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Youth expelled from Montreal college after finding security flaw

news.nationalpost.com

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Re: Youth expelled from Montreal college after finding security flaw

#211

Post by vidarh »

petenixey wrote: post #100
rwg wrote: post #93

I've already posted my "almost got arrested for using zsh" story, so here's another one: I used to work at a large public university. One day, a grad student brought me his laptop and asked if I would take a look at it because "the Internet [was] really slow." It turned out that his computer was part of a botnet controlled via IRC, and it was being used to attack hosts on the Intertubes. After sniffing the IP address…

Evidently the corollary to Arthur C Clarke's famous quote on technology and magic is that those who create it are witches and wizards. You like the magic and you need a few practitioners but when things start getting weird, it's pitchfork o'clock.

That conjured up images of Unseen University...

Re: Youth expelled from Montreal college after finding security flaw

#212

Post by namank »

namank wrote: post #52

Tweet this link to Anonymous. I just did. https://twitter.com/naman_k/status/293252007878328320

While I was expecting downvotes for this comment, I was also looking forward to the discussion that should arguably accompany such downvotes.

But that, of course, is a privilege exercised by the downvoter and rarely ever happens!

Re: Youth expelled from Montreal college after finding security flaw

#213

Post by AYBABTME »

I'm going against the general idea here, but the college issued a statement:

http://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/home

Basically, they say Ahmed did more than just what is reported in the article, and they can't publicly say what he did - because that's private info about Ahmed that they're legally obliged to protect.

Now I'm not taking a position in favor of the college or in favor of Ahmed. I'm just saying, it's not all black (or white). The National Post article is biased and we're missing some info. We should remember about that before going crazy on the witch hunt.

Re: Youth expelled from Montreal college after finding security flaw

#214

Post by marekmroz »

chollida1 wrote: post #170
stereo wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's his own data in the system, which makes this completely different. In your lock picking example, it would be a landlord finding one of their tenants picking their flat's locks.

No it's more analogous to him trying to break into a bank vault because it has his money.

If by breaking in you mean walking in through open, unsecured doors...

Re: Youth expelled from Montreal college after finding security flaw

#215

Post by Xcelerate »

slapshot wrote: post #118
Xcelerate wrote: post #51

This sort of thing scares me. One time I found a security vulnerability in a popular forum I frequented. I emailed the site owner, and he thanked me and fixed it. Later someone else discovered another weakness and used it to post spam; the site owner emailed me asking about it. My initial thought was that he suspected I was the one doing it, but it turned out he was just trying to see if I could help him. That scared…

> more jail time than robbing a bank This meme of "more jail time than robbing a bank" needs to end. The federal penalty for possessing a firearm while robbing a bank is a mandatory minimum of 5 years and a maximum of life in prison. The mandatory minimum means that a judge could not sentence an armed bank robber for less than 5 years for each bank robbed while holding a gun (you don't even need to show it; just havi…

Well, bluntly, I was just exaggerating.

Re: Youth expelled from Montreal college after finding security flaw

#216

Post by dexterchief »

rayiner wrote: post #173
ihsw wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a C-level position at a publicly-funded institution, that ratio is closer to 95% and 5%. I would even go so far as to say that these individuals very likely have a background in law or simply have an MBNA. Engineers aren't in charge, anywhere, other than tech companies.

30% of MBA's are engineers, and the most common degree for CEO's is engineering. 1/3 of S&P 500 CEO's have an engineering degree, even though only a small fraction of the S&P 500 is tech companies.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/21/engineers_cold_and_d...

Suddenly everything makes sense. :)

Seriously though, where are those stats coming from?

Re: Youth expelled from Montreal college after finding security flaw

#217

Post by tlrobinson »

petenixey wrote: post #100
rwg wrote: post #93

I've already posted my "almost got arrested for using zsh" story, so here's another one: I used to work at a large public university. One day, a grad student brought me his laptop and asked if I would take a look at it because "the Internet [was] really slow." It turned out that his computer was part of a botnet controlled via IRC, and it was being used to attack hosts on the Intertubes. After sniffing the IP address…

Evidently the corollary to Arthur C Clarke's famous quote on technology and magic is that those who create it are witches and wizards. You like the magic and you need a few practitioners but when things start getting weird, it's pitchfork o'clock.

I don't know if he was the first, but I assume you got this from Robert Graham's recently proposed corollary "Any sufficiently technical expert is indistinguishable from a witch" http://erratasec.blogspot.com/2013/01/i-conceal-my-identity-...

Re: Youth expelled from Montreal college after finding security flaw

#218

Post by tptacek »

amenonsen wrote: post #117
jrockway wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got a B. The homework was to find and write an exploit for 10 security holes in deployed software, but I only found 2. (3 including the one above, which I must have found the week or so after exams. The holes I found were in nasm and in some amateur open-source smtpd.) FWIW, the exams are quite thought-provoking nearly 10 years later, here's a link to them: http://cr.yp.to/2004-494.html

What did you think of the course textbook ("Exploiting Software", Hoglund & McGraw)? Is there a more modern alternative that you (or anyone) can recommend?

_The Art Of Software Security Assessment_ is the current canonical text.

Here's a reading list; I'd add Zalewsky's _Tangled Web_ to it, but change little else: http://amzn.to/cthr46

Re: Youth expelled from Montreal college after finding security flaw

#219

Post by mikeash »

ivix wrote: post #137
rwg wrote: post #93

I've already posted my "almost got arrested for using zsh" story, so here's another one: I used to work at a large public university. One day, a grad student brought me his laptop and asked if I would take a look at it because "the Internet [was] really slow." It turned out that his computer was part of a botnet controlled via IRC, and it was being used to attack hosts on the Intertubes. After sniffing the IP address…

I would guess that being a CIO is 80% about management/people skills and 20% about technology. Hopefully that goes some way to explaining why these people did not understand your email.

"People skills" includes understanding your areas of competence and getting assistance from your underlings where needed. Sending back a nastygram because you don't understand what's going on is as much a failure of people skills as it is technology skills.

Re: Youth expelled from Montreal college after finding security flaw

#220

Post by blindhippo »

adrianm wrote: post #196
petenixey wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Evidently the corollary to Arthur C Clarke's famous quote on technology and magic is that those who create it are witches and wizards. You like the magic and you need a few practitioners but when things start getting weird, it's pitchfork o'clock.

What an incredibly succinct way to put it. Props. I have a lurking feeling that in spite of all of the technologist/futurist optimism in our community, we are likely underestimating the pushback from the world at large when enough people at the same time are finally put out of work due to the same technological innovation we strive so furiously for in our own lives.

I've always doubted we would ever encounter this situation to be honest. The invention of vending machines didn't put convenience stores out of business but it did create a new class of technician to service them.

What I'm worried about is that as we move towards more ubiquity with computer technology in our lives, the "coder" will become a second string, blue collar job rather then a legitimate, organized profession.

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