Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why you don't steal from a hacker.

infosec20.blogspot.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 166 posts

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

#51

Post by ChuckMcM »

giberson wrote: post #39

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 was wondering that too. I was thinking that perhaps this guy had gone and screwed around with his social network given the facebook screen cap at the end. Of course if someone steals your laptop, and using software you've installed you keylog all their secrets and you use their credit card to buy themselves a hundred pizzas each from 10 stores around town, that would be a bit much perhaps.

I know from experience (not me of course, but that of some kids who stole some stuff from a neighbor) that juveniles who are caught and convicted of petty theft basically get a slap on the wrist, a stern warning about what will happen if they do it again, and sent home.

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

#52

Post by sudonim »

I just installed Prey. Ignoring the OP's use of the word "Hacker", you don't have to pay them anything to get good value from the software.

I set it up so if this file ever disappears http://iamnotaprogrammer.com/prey.html it starts sending me alert messages like the one below:

Good news my friend, it seems we found it.

Here's the report from your computer:

######################################################## # geo ########################################################

:: lat=(deleted)

:: lng=(deleted)

:: accuracy=33.0

######################################################## # network ########################################################

:: public ip=(deleted)

:: internal ip=192.168.8.121

:: gateway ip=192.168.8.1

:: mac address=34:15:9e:07:af:86

######################################################## # session ########################################################

:: logged user=sudonim

:: uptime=14:21 up 3:12, 6 users, load averages: 2.12 1.91 2.06

Happy hunting!

-------

Then it attaches a picture taken with my camera and a screenshot. All in all, pretty handy to have running.

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

#53

Post by jff »

rajpaul wrote: post #34

"took a report and dusted for prints, performed typical forensics" I'm impressed that the police dust for prints in England. I've never heard of someone getting that kind of thoroughness for a domestic burglary where I live.

When my house was burgled, the cops sent out 3 cars, did a thorough inspection, took inventory of what had been stolen, and dusted for prints in places we indicated were likely to have been touched (the windowframe where they came in, some doorknobs, and the box fan they had moved). This was in Rochester's 19th Ward (New York), possibly the most dangerous and high-crime part of town.

As far as I know, they never caught anybody, but at least they tried. I'm pretty sure it was my drug-dealing neighbors two houses down... especially since the guy three houses down claims the security cameras on his porch showed them taking stuff from our house to theirs. Oh well.

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

#55

Post by garron »

What about "Hacker News"?, some of the news here are not Hacker specific. In the guidelines of this site, it says, that here can be posted articles that comply with this: "anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity" So, this site could have be named "Intellectual's News", and not Hacker News?

I'm not a hacker, and love to read the stories here, this is my favorite site to read news every morning.

Yes, you are all right, the term Hacker is misused everyday, and the tendency is growing.

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

#56

Post by cbr »

giberson wrote: post #39

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.

the police probably haven't done anything yet

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

#57

Post by TheAmazingIdiot »

icebraining wrote: post #31
notaddicted wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consumer routers will typically have port 22 firewalled for incoming trafic.

Ok, I'll rewrite: Why wouldn't he use his reverse SSH connection* to do that stuff? * Reverse SSH: if wget http://myserver.com/sshreverse ; then ssh -R 2900:localhost:22 User@myserver.com; fi Stick this in a file, chmod +x, then add an entry in cron to run it every hour or so. After that, you just need to create a file in your web server called "sshreverse" and you'll have an SSH tunnel to your laptop.

Id do one thing slightly different.

I would set up an icmp proxy with ssh on top of that. And there would be a few good reasons for that. 1: it bypasses a whole lot of firewalls and captive gateways. 2: few hackers would expect such a communication mechanism like that.

Of course, this solution works only if the computer isnt reformatted, as i would do if i ever got into petty theft. So one would need the computer to have an open and easy to get into account. If you use linux, have home directory encryption on and the account called "Administrator".

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

#59

Post by kleim »

NathanKP wrote: post #15
nikcub wrote: 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'

I've read some really great stories in which real hackers used SSH to log in to their stolen computers, install key loggers, and custom tools. This obviously isn't one of those stories though. I think it is great that the average person can now do all those things from a web app. It is funny though that they still consider themselves to be hackers because they can use that web app. Another example of misuse of the te…

Is this one of the example you are looking for? http://gizmodo.com/5717309/what-happens-when-you-steal-a-hac... (talk from Def Con '11)

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

#60

Post by Aqua_Geek »

breck wrote: post #24

Quick look at the source code ( https://github.com/tomas/prey ) seems to show that if you wipe the HD you're SOL. I'm still waiting for Apple to release Find My Mac (similar to Find My IPhone), which will withstand a hard drive reformat.

Not sure if it survives a HD reformat, but: http://9to5mac.com/2011/08/03/apples-icloud-find-my-mac-serv...
Post reply on HN