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One of the world’s most visited websites that nobody is aware of (2017)

sijmen.ruwhof.net

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Re: One of the world’s most visited websites that nobody is aware of (2017)

#21

Post by prepend »

consp wrote: post #15
shakna wrote: post #6

> According to another source, a public address book at locatefamily.com, someone under the name Vladimir S. Nesterenko is living at [REDACTED] in Moscow. Vladimir lives according to Google Streetview it’s an apartment complex far away from the Moscow city center... Really? Someone investigating with journalists, and may be considered a journalists themselves (?), actually publishes the address of someone that they a…

The site in question (locatefamily.com) is known for scraping public information. I'm very doubtful anyone did anything wrong here, tough it is questionable data to say the least. Morally questionable maybe, though I'm going full circle and going to say scamming is as well. edit: The name was posted in public whois info. That basically means you handed out your data to the public anyway. Everyone on this forum would…

It’s amazing how many people don’t know how to use whois. Most doxxing I’ve witnessed comes from public info. The linking together of this info and promoting it is what creates more danger.

Since I assume most swatters are 12 year olds, that means they are less likely to know that Whois exists, therefore more likely to have the info because this author posted it.

Re: One of the world’s most visited websites that nobody is aware of (2017)

#22

Post by pjc50 »

EMRZ wrote: post #16

Sorry if i don't understand this totally, but why is scraping for pdf and ppt/pptx files and mirroring them illegal? If you can reach that files just scraping it means they are somehow open to public access. No joke, i am genuinely asking.

Just because they're published on the internet doesn't mean you can rehost them - that's copyright infringement.

(The Internet Archive is very careful to skirt the edge of what's permissible and what they can get away with in this regard)

Re: One of the world’s most visited websites that nobody is aware of (2017)

#23

Post by RoryH »

Traubenfuchs wrote: post #7

Who in their right mind puts their real whois information online? On my urls, all that's real is the email address. I applaud Vladimir Nesterenko for making money like this.

How much time did this guy save people by providing the content quickly and easily to users? I say fair game to Vladimir for his innovation.

Re: One of the world’s most visited websites that nobody is aware of (2017)

#24

Post by jerrre »

consp wrote: post #19
EMRZ wrote: post #16

Sorry if i don't understand this totally, but why is scraping for pdf and ppt/pptx files and mirroring them illegal? If you can reach that files just scraping it means they are somehow open to public access. No joke, i am genuinely asking.

Scraping, mostly no. Using them to make profit: yes. Since you then violate the copyright of the author as the original action was solely to make it public (assuming no profit was intended). edit: Rehosting is not allowed as far as I know in Dutch law if you are attempting to make profit of it by not requesting it from the original owner. Rehosting it and not taking advantage and linking to the original article is al…

NAL but I'd say the profit is not the problem. Rehosting it (also without credit) is.

Re: One of the world’s most visited websites that nobody is aware of (2017)

#25

Post by zhte415 »

From the article

> an empire that makes a million dollar a year by illegally hosting 24.3 million files copied from other sites

That's quite an interesting stat: that 24.3 carrots can be thrown on the web, made hard to download, and a dollar can be earned.

Re: One of the world’s most visited websites that nobody is aware of (2017)

#26

Post by ForHackernews »

consp wrote: post #19
EMRZ wrote: post #16

Sorry if i don't understand this totally, but why is scraping for pdf and ppt/pptx files and mirroring them illegal? If you can reach that files just scraping it means they are somehow open to public access. No joke, i am genuinely asking.

Scraping, mostly no. Using them to make profit: yes. Since you then violate the copyright of the author as the original action was solely to make it public (assuming no profit was intended). edit: Rehosting is not allowed as far as I know in Dutch law if you are attempting to make profit of it by not requesting it from the original owner. Rehosting it and not taking advantage and linking to the original article is al…

Huh? IANAL, but that doesn't correspond to my understanding of copyright laws.

Re: One of the world’s most visited websites that nobody is aware of (2017)

#27

Post by SOLAR_FIELDS »

whatshisface wrote: post #11
Traubenfuchs wrote: post #7

Who in their right mind puts their real whois information online? On my urls, all that's real is the email address. I applaud Vladimir Nesterenko for making money like this.

There's no telling whether or not that's his real name. Edit: as a commenter below pointed out, just because a person with a name lives at an address, they may not run a website that they're listed as running. After all you probably live at an address, and if I was a fraudster I could list you.

Except that if you read the article the reporters confirmed that a guy by that name lived at that apartment complex by asking the neighbors. There’s no guarantee that the person who registered is actually the person who lives there but someone answers to that name at the address provided apparently.

Re: One of the world’s most visited websites that nobody is aware of (2017)

#28

Post by topoftheforts »

shakna wrote: post #6

> According to another source, a public address book at locatefamily.com, someone under the name Vladimir S. Nesterenko is living at [REDACTED] in Moscow. Vladimir lives according to Google Streetview it’s an apartment complex far away from the Moscow city center... Really? Someone investigating with journalists, and may be considered a journalists themselves (?), actually publishes the address of someone that they a…

Yeah it's unacceptable, especially for someone who claims to be "ethical" in his bio:

> About Sijmen Ruwhof Independent IT Security Researcher / Ethical Hacker

Re: One of the world’s most visited websites that nobody is aware of (2017)

#29

Post by consp »

prepend wrote: post #21
consp wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The site in question (locatefamily.com) is known for scraping public information. I'm very doubtful anyone did anything wrong here, tough it is questionable data to say the least. Morally questionable maybe, though I'm going full circle and going to say scamming is as well. edit: The name was posted in public whois info. That basically means you handed out your data to the public anyway. Everyone on this forum would…

It’s amazing how many people don’t know how to use whois. Most doxxing I’ve witnessed comes from public info. The linking together of this info and promoting it is what creates more danger. Since I assume most swatters are 12 year olds, that means they are less likely to know that Whois exists, therefore more likely to have the info because this author posted it.

I completely agree with you on that. So it remains more questionable than good, though I do not think the '12 year old swatters' will click beyond the main article (from last year's rtl.nl website which did not contain info if i remember correctly) and go to the more detailed page described in OP.
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