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Oxford Students Hack University Network
An anonymous reader writes "Both The Guardian and BBC News are carrying the story that two students at the University of Oxford, Patrick Foster and Roger Waite, were able to easily hack into the university's internal network in minutes using only easily-available software. Once inside, they could find out anyone's email password, observe instant messenger conversations and control parts of the university's CCTV system. The students were investigating the university's network security for the student newspaper, The Oxford Student, which published a front page article and editorial on the matter. In the article, a university spokesperson is quoted as saying 'In some cases the wish to provide the widest possible computer access as cheaply as possible may mean deciding to go for a cheaper set-up, with potentially lower security.' The students now face disciplinary precedings from the university and could receive rustication (suspension) and a 500 pound fine. The matter has also been passed onto the police."
What appropriately aged Slashdotter hasn't hacked into their university or college's network?
These are the future leaders of the world. Don't forget it.
... a.k.a. A Beginner's Guide to tcpdump and ettercap
Now that is a heavy fine.
They should be damn well "rusticated" for their tast in music alone!
Forgot one:
SCO sues B
Well, it's still better than here in the US. This would most definitely end up being a clear-cut terrorism case. These two guys would already be working on their tan in Gitmo. In about 3-5 years after a lengthy legal process involving the US Superior Court, they will be allowed to proceed with their legal defense, which of course will be completely torpedoed by the fact that the prosecution will introduce any and all evidence as "top secret", so the defense team will not be able to counter any of them. They will serve 30 years, in solitary confinement.
Code poet, espresso fiend, starter upper.
But the police should be called, and when they see how lax the university was at keeping sensitive information private, they should file charges against Oxford too.
Then they can put Oxford Hack in the dictionary:
Someone who tattles, and gets in trouble too because of their guilt in the incident.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
Erick
http://www.busyweather.com/
They also have to learn that it doesn't pay to go against the system... ;p
The FBI had been informed about both the first and the second WTC attacks, but didn't do shit to stop them.
If it had been more widely publicized after the first WTC attack, then maybe they would have done something to prevent the second.
It was later recorded by the university database that not only did they promptly pay the find, they _overpaid_ by almost 2000 pounds. Of course, a refund was issued instantly.
Couldn't figure out why they were snickering though?
"A monkey could do it with the right software."
As an unemployed Unix Administrator currently working in a Zoo to pay the rent I can put this to the test.
Situation:
Pentium 3 750mhz, Knoppix boot CD, unswitched network, plain text protocols running over network, 3 Columbus Lemur Monkeys.
Test 1 Monkey sat infront of screen and left to own devices.
Result 1 Neither monkey acheives much, taking no interest in the screen.
Test 2 Console opened, "ethereal" typed in as hint, monkey sat infront of screen.
Result 2 Again monkeys take little interest, monkey 3 does paw at the screen for a few minutes. Monkey 1 is distracted by small child waving icecream in its face, result for monkey 1 discarded.
Test 3 Ethereal opened, required options selected, bit of banana left on the enter key.
Result 3 All monkeys successfully grab the banana, triggering the enter key, and starting the packet sniffing session, in each case all plain text data over the network is recorded - SUCCESS!
So kids, as we've shown, a monkey is quite capable of doing this kind of hack. Now nobody is safe.
We produce fine, upstanding journalists like Paxman.
When i was at collage...
And, um, which collage did you go to?
Evil is the money of root.
If student rumour is correct, there's an unrepealed Oxford law by which Crusaders on their way to the Holy Land could stop by and pick up a degree. Apocryphally, students have tried to invoke this right and been turned down by the Proctors because they weren't wearing their swords when the claim was made.
There is also meant to be a law still in force by which you can request a glass of sherry be brought to you during Finals exams. I don't know if anyone has had the balls to try it - it's exactly the sort of thing the Proctors find unamusing.
The first college I went to had this poorly secured novell network running on an old Vax cluster.
They had it set up so that, to use a computer, you logged in as the computer, instead of as a user. I found out that, if you logged a pc into the network, using a username meant for a Mac, and if that Mac were not already logged in, it would completely screw up your priviledges, and let you do many things normally reserved for "Administrator".
Friend of mine wrote a batch script to send out an amusing system message once an hour. Unfortunately he didn't count zero correctly, and so the first one was an hour, but the second through 1000000th were somewhat quicker.
The first I knew of it was when I walked into a computer lab and heard this symphony of "beepbeepbeepbeepbeep" and saw a couple lab techs ripping the cables and stuff off of this poor little Mac while screaming, "ITS UNPLUGGED! WHY IS IT STILL SENDING MESSAGES?!?!"
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.