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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)

#341

Post by bfuller »

Teknoman117 wrote: post #290
riversflow wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar time period, I used portable Firefox and then Chrome on a thumb drive to bypass our content filter. I actually find this surprising in retrospect, but I'd guess they were using Content Advisor on Internet Explorer[1]. I carefully guarded my secret. [1] this pdf appears to lend credence to that idea(no affiliation). https://www.kvcc.edu/pdfs/MyItLab/myitlab_BestPractices_Home...

If I were smarter, I probably would have learned about proxy servers. I was tantalizingly close as is. I had set up port forwarding on our home router and a dyndns account to access my (Linux) desktop via ssh. I'm almost surprised it took me another few years to bump into SOCKS proxies. I already had 99% of the setup, just not the final step. Oh well I guess. Our school was Windows land as well. They blocked executio…

I set up a proxy server for myself to use at school and showed a few friends, and then suddenly everyone at my 2000 person highschool knew who I was. Incredibly I didn't get in trouble for it, my principal thought it was clever. Simpler days.

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

#342

Post by shrimpx »

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…

I know Les and I was also skeptical as to the truth of the story due to the creative style of writing. A bunch of computer nerds are into fiction writing.

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

#343

Post by emteycz »

Ichthypresbyter wrote: post #338
emteycz wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those Dutch who don't wear helmets do it because they're idiots, it's as simple as that. Any fall - even if you're standing with your legs on the ground - on a bike can break your skull. You try to avoid a dog or a ball and pull the front brake instead of both - boom broken skull. It's just plain dumb.

Most Dutch bikes don't have front brakes to pull.

Makes the whole thing even worse.

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

#344

Post by 0xedd »

kortilla wrote: post #270
bikingbismuth wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was in dire need of an Cat 5 cable a few years ago and went to Walmart to get one. Until this point I had always made my own cables, so when I saw the price ($40ish) I was floored. Unfortunately, I had to buy it anyway. As I was checking out I had that cable and a small bag of beef jerky. The cashier wasn’t paying attention and didn’t engage with me at all. She scanned the beef jerky and moved the cable across the…

You just stole it. I don’t see how this is even a grey area. Can you walk me through the thinking of “the cashier touched it, so now it’s mine?”

Opening stores in key areas to destroy local business. Draconic contracts with suppliers. Lowest possible quality. Highest possible price. Huge markup.

Can you walk me through the thinking of "corps fuck me over and I should be thankful"?

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

#345

Post by sandos »

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…

Oh yes. I remember the embarrassment / horror of having the admin just creepily poking my shoulder when at the computer and gently saying: "Hey, I promise I will NOT report you for antyhing, if you just tell me what the hell you just did with our network!"

I had no idea what I had done, honestly, I just sent a large ping packet to some IRC-user. Turns out it killed some vital things in the network.

Also the admin leaving anonymous FTP enabled with write access. That was one weekend with an extreme amount of illegal stuff apparently uploaded via the schools FTP, but that was my classmate which was involved in and not me.

This was at the time when people had dial-up at home so the 256kBps connection at school was awesome.

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

#346

Post by IronWolve »

andai wrote: post #127
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…

When I was 11 or 12 we had a bunch of old Windows (2000?) boxes with a shared network folder — all the students' files were in the same folder. I had just learned about basic batch file "programming" so I made one called Change Your Grades Click Here!!.bat which asked for your username and password (we had individual accounts on the Mac computers) and saved them to a hidden text file in the same folder. Most people d…

When dsl was deployed into my town, it was mostly for doctors offices and the local hospitals.

I was one of the first normal citizens to get dsl internet. I opened windows explorer, and saw all the hospitals and doctors office network folder shares, with patient data.

Yeah, big telecom internet company too.

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

#347

Post by dc-programmer »

spullara wrote: post #129

A friend of mine in 1997 got arrested for poking around in air force computer systems. He was charged with a felony not because he did any damage but because it cost $40k to track him down. He also had to pay that back. https://attrition.org/~jericho/works/security/crime_punishme... "Once again, when computer crime enters the equation, circumstances seem to change. In May of 1997, Wendell Dingus was sentenced by a fe…

I mean that’s a pretty dumb thing to do with very predictable consequences

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

#348

Post by Beltalowda »

emteycz wrote: post #298
errcorrectcode wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If bicycle helmets were essential for causal-speed, safe path, everyday bicycling, the Dutch would use them. Interesting fact: in the US, riders without helmets receive more average buffer space from road vehicles than those with. If you're downhill mountain biking, wear a proper helmet. If you're racing in Manhattan, wear an equally suitable helmet. If you're leisurely riding on a wide, empty side road in a resident…

Those Dutch who don't wear helmets do it because they're idiots, it's as simple as that. Any fall - even if you're standing with your legs on the ground - on a bike can break your skull. You try to avoid a dog or a ball and pull the front brake instead of both - boom broken skull. It's just plain dumb.

Pulling the front or back brakes makes almost no difference at normal speeds (≤15 km/h), and even if it did you can't just say "emergency stop equals broken skull".

Many things can "break your skull", and there are many things you can do to improve safety. A whole bunch of years ago the then-UK government tried to promote "pedestrian helmets". No doubt this improved safety, but they were widely mocked. You need to draw a line somewhere.

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

#349

Post by dotnet00 »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #332
dotnet00 wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A whole 6 years after the information was made public by a whistleblower who's still treated as a criminal. Surely you can see how little that means for constitutional enforcement? All they have to do is mark everything as secret, aggressively pursue whistleblowers, and if they happen to get caught, just have the secret court admit guilt without consequences and let the public assume all is well again. Rinse and repe…

I don't want to go down a rabbit hole about Snowden- we are already far from the original topic. You show some clear misgivings and biases that tell me it's not worth my time discussing. Let's agree to disagree. :)

Haha sorry for coming off as too aggressive, but yes best to agree to disagree :)

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

#350

Post by wkearney99 »

0xedd wrote: post #344
kortilla wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You just stole it. I don’t see how this is even a grey area. Can you walk me through the thinking of “the cashier touched it, so now it’s mine?”

Opening stores in key areas to destroy local business. Draconic contracts with suppliers. Lowest possible quality. Highest possible price. Huge markup. Can you walk me through the thinking of "corps fuck me over and I should be thankful"?

Two wrongs don't make it right, though. Not that you're wrong about Walmart.
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