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A mysterious grey-hat is patching people's outdated MikroTik routers (2018)

zdnet.com

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Re: A mysterious grey-hat is patching people's outdated MikroTik routers (2018)

#11

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

asynchronous wrote: post #2

I wonder if we’ll see the day where legal laws change to either condone or just ignore activities like this. I feel like if we did we’d see more good things happening.

> I feel like if we did we’d see more good things happening.

The problem is that we'd see more bad things happening. This time someone correctly patched the devices, but maybe next time they make a mistake and leave things more vulnerable, and the next time someone just bricks devices outright because they decide that's better than vulnerable devices on the open internet.

Re: A mysterious grey-hat is patching people's outdated MikroTik routers (2018)

#12

Post by neilv »

asynchronous wrote: post #2

I wonder if we’ll see the day where legal laws change to either condone or just ignore activities like this. I feel like if we did we’d see more good things happening.

Someone who decides to mess non-consensually with 100,000 other people's network routers... Maybe it's a bit like the saying about politicians: you don't want anyone who would want the job.

Re: A mysterious grey-hat is patching people's outdated MikroTik routers (2018)

#13

Post by throwaway92700 »

NoZebra120vClip wrote: post #8
whynotmaybe wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Samaritan_law

You know, one aspect that doesn't appear to be covered in that article is scams. There are often scams perpetrated where someone fakes injury or accident, either to create a diversion, or to attract wannabe "Good Samaritans" who come to render assistance and then find themselves pickpocketed or in worse trouble than they started out. There are also people who pretend to be out of gas and just need a can filled at the…

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect

Re: A mysterious grey-hat is patching people's outdated MikroTik routers (2018)

#14

Post by NegativeK »

marricks wrote: post #3
asynchronous wrote: post #2

I wonder if we’ll see the day where legal laws change to either condone or just ignore activities like this. I feel like if we did we’d see more good things happening.

Growing public fruit trees, handing out food, stopping to help an injured person, all of those are illegal in some jurisdictions or can get you into serious legal trouble. That is because laws exist not just to stop bad things but also to stop good things from happening, or at least centralize how good things are done. I mean, otherwise what would happen? We’d all probably just take care of each other, and we can’t h…

That's a hyperbolic and rhetorical interpretation of what's going on with this patching.

Re: A mysterious grey-hat is patching people's outdated MikroTik routers (2018)

#15

Post by [deleted] »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #11
asynchronous wrote: post #2

I wonder if we’ll see the day where legal laws change to either condone or just ignore activities like this. I feel like if we did we’d see more good things happening.

> I feel like if we did we’d see more good things happening. The problem is that we'd see more bad things happening. This time someone correctly patched the devices, but maybe next time they make a mistake and leave things more vulnerable, and the next time someone just bricks devices outright because they decide that's better than vulnerable devices on the open internet.

[deleted]

Re: A mysterious grey-hat is patching people's outdated MikroTik routers (2018)

#16

Post by NoZebra120vClip »

throwaway92700 wrote: post #13
NoZebra120vClip wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know, one aspect that doesn't appear to be covered in that article is scams. There are often scams perpetrated where someone fakes injury or accident, either to create a diversion, or to attract wannabe "Good Samaritans" who come to render assistance and then find themselves pickpocketed or in worse trouble than they started out. There are also people who pretend to be out of gas and just need a can filled at the…

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect

Thanks for the commentary-free Wikipedia article link, but in skimming across it, I don't see any significant mention of the cases I discussed which are scammers who are faking it. The article chiefly seems to be concerned with real, or perceived real, emergencies, and how they relate to large crowds of witnesses.

If is often the case that scammers who are faking distress will isolate and approach potential victims rather than attract a crowd. Especially with people who lurk outside of grocery stores or some other venue. Once I was approached by an "out of gas" individual at a rather lonely intersection of downtown. There were no other witnesses around, until an official in a uniform vest came to intervene.

Re: A mysterious grey-hat is patching people's outdated MikroTik routers (2018)

#18

Post by tudorw »

NoZebra120vClip wrote: post #8
whynotmaybe wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Samaritan_law

You know, one aspect that doesn't appear to be covered in that article is scams. There are often scams perpetrated where someone fakes injury or accident, either to create a diversion, or to attract wannabe "Good Samaritans" who come to render assistance and then find themselves pickpocketed or in worse trouble than they started out. There are also people who pretend to be out of gas and just need a can filled at the…

I don't stay away. I frequently get stuck in, calling the police, ambulance and fire services for people, assisting epileptics in shops and planes, helping lost children, picking up random dogs and returning them to their owners...

Why do you think life is too short, I've always thought it the perfect length, do divulge what it is that takes the time for you?

Re: A mysterious grey-hat is patching people's outdated MikroTik routers (2018)

#19

Post by Moomoomoo309 »

kneebonian wrote: post #9
whynotmaybe wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Samaritan_law

This law specifically states that you cannot be held legally liable for rendering aid. Not that it is against the law to help people.

It covers it in specific cases for specific people. If you help someone not in those specific cases and/or are not that specific kind of person, you can be punished for it.

Re: A mysterious grey-hat is patching people's outdated MikroTik routers (2018)

#20

Post by boomboomsubban »

asynchronous wrote: post #2

I wonder if we’ll see the day where legal laws change to either condone or just ignore activities like this. I feel like if we did we’d see more good things happening.

While it may be possible for this person to face criminal charges, I doubt any police force or attorney general would really want to investigate or charge this person. And a civil case would require the claimant to prove damages, which they'd struggle to do.

So aren't we already at a point where this is condoned/ignored?

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