Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

web.stanford.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 373 posts

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

#221

Post by standardUser »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #220
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…

NSA is for foreign surveillance.

That is not true. The NSA operates domestically as well.

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

#222

Post by giantg2 »

idiotsecant wrote: post #218
giantg2 wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I tried to do the right thing but ultimately it ends up being their responsibility to handle it when the customer is standing right in front of them showing their loss of revenue." I bought some lions mane mushrooms from a grocery store, which cost $10-12 per lbs. The cashier rang them up as "regular" (button) mushrooms at $2 per lbs. I pointed out the mistake and she tried to correct it but chose the button mushroo…

Where in the world can you buy lions mane mushrooms in a grocery store? I have been seriously debating growing my own because i cant find them.

Wegmans has them sometimes. I have two local/independent stores that also carry them. Although, I grow my own due to price. Occasionally I'll get some from a small scale producer who sells to the two local stores.

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

#223

Post by geocrasher »

seabreezy wrote: post #210
mleonhard wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I met someone many years ago who bragged that they did this with sales tax. They purchased expensive items at Costco in Oregon, paying 0% sales tax, and then returned those items in Washington and received a full refund plus 10% sales tax. This was the first time I met a person who appeared normal but lacked social mores against fraud.

In grade school a class mate told me how to mail letters for free: print where the letter _should be sent_ in the return address, print anything for the apparent delivery address, apply no stamp, and drop in a public mail bin. The letter will be sent "back" to the return address because postage was not paid. When I got home later that day I excitedly shared with my parents the new hack I had learned and they told me…

I use this exact scam as a way to explain email forging and how the Bad Guys (TM) get spam delivered.

Funny enough, my grandmother told me about a version of this scam, but as a prank. Get some roadkill, put it in a sealed bag. Put that bag in a box. Mail it the slowest way possible to a far away address that doesn't exist. Put your target's address for the Return Address. Be sure to do it in summer. By the time it gets to them... yuck.

Nana, you were weird. But still miss you.

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

#224

Post by Anthony-G »

kingcharles wrote: post #211
lokimedes wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had sysadmin rights on my school’s Windows servers after some very simple social engineering (for a 10 year old). The real irony was that I was called to the principal’s office on multiple occasions because I seemed to be able to fix things on the network that the local “admin” (e.g. music teacher) couldn’t. Fun times indeed. It completely ruined my respect for authority figures. Which in retrospect has been the mo…

When I was 11 I social engineered the son of the computing teacher to get all the admin passwords. Then I fucked around with a whole bunch of stuff and showed a friend. When they figured out it'd been hacked they weren't sure who did it, but my buddy broke down very quickly and let them know lol. I was banned from the computer lab for the whole of my secondary school years. It didn't matter though, because when I was…

> Computers are a passing fad.

That reminds me of the Decca record label executives rejecting the Beatles in 1962 because “guitar groups are on the way out”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles%27_Decca_audition

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

#225

Post by alana314 »

torpid wrote: post #27

My 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…

ouch. I once tried to grab a password file remotely that made the whole computer network crash for some reason. They found out it was me and they said, "please don't do that again." I was really lucky.

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

#227

Post by TimTheTinker »

nicbou wrote: post #184
angst_ridden wrote: post #115

A person I know studied in East Germany in the early 80s via a very limited exchange program. After the wall came down, she requested her Stasi file. It was fascinating what was in the file - lots of misunderstandings and misinterpretations. For example, she was upset when the Challenger exploded, and this mystified the Stasi informers who had previously identified her as a pacifist (in their minds, the Shuttle was 1…

This might be a good way to explain my discomfort with online tracking. Machines categorising you based on your behaviour, without your knowledge nor your consent. It's not so bad when it serves you ads (unless it sells alcohol to alcoholics), but there's no telling what similar algorithms would say about you in the hands of a rogue government. They can find vulnerable people, people who hate certain people [0], peop…

I hold that we still have not imagined (not even in science fiction) the horrors totalitarian governments are now capable of in a fully-networked, computer-brokered society.

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

#228

Post by worker767424 »

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.

I love how student government teaches you how government really works. The election is a popularity contest for a puppet regime with no real power, but you can pat yourself on the back and take price in the democratic process.

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

#229

Post by Nition »

nicbou wrote: post #184
angst_ridden wrote: post #115

A person I know studied in East Germany in the early 80s via a very limited exchange program. After the wall came down, she requested her Stasi file. It was fascinating what was in the file - lots of misunderstandings and misinterpretations. For example, she was upset when the Challenger exploded, and this mystified the Stasi informers who had previously identified her as a pacifist (in their minds, the Shuttle was 1…

This might be a good way to explain my discomfort with online tracking. Machines categorising you based on your behaviour, without your knowledge nor your consent. It's not so bad when it serves you ads (unless it sells alcohol to alcoholics), but there's no telling what similar algorithms would say about you in the hands of a rogue government. They can find vulnerable people, people who hate certain people [0], peop…

There's a beautiful song by Vienna Teng called The Hymn of Acxiom[1][2] that covers this nicely. It's in the form of a hymn sung by the data collecting machine itself. It starts off like a message of love and reassurance, but the reassurance unravels as it goes on, until finally we reach the double meaning of it all: "Embrace you for all you’re/your worth"

   Somebody hears you
   You know that inside
   Someone is learning the colors of all your moods to
   (say just the right thing and) show that you’re understood
   Here you’re known

   Leave your life open
   You don’t have to hide
   Someone is gathering every crumb you drop
   These (mindless decisions and) moments you long forgot
   Keep them all

   Let our formulas find your soul
   We’ll divine your artesian source (in your mind)
   Marshal feed and force (our machines will)
   To design you a perfect love —
   Or (better still)
   A perfect lust
   O how glorious, glorious:
   A brand new need is born

   Now we possess you
   You’ll own that in time
   Now we will build you an endlessly upward world
   (reach in your pocket) embrace you for all you’re worth

   Is that wrong?
   Isn’t this what you want?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acxiom

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF-7WiLykGM

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

#230

Post by dghughes »

This gave me a flashback I recall that when I was quite young about age 10 - 13 and I created my own writing system. I think I had read about the Phoenicians and how they made the characters for the alphabet after everyday objects and it inspired me. I recall filling entire notebooks with stories to myself filled with my "language" still English but my writing system.
Post reply on HN