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Misconfigured Webserver, Threats to Call FBI

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the all-in-a-morning's-work dept.

the_harlequin writes "The Register is reporting that a city manager threatened to call the FBI over a misconfigured webserver. From the article: "The heartland turned vicious this week when an Oklahoma town threatened to call in the FBI because its web site was hacked by Linux maker CentOS. Problem is CentOS didn't hack Tuttle's web site at all. The city's hosting provider had simply botched a web server." "

39 of 564 comments (clear)

  1. !!!!~11111!!! by Mattygfunk1 · · Score: 5, Funny
    "Get this web site off my home page!!!!! It is blocking access to my website!!!!~!," Taylor responded, clearly excited about the situation and sensing that Bin Laden was near.

    He forgot the 1s but the tilda was creative.

    1. Re:!!!!~11111!!! by iapetus · · Score: 5, Funny

      Indeed. Basmati rice always adds that personal (if slightly bizarre) touch to an e-mail.

      The tilde was quite creative too. :P

      --
      ++ Say to Elrond "Hello.".
      Elrond says "No.". Elrond gives you some lunch.
    2. Re:!!!!~11111!!! by Vengeance · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The guy is a real piece of work. I liked this:

      "I am computer literate! I have 22 years in computer systems engineering and operation. Now, can you tell me how to remove 'your software' that you acknowledge you provided free of charge? I consider this 'hacking.'"

      22 years in systems engineering, but he hasn't got a clue as to how web sites operate. This guy epitomizes problems we all see every day: Incompetents who don't recognize their own incompetence. Then he compounds it by being an arrogant bastard and an overbearing, threatening weenie to boot.

      Nice.

      And these are the kinds of jackasses we ELECT to have power over us.

      --
      It was a joke! When you give me that look it was a joke.
    3. Re:!!!!~11111!!! by fabs64 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      realising you're incompetent doesn't make you competent, it just means you're not ignorant to your incompetence.

    4. Re:!!!!~11111!!! by amliebsch · · Score: 5, Funny
      This guy epitomizes problems we all see every day: Incompetents who don't recognize their own incompetence.

      I doubt we all visit Slashdot every day.

      --
      If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
    5. Re:!!!!~11111!!! by utdpenguin · · Score: 4, Funny

      Or??

      Blood AND Marriage surely :)

      --
      In Soviet Russia you dant have to put up with these crappy jokes
    6. Re:!!!!~11111!!! by DrSkwid · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Call it what you like, but the paper was published in 1999 by the American Psychological Association

      http://www.phule.net/mirrors/unskilled-and-unaware .html

      --
      There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
    7. Re:!!!!~11111!!! by Coyote · · Score: 5, Funny

      Alrighty then, allow me to recount my fav Stupid User story, which took place in (where else?) Oklahoma:

      I was contracted to help a new guy learn the ropes in his new job as "engineer." One day he called and complained that his mouse didn't work. I asked a few questions to get a hint what it was or wasn't doing, expecting it to be unplugged, dirty or just plain broke. Nothing seemed to be wrong with it, and I finally asked, "OK, what is it doing that makes you say it's not working?" He answered, "It just doesn't work right."

      I offered to make the hour drive at my usual rate, and he agreed. I went to his office and asked him to show me what was wrong. He was holding the mouse SIDEWAYS, so every time he moved it, the cursor went 90 degrees from the direction he wanted, and he said, "See? It doesn't work right."

      I thought to myself, "Hunh, I didn't think to ask THAT one, so much for the 'intuitive interface," turned the mouse, said "Now try it."

      Yes, it does sound too bizarre to be true, but remember... it was in Oklahoma.

      --
      My metamoderation cancels your moderation
    8. Re:!!!!~11111!!! by __aaxwdb6741 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Oh, dude.
      Untill the end of December '05 I worked for this small company. My boss was one of those people who think they are absolutely never wrong, and bend their own statements if they are proved definitively wrong. He knows absolutely nothing about computers. Once, this happened:

      Him: I have a virus. Why do I have virus? You're the worst IT-man this company has ever had.
      Me: You dont have a virus. That's impossible per definition. Wanna bet $100? /me heads over to laptop. Does a full virus scan, finds nothing.
      Me: So, uh. Where is the virus?
      Him: [enters a website URL. Clicks a link, get's a website that says "YOU HAVE A VIRUS!" /me D'ohs

      At least I got $100...

  2. oh man.. by mattpointblank · · Score: 5, Funny

    Haha, I love how each of the Manager's replies show a complete ignorance of the previous, helpful message from the CentOS tech. I had a similar situation trying to explain to my uncle (who I was building a site for) about how SMTP works and why mail forwarding only worked before we changed his nameservers (since he only bought domain names and not hosting). I spent a painstaking 20 minutes explaining it in layman's terms, only for him to pause then say, "My email isn't working". The CentOS guy should get a medal for keeping so calm here.

