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A man was gifted his dream car by Kevin Mitnick, who he helped put in prison

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141–150 of 173 posts

Re: A man was gifted his dream car by Kevin Mitnick, who he helped put in prison

#141
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"shame them in a positive way" Oh my. That's some HR type viciousness right here. (⌒▽⌒)

Maybe you just were never carefully told about something you did wrong in a way that everyone feels like they learned from it. The top reply to my comment put it better than I could, I think there was an overcorrection. I believe in fixing the process first, but there are situations where shame is the right solution. The current en-vogue thing of pretending all is good but penciling in that person for the next layoff…

Shame is a subjective feeling. There's no "right" and "wrong". Shaming is the action being criticized. No one is arguing everyone should just shut up when a big mistake is made.

Re: A man was gifted his dream car by Kevin Mitnick, who he helped put in prison

#142
post #116
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because susceptibility to attacks is a question of training. What would the goal of placing individual blame be? Shame? Drive them to seek training outside work? Further, if you periodically single out people, the organization will hate you.

“Shame” is a big word. I wouldn’t shame a member of my team. Why would I!? They are great people. Same with “blame”. Everyone faults, everyone can be blamed something. That doesn’t change the basics of a person. Giving people a chance to discuss, as adults and professionals, how they got sniped beats any second hand training and experience by miles. Now we get to hear that x% of a sample failed including #y elevated…

>Sometimes I get a feeling many HN-ers work in ultra toxic environments.

Many people in the world work in toxic environments, not just HNers. Especially when the jobs market is shit, people turn on each other like animals.

>HR is not your friend

Where did you work at that HR was your friends? Did they invite you for beers or visit you in hospital when you were sick?

HR everywhere protect the company from liability, that's it. They're your "friends" as long as you don't risk becoming a liability.

>your manager is there to screw you over and the firm will fire you for pennies.

Your manager maybe not, if you're lucky and cares about those below him more than his own corporate ascension, but managers levels above sure screw over the ones in the trenches when shit hits the fan, that's how they got to the top in the first place. The more unscrupulous one is the more likely they are to climb up.

> That’s just not my experience in working.

Good for you.

Re: A man was gifted his dream car by Kevin Mitnick, who he helped put in prison

#143
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Shame” is a big word. I wouldn’t shame a member of my team. Why would I!? They are great people. Same with “blame”. Everyone faults, everyone can be blamed something. That doesn’t change the basics of a person. Giving people a chance to discuss, as adults and professionals, how they got sniped beats any second hand training and experience by miles. Now we get to hear that x% of a sample failed including #y elevated…

>Sometimes I get a feeling many HN-ers work in ultra toxic environments. Many people in the world work in toxic environments, not just HNers. Especially when the jobs market is shit, people turn on each other like animals. >HR is not your friend Where did you work at that HR was your friends? Did they invite you for beers or visit you in hospital when you were sick? HR everywhere protect the company from liability, t…

You are right. Toxic workplaces are abundant. But non toxic I hope as well. I am always interested in how we can or cannot transfer local cultural differences and things we hold as basic truths via a forum.

The second question: yes, in a time of need my manager and HR-consultant did indeed help me find appropriate psychological care. (And we also visit coworkers in the hospital.) This was part humanity, but also part of what ‘we’ (a firm is a collection of people) constitute as being part of what it entails to be an employer. It feels like a reductio ad absurdum to think that this was purely transactional on their part. It was deeply human, or at least I choose to see it as such.

Re: A man was gifted his dream car by Kevin Mitnick, who he helped put in prison

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. Get help.

[flagged]

People have different views from yours. Get over it.

We don't need to cancel everyone who who isn't what the current system considers the ideal cog.

Re: A man was gifted his dream car by Kevin Mitnick, who he helped put in prison

#146
post #80
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In all fairness, a genuine attacker WILL be abrasive and abusive. They WILL single out employees that are gullible and exploit them. It's not pretty because a genuine attack is not pretty. Of course a simulated attack will be indecent and discourteous in nature, that is how attacks are.

Yeah, this is a part about itsec I don’t understand in my firm. They run social engineering tests, but never notify management when individuals fail, only in general terms. While being psyopped needs to be activelly discussed among coworkers imho.

Because 99.99% of the industry is not about improving the end state. It's about covering ass. Same as accounting, safety, environmental, and every other compliance industry.

Re: A man was gifted his dream car by Kevin Mitnick, who he helped put in prison

#147
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, this is a part about itsec I don’t understand in my firm. They run social engineering tests, but never notify management when individuals fail, only in general terms. While being psyopped needs to be activelly discussed among coworkers imho.

Because 99.99% of the industry is not about improving the end state. It's about covering ass. Same as accounting, safety, environmental, and every other compliance industry.

[dead]

Re: A man was gifted his dream car by Kevin Mitnick, who he helped put in prison

#148
post #16

I read the book by Tsutomu Shimomura, who caught Mitnick's hacking and tracked him down. It's a fascinating read. He was able to locate Mitnick in physical world based on his online activities and his cellular phone usage. In those early days, few people understood the cyber landscape and cellular technologies to exploit them.

I read a mess of books about Mitnick's escapades including Hafer's and Shimomura's, and definitely came away with the impression that while Mitnick was a criminal, Shimomura was a bit of an asshole.

Re: A man was gifted his dream car by Kevin Mitnick, who he helped put in prison

#149
post #60

Since we're talking about Kevin Mitnick on Hacker News, I have to mention: I recently re-read "Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier". It was published in 1991 and the first third of the book provides an early contemporary account of Kevin Mitnick. It's a great book that I first read in my high school library in the 90s and it completely captured my imagination. However, I had never connected the do…

If that tickled you, I also recommend "The New New Thing" by Michael M. Lewis.

Re: A man was gifted his dream car by Kevin Mitnick, who he helped put in prison

#150
post #56

Ghost in the Wires is one of all time favorite reads, and I still hope to see it as a dramatized film. It would be a fun “period piece” taking the audience through the 80’s and early 90’s, with some hilarious social engineering scenes (kinda like Catch Me If You Can) and tense moments where the audience roots for Kevin. I really think a film adaptation would help introduce his story to a new generation and be a nice…

Having read and enjoyed ghost in the wires (and at some point all of mitnicks books) - I still enjoy the infamous takedown movie. I think it still shows a lot of mindset around social engineering - and realistic holes in security measures. I do understand why a lot of people were pissed off, though.

Ed: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159784/

Ed2: can't recall if I ever got around to reading takedown - I think I did. Much prefer ghost in the wires.

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