Hacking the Dropbox Space Race
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Hacking the Dropbox Space Race
1–10 of 27 posts
Re: Hacking the Dropbox Space Race
#2I'm a bit confused, someone was suspended or banned from using the MIT network for doing this?
Re: Hacking the Dropbox Space Race
#3I'm a bit confused, someone was suspended or banned from using the MIT network for doing this?
Well, the private aspects of the network. Can't SSH in and certs no longer work. We're not sure if it was an automated response (the Moira system was being taxed pretty hard) or if an individual actually revoked it. It's possible we were bogging down some aspect of the network and this was the easiest way to stop it.
We're hoping for the best. Nobody intended to be destructive, it was just a fun project.
Re: Hacking the Dropbox Space Race
#4I'm a bit confused, someone was suspended or banned from using the MIT network for doing this?
Well, the private aspects of the network. Can't SSH in and certs no longer work. We're not sure if it was an automated response (the Moira system was being taxed pretty hard) or if an individual actually revoked it. It's possible we were bogging down some aspect of the network and this was the easiest way to stop it. We're hoping for the best. Nobody intended to be destructive, it was just a fun project.
You faked thousands of dropbox accounts, created thousands of fake mailing lists and it seems you bogged down parts of the network. This may not be terribly destructive, but it is reckless and borderline malicious. Someone at MIT and Dropbox will now have to spend their time checking their systems for your manipulations. It may have been fun, but I don't think it was worth it.
Re: Hacking the Dropbox Space Race
#5Talk about sore losers.
Re: Hacking the Dropbox Space Race
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, the private aspects of the network. Can't SSH in and certs no longer work. We're not sure if it was an automated response (the Moira system was being taxed pretty hard) or if an individual actually revoked it. It's possible we were bogging down some aspect of the network and this was the easiest way to stop it. We're hoping for the best. Nobody intended to be destructive, it was just a fun project.
You faked thousands of dropbox accounts, created thousands of fake mailing lists and it seems you bogged down parts of the network. This may not be terribly destructive, but it is reckless and borderline malicious. Someone at MIT and Dropbox will now have to spend their time checking their systems for your manipulations. It may have been fun, but I don't think it was worth it.
MIT probably has 100,000+ emails registered. A couple thousand accounts that each get one email sent to them doesn't make much of a dent. The post mentioned the purposeful renaming of lists to avoid being obnoxious. Combine all that with it all happening earlier sunday morning and I doubt it had much effect on the network.
Re: Hacking the Dropbox Space Race
#7Attaching the MIT brand name to cheating doesn't make it hacking. Most, if not all of the techniques described in the post are pretty well known.
Dropbox initiated the Space Race as a gesture of goodwill to students, and it's hard to fathom how or why people won't receive it in the same vein.
Re: Hacking the Dropbox Space Race
#8another posting of this that seems to be getting pushed down for some reason http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4679965
Re: Hacking the Dropbox Space Race
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, the private aspects of the network. Can't SSH in and certs no longer work. We're not sure if it was an automated response (the Moira system was being taxed pretty hard) or if an individual actually revoked it. It's possible we were bogging down some aspect of the network and this was the easiest way to stop it. We're hoping for the best. Nobody intended to be destructive, it was just a fun project.
You faked thousands of dropbox accounts, created thousands of fake mailing lists and it seems you bogged down parts of the network. This may not be terribly destructive, but it is reckless and borderline malicious. Someone at MIT and Dropbox will now have to spend their time checking their systems for your manipulations. It may have been fun, but I don't think it was worth it.
> "it seems you bogged down parts of the network"
It's MIT and Dropbox... I'm sure internally MIT can handle a one thousand new mailing lists at any given occasion (until they are deleted), and I'm 100% sure Dropbox didn't even notice a blip on their network as a result.
And also MIT don't have to check for anything. They deleted everything when they were done.
I don't know why it was such a big deal for some MIT students to feel like they have to win the Spacerace either, but I did actually enjoy the article, although I'm not sure why the effort was made in the first place either.