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Jonathan's Card shut down

jonathanstark.com

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Re: Jonathan's Card shut down

#31

Post by ahlatimer »

shabda wrote: post #28

I am surprised at the hate against Sam Odio. Sam had the option of taking the gift card and selling the card and keeping the iPad. He exposed the vulnerability. If he hadnt you would have paid in for the card, but someone would have abused the system, and not disclosed it. Here is a though experiment. There is a widely used piece of software which has a vulnerability. There are bad guys who are going to abuse it. A g…

I think we were all aware that the system could be abused. It was based entirely on the honor system since we don't know who was using the card, only that it was being used. The original thread was full of people talking about how it could be abused.

As far as what Sam did in particular, it'd be entirely different if Sam came out and said, "Hey, look! I was able to write a script that has syphoned off $625 from the card and put it into Starbucks gift cards. I could then turn around and sell those cards on eBay and turn them into cash. I'll be putting the money back onto the original card, but I just wanted to expose the exploit." Instead, he followed through with turning it into cash and wrote a snarky blog post about how yuppies buying yuppies coffee isn't all that interesting, and he had decided to redirect the experiment to "will someone buy a Starbucks gift card for full price."

Re: Jonathan's Card shut down

#32

Post by [deleted] »

ahlatimer wrote: post #31
shabda wrote: post #28

I am surprised at the hate against Sam Odio. Sam had the option of taking the gift card and selling the card and keeping the iPad. He exposed the vulnerability. If he hadnt you would have paid in for the card, but someone would have abused the system, and not disclosed it. Here is a though experiment. There is a widely used piece of software which has a vulnerability. There are bad guys who are going to abuse it. A g…

I think we were all aware that the system could be abused. It was based entirely on the honor system since we don't know who was using the card, only that it was being used. The original thread was full of people talking about how it could be abused. As far as what Sam did in particular, it'd be entirely different if Sam came out and said, "Hey, look! I was able to write a script that has syphoned off $625 from the c…

[deleted]

Re: Jonathan's Card shut down

#33

Post by ltamake »

shabda wrote: post #28

I am surprised at the hate against Sam Odio. Sam had the option of taking the gift card and selling the card and keeping the iPad. He exposed the vulnerability. If he hadnt you would have paid in for the card, but someone would have abused the system, and not disclosed it. Here is a though experiment. There is a widely used piece of software which has a vulnerability. There are bad guys who are going to abuse it. A g…

Stealing a ton of money and then selling it on eBay is still wrong. If you rob a bank, does giving the money to charity make it right? If you shoplift a computer, does giving it to a poor family make it right? No, you still stole something you didn't own.

Re: Jonathan's Card shut down

#34

Post by defen »

shabda wrote: post #28

I am surprised at the hate against Sam Odio. Sam had the option of taking the gift card and selling the card and keeping the iPad. He exposed the vulnerability. If he hadnt you would have paid in for the card, but someone would have abused the system, and not disclosed it. Here is a though experiment. There is a widely used piece of software which has a vulnerability. There are bad guys who are going to abuse it. A g…

Come on. The "if I didn't do it someone else would have" justification for bad behavior is covered in Ethics 101. He acted like an asshole and got called out for it. Not just an asshole, a pretentious asshole (the worst kind) who put a picture of a starving African child in his post. This wasn't even some obscure vulnerability, and certainly not in some "mission critical" operation, so even that reason doesn't fly.

Re: Jonathan's Card shut down

#35

Post by benatkin »

sjs wrote: post #30
Cushman wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sam literally did the opposite of contribute to the experiment. There is nothing he could have done which would be more disruptive. The "experiment" was to see if a system based purely on goodwill, like take-a-penny, leave-a-penny, can survive. And in fact, it largely can , as the growing popularity of Jonathan's Card showed. That there are people who will abuse the system does not excuse the people who abuse the sys…

He wasn't the only one skimming money from the card he just got the most attention for it by publicizing what he did. You might even draw the parallel to a white hat who publicizes a vulnerability rather than quietly exploiting it for profit. edit: He did skim quite a lot to prove the concept. Maybe he was seriously considering that iPad.

I agree. If Sam Odio's post had a graph or table with the suspicious changes highlighted, and a conservative total of them exceeding the amount he took, I think fewer people would have given him grief over it.

Re: Jonathan's Card shut down

#36

Post by robryan »

Would be great if Starbucks took up on the theme and made a card designed for sharing but allowed the creator to define a single purchase limit. I don't think a system like this could ever be completely locked down to abuse but at least it could take away the gift card thing.

Re: Jonathan's Card shut down

#37

Post by BasDirks »

shabda wrote: post #28

I am surprised at the hate against Sam Odio. Sam had the option of taking the gift card and selling the card and keeping the iPad. He exposed the vulnerability. If he hadnt you would have paid in for the card, but someone would have abused the system, and not disclosed it. Here is a though experiment. There is a widely used piece of software which has a vulnerability. There are bad guys who are going to abuse it. A g…

He's like the kid who destroys other kids' sandcastles to show that they were not so awesome after all. What's not to hate?

Re: Jonathan's Card shut down

#39

Post by davidw »

shabda wrote: post #28

I am surprised at the hate against Sam Odio. Sam had the option of taking the gift card and selling the card and keeping the iPad. He exposed the vulnerability. If he hadnt you would have paid in for the card, but someone would have abused the system, and not disclosed it. Here is a though experiment. There is a widely used piece of software which has a vulnerability. There are bad guys who are going to abuse it. A g…

> I am surprised at the hate against Sam Odio.

His surname, in Italian, means "hate" or "hatred".

Re: Jonathan's Card shut down

#40

Post by gregschlom »

bgurupra wrote: post #25

I just don't see what the experiment was about really considering the audience entirely consisted of people who can afford coffee - I just don't get it! The only explanation is a viral marketing scheme in my mind

There's a huge difference between buying myself a coffee and enjoying someone else's generosity.

The latter makes me feel happy, and makes me want to be generous, too.

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