  3. That's nothing by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's nothing. Over the years I've been the victim of some ruthless Native American terrorist organization that always seems to hack my webpage within minutes of installing the server.

    --
    This guy's the limit!
    1. Re:That's nothing by Kurt+Gray · · Score: 5, Funny

      So what? I found unauthorized copies of all my files at IP address 127.0.0.1 which I was able to login into using the same password as my machine. Whoever has that IP address will be hearing from the FBI very soon and then they will sorry.

  4. Non sequitur by dildo · · Score: 5, Funny

    For some reason, this reminds me of the time that a woman called my branch of the company and said: "We're all out of paper over here... could you fax some over?"

  5. HAX by Bega · · Score: 5, Funny
    "Get this web site off my home page!!!!! It is blocking access to my website!!!!~!," Taylor responded, clearly excited about the situation and sensing that Bin Laden was near.
    how do you remove a web site off of a home page? pls email me telling how this can be done, my home site was just hacked by apple :(
    --

    THIS IS THE INTERNET. PLEASE PICK UP YOUR SERIOUS BUSINESS SUIT AT THE FRONT COUNTER.
  6. I wonder how long it'll take him by Weaselmancer · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...to complain about a DDOS attack. Behold, the power of Slashdot!

    --
    Weaselmancer
    rediculous.
  7. It probably was Buttle... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The Department of Records must have the name of the website wrong and confused it with Buttle instead of Tuttle, we will correct it as soon as possible. In the mean time, we do not apologize for disrupting your webserver, and we will not reimburse you one penny nor will we fix the damage caused.

  8. "I welcome this publicity" by gbulmash · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Funniest bit is where the city manager says: "I have no fear of the media, in fact I welcome this publicity."

    After reading through the exchange on the CentOS site, I think he's going to regret making that statement. Normally, a dunderhead bureaucrat like this would try to sue or claim these e-mails shouldn't have been made public, but with this little statement on file...

    I'd call the guy a "dumbass", but he's not necessarily stupid, just ignorant and bullheaded. Of course, ignorant and bullheaded do a very good impersonation of stupid when combined.

    - Greg

    --
    Start a happiness pandemic
    1. Re:"I welcome this publicity" by beheaderaswp · · Score: 4, Insightful

      With one caveat:

      The press is his town might not be savvy enough to understand what he did.

      --
      Another consultant who stuck it out.

      "We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx..."
  9. Well Tuttle, OK *IS* a major terrorist target by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Funny
    Some people might accuse them of overeacting. But if you had Osama Bin Laden breathing down *YOUR* neck every day, you'd be pretty nervous too.

    -Eric

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  10. He tried emailing the FBI... by digitaldc · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...but, alas, they do not have email!

    Can you imagine?

    --
    He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
  11. Interesting study on incompetence by DiveX · · Score: 5, Informative

    The tendency of the average person to believe he or she is better-than-average is known as the "above-average effect," and it flies in the face of logic... by definition, it is impossible for a majority of people to be above average. The more incompetent someone is in a particular area, the less qualified that person is to assess anyone's skill in that space, including their own. Here is the summary of the study. http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=406

    --
    Cave, wreck, and deep diver.
    1. Re:Interesting study on incompetence by jsight · · Score: 5, Insightful

      by definition, it is impossible for a majority of people to be above average.


      No, it's not.
      --
      Throw the bums out!
    2. Re:Interesting study on incompetence by jnik · · Score: 4, Interesting

      In a Gaussian distribution (which is true of most human characteristics), the three averages are the same number, so it is impossible for a significant majority to be above any average.

    3. Re:Interesting study on incompetence by dougmc · · Score: 5, Informative
      It is perfectly possible for the majority of people to be above the mean [average] or modal [average] but impossible for the majority to be above the median [average].
      Average usually refers to mean, as you're probably aware, but you're also right that people tend to be pretty loose with the definition.

      In any event, my favorite example for when talking about this sort of thing is this --

      Most people have more than the average number of legs.
      ... and it's not just most, but probably around 98%.

      In case an explanation is required (it shouldn't be, but some need one), most people have two legs. A few people have one or zero legs, but nobody that I'm aware of has three legs (we'll leave that joke alone) so the average (mean) number of legs that people have is 1.98 or so, and most people have more legs than that. The median and the mode are both 2, but the average is 1.98 or so.

      Ultimately, not everything has a nice Gaussian distribution.

      And as for `incompetent, and unaware of it', I'd consider those results to be pretty much common sense, or at least they mirror my experiences. One thing I've learned over the years is that it's not always about what you know -- it's also about what you do when you don't know (know how to look it up!) and most importantly, to know when you don't know. It's true that most of the really smart people I know know lots of things, but they also know what they don't know.

