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I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)

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Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)

#32
post #3

This story (assuming it's true) should serve as an excellent example of why you need privacy even if you think that you don't. In peace time the NSA is only looking for "terrorist" and leaves everyone alone, but in case of war they would start creating lists for any and everything. All it takes is one "tough" agent trusting their gut feeling/algorithm based on your browsing history and shopping habits to put a target…

No post body was provided.

Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)

#34
post #15
post #10

So... the headline invokes an inappropriate image. The author attracted the attention of the FBI in 1942, when "cryptography" meant wartime codebreaking, and his amateur cypher got lost and then found and turned in by a genuinely concerned citizen . I mean, OK. Sure, it's bad that kids interested in math get caught up in this. But come on, it was the middle of the biggest war in history and real spies were indeed doi…

This is the important take-away, here. If he were dabbling with radios at the age of 11, in 1942, he'd have ran into the same kinds of problems. Hell, simply being of the wrong ethnicity was more than enough to dump a world of problems on your head in that time period. 120,000 people were sent to internment camps for doing literally nothing, and we're wringing hands over a kid getting a house call from the FBI.

Hell, simply being of the wrong ethnicity was more than enough to dump a world of problems on your head in that time period. 120,000 people were sent to internment camps for doing literally nothing, and we're wringing hands over a kid getting a house call from the FBI.

Actually, wring hands at both things. The camps were atrocities, even if they didn't match quite the enemies' atrocities. But they were also doing this sort of thing to many different sorts of folks.

Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)

#36
It’s sad that people on positions of authority are always paranoid someone is lying. I was recently pulled over and I was sure I hadn’t done anything and it was on a very busy highway through town and I was literally at a side road so turned off and immediately pulled over. It took seconds. The officer as he approached me put his thumb on the back of my car. From my reading they do that to leave their fingerprints if something goes wrong. He approached and said he just wanted to check if I had my license, something they are not supposed to do since it fosters racial profiling they are supposed to have a reason. But he said I noticed you don’t have an N on your car(the N indicated new drivers) and you looked a little young so wanted to check. Just a bullshit story since I am 40, had 2 teenage kids and a 6 year old in my car and enough facial hair to say I was way beyond a 5 o’clock shadow. Then he began to lecture me how when a car pulls onto a side street it makes him very suspicious. I said well I don’t want anyone getting hit from behind and he replied That he is not affraid of getting hit. All very well I am glad you are not but I had 3 kids in the car and have seen enough videos of officers getting plowed and I didn’t want to be part of that. He let me go and with that I am once again annoyed with the police. If I’ve done something ticket me I’ve never omce fought a ticket. I pay my dues. But like I say that rule is to stop racial profiling so I take it seriously.

Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)

#37

Lesson learned: "We traced the glasses to your son from the prescription by examining the files of all optometrists in the San Diego area." - if you want your possessions found, you can either attach a note with your home address or an AirTag... or simply something _so_ sketchy that an intelligence agency delivers your stuff together with an awesome story.

A gangster was in prison, when he received a letter from his mother. "We miss you very much, and it will be hard for your father to till the garden without you." "Don't do that, that's where I buried the guns!" he wrote back. A while later he received another note: "Some men from the prison completely dug up our garden looking for those guns, but they didn't find anything." "I know, mama. It was the least I could do for you."

Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)

#38
post #27

My FBI file was for hacking into my school district's AS/400 that handled my school's attendance and grading system. Somehow using a public IP address with no access restrictions allowed a clear telnet path in from home. Compounding username and passwords that were all the same for every employee. I didn't change a thing, just LOLed and told someone. Bad mistake. This was the late 90s. Oh well, 2 week suspension and…

> I learned my lesson to not talk about such things

I like how you shared how you learned lesson to not share mischievous activities with people in the same post you then go and share more things you haven't been caught for.

This is going on your permanent school record! /s

That's great. I know even as of recent of 2021 I've seen some places that had 0 security on things.

Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)

#39
post #27

My FBI file was for hacking into my school district's AS/400 that handled my school's attendance and grading system. Somehow using a public IP address with no access restrictions allowed a clear telnet path in from home. Compounding username and passwords that were all the same for every employee. I didn't change a thing, just LOLed and told someone. Bad mistake. This was the late 90s. Oh well, 2 week suspension and…

> I didn't change a thing, just LOLed and told someone

> Oh well, 2 week suspension

God damn, these idiot school people have no fucking clue that someone who points out a security flaw to you without inflicting any harm is actually doing something good, and that behavior should be encouraged and rewarded.

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