Grad Student's Work Reveals National Infrastructure

CodeHog writes "The WP reports about a student working on a PhD and how it relates to national (US) security. Very interesting that he has been able to get all this information. It raises some very challenging questions, should some of this information be classified?"

Comments

Well..

[Gortbusters.org]

In the background, he plays the Beastie Boys.

He's got the right to party!

Re:Well..

[reverseengineer]

Given his research, wouldn't Sabotage be a more appropriate track?

This should be classified

[Anonymous Coward]

This software is used in the firmware of WMDs! It should be taken of the public internet immediatley!

Link please!

[Jeremy Erwin]

I can't figure out how to download his dissertation. I want to judge for myself whether "tedious and unimportant" is an apt description.

Re:Text

[BiteMeFanboy]

Thanks shithead, Especially well before the article was /.'ed. Nice karma whoring attempt.

Public + Public + Public = Classified

[fuzzeli]

It's very interesting the way that an assemblage of publicly available information is suddenly a matter of national security. This must be based on the assumption that evildoers are never grad students.

Re:Text

[kcornia]

Extra points for somehow removing the carriage returns and making it into unreadable gobbledygook...

Just Like In The Movies

[Lagged2Death]

"Tedious and boring?" He's got an application that can actually do some of the stuff Hollywood hackers have been doing for years. How could anyone think that's boring?

"Tank, find a structural drawing of this building. Find it fast."

Re:Reminds me of a job I did in London

[Trigun]

You'd look awful suspicious if it did happen, what with that giant map with all the targets labelled and all...

Maybe...

[vasqzr]

With all this information, maybe he can tell me when they're going install my damn DSL line...

Dates?

[Biomechanoid]

Gorman didn't talk about it when he went on dates because "it was so boring they'd start staring up at the ceiling."

What is this going on 'dates' thing? I guess stuff for nerds, as in stuff that matters to nerds. Guess im not a nerd then.

that's classified information

[boomerny]

we could tell you but then we'd have to kill you - Verizon

Come on, someone please...

[Anonymous Coward]

Hack into that guy's box, steal that goddamn map and publish it on the net so we could have some REAL fun? :) This article is like a review of some really cool movie you're never going to see. Come, bring it to Kazaa so everyone could grab it and see it :)

Re:Reminds me of a job I did in London

[dr_dank]

Buckingham Palace, Houses of Parliament, the big wheel thing, ministry of defence, big office blocks, army barracks, more palaces...

I don't think Osama could keep a straight face if he were to declare jihad on the "big wheel thing".

A couple comments on this...

[stubear]

"Grad Student's Work Reveals National Infrastructure"

Oh my god, we have a national infrastructure? Quick, kill it. Get rid of it. Will somebody please think of the children?

"Grad Student's Work Reveals National Infrastructure"

It took a student earning their PhD to discover this? Should I be worried about the status of the University educational system?

As he said...

[SoSueMe]

"...It's hard to put 'classified' on your list of publications on your résumé."

Actually, it would be easy for me to put "classified" on my list of publications on my résumé. It is just the "mostly as bullshit" part that wouldn't do me any good.

Re:Reminds me of a job I did in London

[perly-king-69]

11/9 surely?

Re:You all have to decide

[freuddot]

I don't usually answer people signatures. However, given that yours is :

"Complacency is a far more dangerous attitude than outrage." -Naomi Littlebear

And that your first sentence is :


That's a huge oversimplification. I wouldn't even respond to such a troll had some ill-informed moderators not decided to mod it up to a 5 and make it the first comment on the page.

I must say that this is a very nice display of consistency.

Re:Just look at your surroundings

[anthony_dipierro]

Of course, the government's response to your story would be to classify the information you just provided, rather than to tell the building security to close the door.

Re:paranoia

[Imperator]

Since 2000 about 3,000 people have died in terrorist attacks. About 175,000 have died in car accidents. About what should we be worried?

Terrorists who drive in a suicidal way. No wait, those are ordinary drivers in my city.

Geography Business Plan

[PizzaFace]

1. Map important stuff.
2. Indulge paranoid fantasies of security-industrial complex.
3. Sell them "exclusive access" to your map.
4. Profit!!!

Re:Obligatory Sept. 11 quote

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, I thought we were still in a post-Veitnam world, dammit! Those vets aren't dead yet, ya know!

sabotage?

[s4m7]

"In the background, he plays the Beastie Boys."

Is he by any chance listening to the album, Sabotage?

Re:Obligatory Sept. 11 quote

[daBum]

But are we still pre-post-post-post-Modernism? Or did I miss it?

Re:Obligatory Sept. 11 quote

[fr2asbury]

Yeah, last time I checked it was early July. I'd say this is a PRE-September 11th world.

Re:No Link

[jafuser]

The last house I lived in was across a street from the Florida East Coast rail line. There were sign posts every few meters along the rail line warning about digging becuase of the fiber optic lines.

A half a km or so south of where I was living, there were two small air-conditioned barbed-fenced-in buildings, sitting next to sizeable propane tanks (presumably for backup generator). I assume they must be optical relay stations or something of the sort having to do with those fiber lines.

What sucked was that when I was living there, I couldn't get higher than a 21.6k internet connection (it was a rural area), but all the while there was likely gigabits/sec flying by my front yard =D