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Why you don't steal from a hacker.

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41–50 of 166 posts

Re: Why you don't steal from a hacker.

#41
You say "professional hacker" to refer to yourself a lot, but as far as I can tell all you did was use someone else's product. Where is the hacking in that? Hacking is creative problem solving. You used a product for its intended purpose. That's called being a consumer, not a hacker. lame. self masturbatory. grow up.

also I'm not anonymous you dipshit

Re: Why you don't steal from a hacker.

#42
You say "professional hacker" to refer to yourself a lot, but as far as I can tell all you did was use someone else's product. Where is the hacking in that? Hacking is creative problem solving. You used a product for its intended purpose. That's called being a consumer, not a hacker. lame. self masturbatory article.

Re: Why you don't steal from a hacker.

#44
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>So why did he rely on luck instead of SSHing to the laptop and unlocking the machine? I don't know of a single person who directly connects their laptop to the internet. This would have been sitting behind a NAT device which, unless port 22 was explicitly forwarded to the IP address that his laptop happened to get via DHCP, would have stopped him from SSHing in :)

That's why I have a two line shell script that creates an SSH tunnel to my server if I put a file called 'reversessh' on my webserver. I mean, basically doing what Prey does, but without relying on a third-party service and having much more control over the machine.

Now that's hack-zore :).

Re: Why you don't steal from a hacker.

#46
post #23
post #4

the word 'hacker' has been diluted to a new low first to 'somebody who can write a web app', to now 'somebody who can install software'

Reading comprehension fail. Just because the title asserts that the poster is a hacker doesn't mean that the post justifies why he is one. If I write something about "Why you don't steal from a Texan" I'm going to talk about you digging lead out of your derriere, not about where I was born.

Yeah, if you dig through his blog, he has some really cool model train stuff.

Re: Why you don't steal from a hacker.

#47

Glad the person got their Mac back, but why does this story and ones like it always end at the recovery of the property? Could we get an update on the punishment of the criminal? I'd like to know what kind of repercussions the criminals suffer--do they get prosecuted? I'm just curious if these software tracking systems have been used in court as evidence to convict any of these criminals.

I'm not sure if it's that easy for the victim to find that information. My family was robbed several years ago and while the police eventually reported that they caught the perps, that was all of the detail they left. Similarly, my girlfriend had credit cards stolen once and neither the police nor the credit card company gave any information except that they had found the people who stole the card. Perhaps this discretion is to prevent people from attempting vigilante followup actions?

Re: Why you don't steal from a hacker.

#48
post #23
post #4

the word 'hacker' has been diluted to a new low first to 'somebody who can write a web app', to now 'somebody who can install software'

Reading comprehension fail. Just because the title asserts that the poster is a hacker doesn't mean that the post justifies why he is one. If I write something about "Why you don't steal from a Texan" I'm going to talk about you digging lead out of your derriere, not about where I was born.

In fact, he's updated his post to reflect this kind of comment:

"Updated: to quell the comments, I did not choose the title to imply downloading tracking software is hacking, I am a hacker by profession and have been all my life."

Re: Why you don't steal from a hacker.

#49
post #6

Is this one of those viral marketing campaigns again? Yesterday, there was a popular thread on Reddit about some guy who retrieved his stolen Macbook by using the exact same software that's being mentioned here. And not to mention the several other threads here on HN a few months ago that are suspiciously similar. Or maybe it's just really useful.

no it's not. and please don't start with this over again.

we (the Prey team) don't have the time or the interest to pay people, thieves or whomever to build and publish these elaborate stories.

I spent almost all afternoon yesterday on Reddit -- where some guy published a similar story -- trying to make it clear that we had nothing to do with it (besides having developed the software).

I'd be happy to answer any questions regarding Prey, but please don't make me go repeating today the same thing all over again.

Re: Why you don't steal from a hacker.

#50

Sorry I wasn't implying that the software I used made me a hacker, that is simply just my profession... I use the term very widely to be someone who codes, pentests, reverses malware or jailbreaks iphones...

Yes, I'm saddened by all the responses here making the basic logical fallacy of affirming the consequent.

It seemed perfectly clear to me that you meant that a hacker is going to have some means of finding his stolen laptop rather than that using Prey makes you some kind of hacker.

And to the criticism that you are running a product, that's ridiculous as well. Do we all solder our own motherboards? Devout Not-Invented-Hereism isn't a prerequisite for being a hacker, and in fact it probably makes you much less effective of one.

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