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'I want your Instagram account': a deadly campaign over coveted handles

businessinsider.com

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Re: 'I want your Instagram account': a deadly campaign over coveted handles

#151

Post by monksy »

motoxpro wrote: post #124
monksy wrote: post #35

> Swatters place hoax calls to local police departments, provoking heavily armed SWAT teams to storm the homes of their victims. Haters have swatted online influencers, streamers on Twitch , and prominent figures in the tech industry, including Facebook executives and the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri. In 2017, the police in Wichita, Kansas, fatally shot a man after they were summoned by a swatting attack over an o…

Or haters, or jealous folks, or . You should look up some stories of famous women on Twitch or Youtube. I think it's definitely fair to say that "I hate you because you wont respond to me" or "I wanted to see the swat team burst in on someone when they are streaming" counts as a hater, among other things. You're reducing it to "The only possible reason someone would do this is because they are mentally ill ('unhinged…

My point is the label hater is a generic term that is frequently used to dismiss valid points and criticisms of others. It has such a low bar that a distaste or a popular dislike winds up having a large group of people being labeled as a "hater".

It's imprecise, it's from the subject's point of view (which makes it a poor statement to make from the journalist's pov), and it potentially leads the readers to make ill-informed opinions about the wrong people.

Re: 'I want your Instagram account': a deadly campaign over coveted handles

#152

Post by IG_Semmelweiss »

sph wrote: post #108
Lio wrote: post #104

It's only a very small part of this but I have to wonder why "cash on delivery" is a thing. As far as I'm aware that's very usual in my country. We have no shortage of delivery services but they all need to be paid up front with a credit card. It's like the US food industry has made itself a willing part of the harassment industry. The only reason I can think of for them to really want to offer this service is as a t…

Americans love their cash money. They say it's part of their freedom or something, but I'm not that convinced.

there is a huge portion of the country that doesnt use cards

they are callee the unbanked. They are poor.

its part of the ideals of this country that everyone deserves equal opportunity of transacting with a businesa.

Its part of our freedom of association.

EU elite love their restrictions. They say EU elites love democracy or something, but after watching top bureucrats try to hold UK hostage over brexit, im not that convinced.

Re: 'I want your Instagram account': a deadly campaign over coveted handles

#153

Post by iamben »

So in a sort of "phone can be rendered useless if stolen" kind of a way, why can't IG (etc) lock an account (perhaps with a message on the page of the username, based on an irreversible flag on a user account?) that says something like "this account cannot be transferred" with a help link that explains the account will be killed if the email address changes (perhaps without submitting a passport or something to prove it's changing for the same person). Would we then be at a point where this kind of swatting is pointless? Even if you got the name via harassment the system would kill it?

I've though about this for about 15 seconds, but you get my point.

Re: 'I want your Instagram account': a deadly campaign over coveted handles

#154

Post by TechBro8615 »

AuthorizedHelp wrote: post #22

The person who did this needs to be tracked down and stopped. This is a terrorist and a hateful oppressive evil.

I think what worries people is the low effort it required. This guy was unlikely to strap a bomb to himself or hijack a plane, but he could do considerable damage from behind a computer. The asymmetry of personal sacrifice and external harm is such that fewer extremists are deterred from participating. The solution is to remove the asymmetry. In most cases, the police could solve this by simply slowing down and thinking for two seconds before shooting someone.

Re: 'I want your Instagram account': a deadly campaign over coveted handles

#155

Post by mrguyorama »

thatguy0900 wrote: post #150
sph wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans love their cash money. They say it's part of their freedom or something, but I'm not that convinced.

You don't see the utility or freedom of a way to spend money that that governments and corporations can't track and store indefintely? Look no further than the current abortion issue here. The government knows everyone who got an abortion in the past and paid by a credit card. Not by cash though.

If you think companies aren't tracking you even when you use cash, I have a bridge to sell you. Cash only

Re: 'I want your Instagram account': a deadly campaign over coveted handles

#156

Post by dang »

Akronymus wrote: post #141
dang wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We make them earn it. Here's a typical email I send in response to such requests: " We do sometimes recycle usernames when they're well and truly dormant, i.e. no logins for many years. But we only do this for established community members. What I usually tell people in situations like this is to create a new account and build up a track record of being a good community contributor, and that if they do that, they're…

What happens to the old messages of the reused handle at that point?

I'm not sure we've hit such a case yet, but we'd probably do the standard thing when we decommission accounts, which is to reassign the existing posts to a random username.

Re: 'I want your Instagram account': a deadly campaign over coveted handles

#157

Post by paul_h »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #11

The common thread among most stories like this is the spoof-ability of phone numbers. Telecom companies must make changes to prevent this kind of spoofing. Honestly, I think if telecom companies could be sued for damages caused by this kind of thing (not to mention spam) then I think the problem would get solved very quickly. The only reason it hasn't been solved yet is most of the cost and pain is borne by others.

Lots of companies are comfortable programming a single caller ID for many phone lines in a call center. It's a legitimate business need. Trouble is the caller-ID is not validated for each and every call. If the target phone could contact the claimed originator, and silently ask "did you sent/initiate this message/call " then phones (subject to preferences) could /dev/null incoming and not at all interrupt the owner. While SMS could be the protocol for that, they are not free for everyone, and landline users can't participate with today's handsets. The other problem is the world's hundreds of call center technologies would need to be upgraded - circling back to money. Each time the FTC brings this up the telecos say they agree it is important yet do nothing. Google and Apple could lead the charge with that silent use of SMS (subject to handset preferences). They could take it out of the hands of the telecos, and make them play catch up.

Re: 'I want your Instagram account': a deadly campaign over coveted handles

#158

Post by dkjaudyeqooe »

vorpalhex wrote: post #78
dkjaudyeqooe wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had some person's client email me regularly for years, which I ignored. One day I decided to take action and sent a expletive filled email to them telling them that I was not the person they thought I was and to stop emailing me. They then sent me an email telling me I was fired.

Quick, tell them where you want your last paycheck sent...

They sent me a list of all the system passwords at one point. I should have put myself on the payroll.

Re: 'I want your Instagram account': a deadly campaign over coveted handles

#159

Post by rotexo »

sys_64738 wrote: post #9

I remember getting a demand I surrender my HoTMaiL address to somebody in a very threatening email to my address way back in 1998. It was kind of surreal back then as the internet was still fresh. Nowadays the closest I've gotten to this is the people who keep using my Gmail address as their own email address. I find this behavior rather bizarre and don't know what it achieves.

I was the target of an online harassment campaign, and very soon afterwards I got a bunch of emails confirming registration on a whole range of forums I had never heard of. Seemed like people were using my email address for forum spam. I’ve been trying to migrate to a new email address ever since, not sure what else to do about it.

Re: 'I want your Instagram account': a deadly campaign over coveted handles

#160

Post by adharmad »

X9 wrote: post #37

I grabbed a short 2-letter Twitter handle within a few months after they launched. A few years ago I had someone used SIM hijacking to steal access to my phone number. This failed to get access to my Twitter account because I never set up a recovery phone number, however he got access to my Facebook and a few other accounts. I got T-Mobile to fix the SIM swap, but after 3 nights of harassment I just changed my handle…

Reminds me of this: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/01/how-i...
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