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Why you don't steal from a hacker.

infosec20.blogspot.com

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

#121

Post by rckclmbr »

jerrya wrote: post #96
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 story you have just heard is true. The names were changed to protect the innocent. On August 12th, trial was held in Department 98, Superior Court of the State of __London, in and for the County of __London. In a moment the results of that trial. Shillip Herbert Keaver was tried and convicted of robbery in the first degree - five counts - and received sentence as prescribed by law. Robbery in the First Degree is…

This can't be the same person. The laptop was stolen from his house while he was away. This would mean it would be a burglary charge, not robbery.

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

#122

Post by sukuriant »

jcfrei wrote: post #93
randlet wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a person breaks into/trashes/takes things from my personal space they are certainly giving up their right to anonymity in my eyes. Why should I respect his privacy when he has absolutely abused mine?

he violated your privacy and so did you, when you installed a tracking software. the difference is that you're putting the information on the internet and he is not.

I violated his privacy by logging all actions that are performed on my computer, and reading the actions performed on my computer when it was used without my permission? Hm...

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

#123

Post by jrockway »

rckclmbr wrote: post #121
jerrya wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The story you have just heard is true. The names were changed to protect the innocent. On August 12th, trial was held in Department 98, Superior Court of the State of __London, in and for the County of __London. In a moment the results of that trial. Shillip Herbert Keaver was tried and convicted of robbery in the first degree - five counts - and received sentence as prescribed by law. Robbery in the First Degree is…

This can't be the same person. The laptop was stolen from his house while he was away. This would mean it would be a burglary charge, not robbery.

This is a parody of an old TV show called "Dragnet". Each episode ended with a dramatic narrator reading something 99.9% similar to the comment you replied to. Same fixed format, everything.

Kids these days :) :)

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

#124

Post by suivix »

dasil003 wrote: post #103
icebraining wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is: rolling my own takes less time than installing Prey. Of course, it won't have bells and whistles, but it'll be much less limited.

I'm sorry but that claim has no credibility with me. Setting up the proper cron jobs, server-side components, and verifying that everything is working under a variety of circumstances will take much more than the 5 mins it takes to install Prey. Just because you've already done it and you have a pre-rolled solution doesn't mean you didn't invest that time, and don't fool yourself.

You only need to set up a cron job to create a reverse SSH tunnel into your home server. That way from your home server you could SSH into the machine, no matter where it is.

It's one or two lines of configuration.

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

#125

Post by a3_nm »

This is neat, but it only works if your setup is simple enough to be usable by a random thief so that they can get an Internet connection ready so that the machine can phone home. Were someone to steal my laptop and boot it, they would reach a tty login prompt in a dvorak layout, and playing around in grub would also lead to an LFS install with a patched agetty greeting them in lolcat. (My LFS was just for fun, so I did silly stuff with it.)

In other words, they would probably just wipe the computer and install Windows, and I wouldn't hear about the machine. I guess I could have a Windows install ready with a guest account and sneaky tracking software just for the benefit of an hypothetical thief, but it doesn't seem worth the effort.

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

#126

Post by lostmypw »

xd wrote: post #110
lostmypw wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose it's people being tired by the whole "hacker" hoopla, especially when people use the term to compare their e-peen, but also when the media confuses hackers with crackers. To me, the hacker/cracker thing is just a lost battle and thus a big waste of time. That being said, I'd only use "hacker" in the original sense, i.e. the hacker philosophy about exploring, learning and teaching. To me, a person with no cl…

Couldn't agree with you more. If you're a mechanic, you don't brag about calling the AA to home-start your wheels. You would be pretty shocked to see a mechanic post a story about his home-start on a hobby enthusiasts news site and see the community there voting the story up.

Indeed, although I'd be sighing as in this case, not be shocked.

I wonder if it's just an illusion or if there really also is an influx in me-too submissions. Not that I'm judging any submission in particular, but there is clearly a difference in usefulness and novelty when you compare them.

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

#127

Post by [deleted] »

sudonim wrote: post #52

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: ######################################################## # g…

[deleted]

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

#128

Post by Andys »

a3_nm wrote: post #125

This is neat, but it only works if your setup is simple enough to be usable by a random thief so that they can get an Internet connection ready so that the machine can phone home. Were someone to steal my laptop and boot it, they would reach a tty login prompt in a dvorak layout, and playing around in grub would also lead to an LFS install with a patched agetty greeting them in lolcat. (My LFS was just for fun, so I…

Perhaps you are also meticulous enough to not allow your laptop out of your sight in the first place.

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

#129

Post by tingletech »

jrockway wrote: post #123
rckclmbr wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This can't be the same person. The laptop was stolen from his house while he was away. This would mean it would be a burglary charge, not robbery.

This is a parody of an old TV show called "Dragnet". Each episode ended with a dramatic narrator reading something 99.9% similar to the comment you replied to. Same fixed format, everything. Kids these days :) :)

still a burglary is when stuff is stolen when no one is there (as in the fine article). A robbery is when something is stolen from your person (like you are help up at gun point for you wallet).

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

#130

Post by polymatter »

jcfrei wrote: post #89
CapitalistCartr wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All that happened is that the World knows that he is a criminal. His right to privacy doesn't mean the right to conceal his misdeeds from the rest of us, nor the right for us to keep silent about it.

No, just because you become a criminal doesn't mean you lose your right to privacy. Whether the act itself was unlawful or not doesn't really matter (to a certain extent).

To compound matters, a person not convicted of a crime by a court of law is a suspect who may or may not know the laptop they are using is stolen goods. I think its wrong to treat suspects as though they are convicted criminals. Presumed innocent before guilty and all that.
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