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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)

#71

Post by amatecha »

Broken_Hippo wrote: post #26
Bootvis wrote: post #2

Fun story but the fact that he totally lost touch with his childhood friend over something so silly makes me sad.

It makes me even more sad that we haven't remedied that sort of thing everywhere by giving children rights, including free association with others. In other words, parents cannot govern friends and romantic partners.

There's definitely a balance to be had... Kids don't generally have those rights because they have far too little life experience to judge the effects of associating with people. Adults have seen the life paths of those around them and observed where certain directions can lead. So, parents look out for their kids. Sometimes the parents just have poor judgement, heh

Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)

#72

Post by dylan604 »

wyre wrote: post #52
belval wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may know him but I did not, so I erred on the safe side and added the "if there is any truth to it" as it's a much safer default to assume that everything I read on the Internet is possibly made up.

I don’t think assuming stories as untruthful is using good faith. I think this line of thinking heavily contributes to this post-truth society we live in; if everything online is a lie that leaves the individual to create their own truth from the lies leading to this idea of post-truth. Obviously there is more nuance than this because websites need views for ad revenue and people like lying online for imaginary inter…

Not believing everything you read that causes searching for additional credible sources for corroboration should be the healthy approach. It's quite disengenious to assume the original poster immediately jumped to any conclusion without additional research and landing that it was fake.

Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)

#73

Post by kragen »

dekhn wrote: post #59

in case you're not aware, the author of this is a known (but not well-known) AI researchers from way, way back. He invented the "finger" protocol. I chose the university I went to based on the qualitty of the plan files so in some sense, he's the reason I ended up at UCSC.

Finger protocol, port 79:

    >dekhn[CRLF]
HTTP/0.9 protocol, port 80:

    >GET /~dekhn/[CRLF]
HTTP was a slightly enhanced finger, so in some sense he's the reason for the web.

Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)

#75

Post by not2b »

champagnois wrote: post #41

It makes me wonder -- does everyone end up investigated for their interest in HTTPS and trying to think up encryption methods? It seems even having a passive interest in computer science or cryptocurrency would inevitably lead to one taking a class or buying a book on these topics. The business person in me always brainstorms the various potential business applications of any technology -- and that inevitably leads t…

Not any more, but back in the 1970s and before cryptography was considered the province of the military and spies, not for civilians to mess with, in the US and the UK. State-of-the-art crypto was treated much like tech for nuclear weapons. The pioneers of public key cryptography had to fight for their right to publish.

Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)

#76

Post by dylan604 »

Broken_Hippo wrote: post #30
partiallypro wrote: post #14

How does one find out that you have an FBI record?

You probably don't find out unless you've been visited by the FBI. Once you are visited, though, you can be pretty certain that you do.

You can have an FBI file and never meet anyone working for the FBI. Similar to how you can have a FB profile while never joining FB.

Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)

#77

Post by jacquesm »

grej wrote: post #7
belval wrote: post #3

This 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…

relevant, and worth rereading: https://jacquesmattheij.com/if-you-have-nothing-to-hide/

I was wondering where all that traffic suddenly came from. As for those neighborhoods that were raided: the 'new' City Hall of Amsterdam is built right on top of one of the largest of them. Not a house left standing of those blocks.

Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)

#78

Post by Tr3nton »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #51
namrog84 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I learned my lesson to not talk about such things 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.

> 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 American public schools are quite adept at teaching distrust in authority, particularly in bureaucrats. That doesn't mean distrust in everybody.

No post body was provided.

Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)

#79

Post by phkahler »

>> My mother told the investigators how glad she was to get the glasses back, considering that they cost $8. The sourpuss did a slow burn, then said “Lady, this case has cost the government thousands of dollars. It has been the top priority in our office for the last eight weeks. We traced the glasses to your son from the prescription by examining the files of all optometrists in the San Diego area.” He went on to say that they had been interviewing our friends and neighbors for several weeks.

Mom: "And how is that foolishness my problem?"

Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)

#80

Post by goodpoint »

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #13
belval wrote: post #3

This 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…

"and you are done" While I agree about the need for privacy, I don't think this story is a good argument for it. One of the interesting aspects of this story is that the main actual consequence of this privacy invasion was that he got his glasses back.

Only because he was white and born in US. Had he been the son of a middle-eastern immigrant in 2011, daddy would have disappeared.
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