      As for Jerry Taylor, I can understand him not understanding the message he found on the web page. Yes, it's there in relatively plain English, but people do make mistakes. But really, if somebody responds to you politely and points out that they're not to blame and that somebody else is, perhaps you should at least consider that they might be telling the truth and check into that before continuing the tirade. And his `apology' (I use the term lightly here) at the end (the site is down, but I read it earlier ... it was `it's unfortunate that it took all these accusations to get to the truth' or something like that) ... if there was ever any doubt before, it tells us a lot about how Jerry responds to people who point out his mistakes. Jerry may have welcomed the publicity then, but I doubt he does now. I wonder if he even has a job anymore.

  12. The PHB in question by sethadam1 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The PHB in question is the city manager. According to him: "My door is always open and I answer all calls."

    So... here's his info: City Manager Jerry A. Taylor, and his email address: citymgr@cityoftuttle.org.

    Note that I am not "exposing" anything, all of this info comes directly from the publically available cityoftuttle.org website.

    PS. I can't believe we fried centos.org but not cityoftuttle.org.

    1. Re:The PHB in question by JabberWokky · · Score: 4, Informative
      Significantly more useful is this fellow's information. Mayor Lonnie Paxton can be reached at mayor@cityoftuttle.org. He may not be aware of how large this ugly little spat has spread and unaware of how inflated and incorrect his manager's knowledge of IT is.

      --
      Evan

      --
      "$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
  13. Yelling!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you noticed on his bio at the website - he was a manager for E-Systems. This is the way E-Systems managers manage - the yell about everything - get absolutely nothing done but yelling - but yell they do - until someone comes along and fixes it for them. He is classic E-Systems - everyone in the defense industry know about them - and has had to put up with their management technique. Finally the rest of you can start to deal with them too...

  14. Re:MSCE strikes again by REBloomfield · · Score: 4, Informative

    Or even an MCSE. If you're going to knock us, get the term right.

  15. Tuttle? by microcars · · Score: 4, Funny

    its a mistake, it was supposed to read BUTTLE....

    --
    I like microcars
  16. Help entertain the tech community by daputz · · Score: 5, Funny

    To: citymgr@cityoftuttle.org

    Subject: Need your help in entertaining the tech community

    Jerry,
    I understand that you have 22 years of experience computer systems engineering and operation are are computer literate. I need your help in entertaining the Internet technical community.

    I think it would be hilarious if we loaded the default page on on a web server for the city (one with instructions on how to fix the problem) and then complained about it to the the maker of the operating system. Yuk, yuk! We can even (get this) whine that all the computers in the building show the same default page when you surf to the site. Bwaaahhhaaahhhaaa! Then (I can hardly contain myself) let's accuse the poor saps of hacking our server and threaten to call the FBI!!! Teeehhheeehhheeee!

    Oh, oh, my sides hurt. This is going to be great. You setup the server and I'll.... Oh, I'm just reading slashdot and see that you already done it. Well, I guess you thought of it before me. Good one.

  17. comic sans by BenjyD · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The guy's website provides further proof for the "low IQ and use of Comic Sans" correlation.

  18. Charge the city for technical support by smelroy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    CentOS should send the city a bill for their tech support time. After all, they wasted the time of a primary developer whose time could be spent much better. Of course the chance of the bill getting paid is slim to none but it is the thought that counts, right? I hope Johnny Hughes found the man's ignorance as funny as I do and was not overly annoyed with the knucklehead.

    --
    Switching to Linux can be an adventure!
  19. Re:This is wrong! by sethadam1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sorry, Builder, but all this shows is that incompetents shouldn't be left in charge of IT. I would say it demonstrates the exact opposite of what you say. Clearly the city manager is unqualified and ignorant. The open source project helped him -- for free -- even when he threatened litigation! Ultimately, CentOS solved the problem for him too, outdoing the ISP he presumably pays.

    I would argue that this furthers the cause significantly, and as an aside, encourages towns to take IT seriously.

  20. I thought I had seen him before.. by loconet · · Score: 5, Funny

    Here is a recent picture of our hero, Jerry, and here is a picture of him during his earlier years.

    --
    [alk]
  21. What are they talking about? by tuttle · · Score: 5, Funny

    My website looks just fine.

  22. Re:Law Suit! by James_Duncan8181 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Since CentOS are down, I have mirrored the whole exchage at http://jaduncan.net/centos-vs-city-of-tuttle.

    --
    "To any truly impartial person, it would be obvious that I am right."
  23. Computer *literacy* by Schraegstrichpunkt · · Score: 5, Funny
    I am computer literate!

    Um, sir, I don't think 'computer literacy' refers merely to the ability to read text on computers...

    --
    http://outcampaign.org/
  24. Also happens on the web daemon side by Khopesh · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The thttpd (a lightweight Apache alternative) author has a similar story, but with more stupidity involved (see email history in link): thttpd author's "Attack of the Repo Men"

    --
    Use my userscript to add story images to Slashdot. There's no going back.
  25. Re:Law Suit! by fshalor · · Score: 4, Funny

    At least it wasn't "Buttle". ;)

    --
    -=fshalor ::this post not spellchecked. move along::