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I agree you should be able to do that without consequences but there's nothing brave about pulling down an American flag and stepping on it.
I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
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Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
#32This story (assuming it's true) should serve as an excellent example of why you need privacy even if you think that you don't. In peace time the NSA is only looking for "terrorist" and leaves everyone alone, but in case of war they would start creating lists for any and everything. All it takes is one "tough" agent trusting their gut feeling/algorithm based on your browsing history and shopping habits to put a target…
Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
#33Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
#34So... the headline invokes an inappropriate image. The author attracted the attention of the FBI in 1942, when "cryptography" meant wartime codebreaking, and his amateur cypher got lost and then found and turned in by a genuinely concerned citizen . I mean, OK. Sure, it's bad that kids interested in math get caught up in this. But come on, it was the middle of the biggest war in history and real spies were indeed doi…
This is the important take-away, here. If he were dabbling with radios at the age of 11, in 1942, he'd have ran into the same kinds of problems. Hell, simply being of the wrong ethnicity was more than enough to dump a world of problems on your head in that time period. 120,000 people were sent to internment camps for doing literally nothing, and we're wringing hands over a kid getting a house call from the FBI.
Actually, wring hands at both things. The camps were atrocities, even if they didn't match quite the enemies' atrocities. But they were also doing this sort of thing to many different sorts of folks.
Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
#35How does one find out that you have an FBI record?
An FOIA request would probably be more comprehensive, though also more work.
Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
#36Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
#37Lesson learned: "We traced the glasses to your son from the prescription by examining the files of all optometrists in the San Diego area." - if you want your possessions found, you can either attach a note with your home address or an AirTag... or simply something _so_ sketchy that an intelligence agency delivers your stuff together with an awesome story.
Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
#38My FBI file was for hacking into my school district's AS/400 that handled my school's attendance and grading system. Somehow using a public IP address with no access restrictions allowed a clear telnet path in from home. Compounding username and passwords that were all the same for every employee. I didn't change a thing, just LOLed and told someone. Bad mistake. This was the late 90s. Oh well, 2 week suspension and…
I like how you shared how you learned lesson to not share mischievous activities with people in the same post you then go and share more things you haven't been caught for.
This is going on your permanent school record! /s
That's great. I know even as of recent of 2021 I've seen some places that had 0 security on things.
Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
#39My FBI file was for hacking into my school district's AS/400 that handled my school's attendance and grading system. Somehow using a public IP address with no access restrictions allowed a clear telnet path in from home. Compounding username and passwords that were all the same for every employee. I didn't change a thing, just LOLed and told someone. Bad mistake. This was the late 90s. Oh well, 2 week suspension and…
> Oh well, 2 week suspension
God damn, these idiot school people have no fucking clue that someone who points out a security flaw to you without inflicting any harm is actually doing something good, and that behavior should be encouraged and rewarded.
Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
#40Makes me think about what stories I’ll have to tell about my life in 40-50 years.