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Why you don't steal from a hacker.

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

#71

Post by aw3c2 »

jcfrei wrote: post #67

Am I the only one who feels that it's wrong to put someone's personal information and picture on the internet just because he stole a laptop? Of course you get your personal information stolen as well, but in my opinion that doesn't justify spreading his image and name all over the internet. that kind of intrusion into privacy (of the thief) is a much bigger crime in my eyes than the loss of some laptop.

In the US it seems normal to even expose people's full names on any police stuff and/or after prosecution (I never paid too much attention what was what). Privacy and personal rights are very different in some countries. In germany we highly value personal rights and privacy.

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

#72

Post by CapitalistCartr »

jcfrei wrote: post #67

Am I the only one who feels that it's wrong to put someone's personal information and picture on the internet just because he stole a laptop? Of course you get your personal information stolen as well, but in my opinion that doesn't justify spreading his image and name all over the internet. that kind of intrusion into privacy (of the thief) is a much bigger crime in my eyes than the loss of some laptop.

Think about it. Why do we put far more money into law enforcement than the cost of the crime? Because it's not just about that one laptop. If we don't get the point across to the criminal, he'll do far more damage to all of us. Most burglary is the result of a small number of people. Because few police departments treat that crime seriously, a single burglar gets away with hundreds of crimes before getting caught.

As for his privacy, he surrendered that voluntarily when he stole the laptop; the government didn't impose that sentence on him.

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

#73

Post by waffle_ss »

jcfrei wrote: post #67

Am I the only one who feels that it's wrong to put someone's personal information and picture on the internet just because he stole a laptop? Of course you get your personal information stolen as well, but in my opinion that doesn't justify spreading his image and name all over the internet. that kind of intrusion into privacy (of the thief) is a much bigger crime in my eyes than the loss of some laptop.

Yeah that's a good point. Although unlikely, the guy could have bought the laptop off of Craigslist or something.

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

#74

Post by Legion »

dasil003 wrote: post #50
gregcmartin wrote: post #28

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-Invente…

It's sad that many of the people who say the word "hacker" means all these positive and inclusive things are often the same people who lambast someone for actually using the word that way to refer to themselves.

Make up your minds. Is it the inclusive, "explorers of technology" meaning where it's more about curiosity and open-mindedness than skill level, or is it your little l337 boys club badge of honor?

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

#75

Post by benatkin »

I care more about the safety of my data than the safety of my computer, so I have FileVault full-drive encryption turned on. I don't think a thief could log into my computer without wiping the drive, which would wipe Prey if I had it installed. So I'm not going to bother installing it.

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

#76

Post by aw3c2 »

icebraining wrote: post #35
blhack wrote: 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.

Would you share that script?

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

#77

Post by breck »

Aqua_Geek wrote: post #60
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...

Thanks! Finally a reason to upgrade to Lion.

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

#78

Post by astine »

icebraining wrote: post #38
wheels wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If the title was "You don't steal from a hacker," you might have a point, but " Why you don't steal from a hacker" implies the reason for that is exposed in the post.

A story entitled: "Why you don't steel from a Texan" would generally entail the thief getting shot. Shooting a thief doesn't make one a Texan, but it is the kind of thing a Texan would do. (Gross generalization for illustrative purposes only.) In the same way, having a software program installed on one's computer in case of theft does not make one a hacker, but it is in the spectrum of things a hacker might do. So I think that the title is plenty accurate.

That said, the title does prime one for an epic tail of recovery and revenge involving spoofed IP addresses and total identity theft. This story is a little bit of a letdown, but I doubt he meant for it to get the attention it got.

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

#79

Post by jcfrei »

CapitalistCartr wrote: post #72
jcfrei wrote: post #67

Am I the only one who feels that it's wrong to put someone's personal information and picture on the internet just because he stole a laptop? Of course you get your personal information stolen as well, but in my opinion that doesn't justify spreading his image and name all over the internet. that kind of intrusion into privacy (of the thief) is a much bigger crime in my eyes than the loss of some laptop.

Think about it. Why do we put far more money into law enforcement than the cost of the crime? Because it's not just about that one laptop. If we don't get the point across to the criminal, he'll do far more damage to all of us. Most burglary is the result of a small number of people. Because few police departments treat that crime seriously, a single burglar gets away with hundreds of crimes before getting caught. As…

I don't think he surrendered his privacy voluntarily. exposing his picture and info has nothing to do with law enforcement - that's just self-administered justice. a well functioning state of law / rule of law (I dunno how you call it in english) works by sentencing criminals to prison according to the scale of their crime. not by punishing them overtly and excessively as a warning to other criminals (that's just barbaric).

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

#80

Post by Kirchart123 »

tomaspollak wrote: post #49
Sargis wrote: 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 ques…

Thanks for your software, i think u guys are latin-americans? ...
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