
Wrong vote (Score:3, Funny)
Too much "CSI." (Score:5, Funny)
This whole article is like that.
Pure genius (Score:5, Interesting)
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American Ninja? (Score:4, Funny)
P.S. (on
I wonder what would that Rinzai guy show to a sexual predator.
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http://students.ncsu.edu/sgims/archive-85/p/the-pirate-captain-piavis-wjpiavis.html [ncsu.edu]
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Chloroform.
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Don't Blame Me (Score:2)
Morris link shows they are right (Score:2)
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May I be the first to say.. (Score:2)
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OK, who here over 40 never did anything illegal? (Score:4, Interesting)
* were not skilled enough to avoid being caught and you knew it
* had VERY good morals
* didn't have an opportunity
Before the mid-80s "casual" hacking was just as likely to get you a job as it was punishment. By the late '80s and '90s there were much better ways to prove you were good and too many people were misusing other's computer for purposes other than "because they could" or "because it was cool" or to save a few bucks on long distance phone calls.
I've a few stupid hacker tricks of my own.. (Score:2, Interesting)
I found the URL it used to post the scores back to the content server and, in a flash of idiotic curiosity, changed my score to some huge number, requested the URL and checked the scoreboard.
It was quite thrilling to see my name at the top, with a score a hundred thousand points higher than the next person - then I realised I'd probably com
Where to start? (Score:2)
I found the article particularly annoying in its attempt to link the perps with animal torturers, its feeble pop-cultural references (Cavemen? from a Geico commercial?, and its breathlessly righteous neener-neener overall tone. Is it an Australian thing, that la
Beatdown on 13-year-old hacker? (Score:2)
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Re:Bah Hackers (Score:5, Insightful)
If you really want to change that perception, plan to run full page ads in every major newspaper (because the people who misuse the term are less likely, imo, to get their news online) and launch a multi-million dollar TV campaign in every major market for a few years. Even then, you'll still be vexed by people who will use the old term, but having run the campaign, you'll be able to elevate your level of righteous indignation.
Then you might be able to start a new affinity group: Mankind for the Ethical Treatment of Hackers (METH).
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