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American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent

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241–250 of 301 posts

Re: American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent

#241
post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How could allowing random countries to spy on your customers not be considered a hindrance? Don't you think this would cost you future customers?

I don't think anyone assumes the booking for their next family vacation or business trip can't be tracked. They use their credit card and their telephone number at least As for losing the customer base of drug kingpins and wanted terrorists, they're probably OK with losing them

> As for losing the customer base of drug kingpins and wanted terrorists, they're probably OK with losing them

This is just the "nothing to hide" argument in reverse.

Re: American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent

#242

One time I found a booking.com lanyard on the ground and wore it and people thought I worked for them so I got free drinks at bars and shit in tropical tourist areas when I said 'yeah!' Before anyone harshes me for this I met a chick with a smirnoff lanyard who was getting free shots without being from them too

Sounds like a match made in heaven lol

Re: American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent

#243
post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Booking offered better prices than the hotels themselves In this case, you can contact the hotel and ask for a better offer. Works sometimes.

I've tried this many times and the hotel usually says "I guess you should book it online then"

That's so weird huh? I really don't understand it.

Re: American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent

#244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Booking.com is the poster child of 'dark UX patterns' like that.

BooKing.com is one of the biggest Perl shops in the world. They're desperate to hire lots of willing Perl programmers, so they have to set the bar low. And inexperienced programmers cause lots of security problems. Edit: My point is about the moral flexibility of BooKing.com, which is well established and widely known, not good Perl programmers, who are rare, hard to hire, and extremely expensive (especially by Nethe…

> especially by Netherlands programmer salary rates

Well Booking.com pays about double of that.

Re: American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent

#245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> black hat hackers How are foreign intelligence services not black hats? They are stealing data in order to use it for any number of non-nice things. Not selling the data on the dark web doesn't bleach their hats.

If intelligence agencies are after you you’ve got way bigger problems than some fraudsters using your data for financial scams. It’s the same reason smart lock hacks don’t scare me… Anyone who is exploiting technology to gain physical access to my physical body is going to get me, regardless if I get hacked or not (e.g. thugs could just kick my door in, or wait outside and launch an ambush).

Even if a smart lock used ROT13 encryption, the easiest way to defeat it is still probably a mechanical attack. The state of mechanical security is a whole new level of weak.

Re: American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent

#246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If intelligence agencies are after you you’ve got way bigger problems than some fraudsters using your data for financial scams. It’s the same reason smart lock hacks don’t scare me… Anyone who is exploiting technology to gain physical access to my physical body is going to get me, regardless if I get hacked or not (e.g. thugs could just kick my door in, or wait outside and launch an ambush).

Even if a smart lock used ROT13 encryption, the easiest way to defeat it is still probably a mechanical attack. The state of mechanical security is a whole new level of weak.

The previous owners of my house dropped several hundred dollars on a Medeco lock.

Keys are a pain in the ass to replace, and there is literally a set of 3 windows within reach in the porch that could be opened trivially.

The biggest feature of any lock is breaking into a locked house is a felony for the perp.

Re: American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent

#247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Before anyone harshes me for this I met a chick with a smirnoff lanyard who was getting free shots without being from them too How does that make anything better?

Yeah, now I hate two people instead of one!

Who cares? Dude got free drinks for wearing a lanyard. This isn't some lesson in morality.

Re: American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent

#248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Before anyone harshes me for this I met a chick with a smirnoff lanyard who was getting free shots without being from them too How does that make anything better?

what are you, a bartender?

I can dislike dishonesty even when I'm not the victim.

Re: American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent

#249
post #27

This isn’t surprising to me. I know lots of people who work for this company in the Netherlands, and I’ve heard a lot of inside stories about the questionable business practices that go on there. Starting at the very top, with the fraudulent marketing lies to sell you rooms because there’s only X number of rooms left, which is entirely bogus, and for which the courts have punished them, if I recall. They’re not inter…

> It is unfortunate, that this is what the tech industry has evolved into. My thoughts, exactly. I started off in the 1980s, just as tech was starting to become mainstream. In the early days, we were not the most "socially well-adjusted" crew, but were fairly enthusiastic about the tech, with most of us working for the love of the craft. Then, the money started to pour in. It was inevitable. That brought the sharks a…

Wasn't alive for 1980s and it's a controversial take here on HNs but some of the most excitement I've seen has been in the crypto space since the 2010s.

Once you get past the scam/hype bullshit anyway.

Re: American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent

#250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what are you, a bartender?

I can dislike dishonesty even when I'm not the victim.

Is it dishonest to wear a lanyard with a logo? Is it dishonest to give free stuff to a representative from a company with the hopes that you'll get more stars on your review?
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