MySpace Predator Caught By Code

An anonymous reader writes, "Wired News editor and former hacker Kevin Poulsen wrote a 1,000-line Perl script that checked MySpace for registered sex offenders. Sifting through the results, he manually confirmed over 700 offenders, including a serial child molester in New York actively trying to hook up with underage boys on the site, and who has now been arrested as a result. MySpace told Congress last June that it didn't have this capability." Wired News says they will publish Poulsen's code under an open-source license later this week.

Comments

May I be the first to say...

[Capella or Bust]

PWND.

Re:May I be the first to say...

[megaditto]

Einstein said: "there are two infinite things, the Universe, and the human stupidity. And I am not sure about the Universe..."

What kind of a dumb criminal would willingly give their real name and address while indending to then break the law.

What next? Robbing your local sperm bank's register after leaving a DNA "deposit"? Stealing a credit card to pay your utility bills?

MySpace told congress...

[sdBlue]

[sarcasm]While most of us here know how trivial searching for string a in string b is, I for one believe that Tom couldn't do it. Aside from all the horror that it is conceptually, the (lack of) stability of their site actually makes that statement believable![/sarcasm]

Don't believe it

[illegalcortex]

This article isn't credible. It must be a hoax. I mean, c'mon, you really expect me to believe someone wrote a 1,000 line perl script. And that it did what it was supposed to?

Re:Don't believe it

[jazman_777]

you really expect me to believe someone wrote a 1,000 line perl script.

It was originally only 17 lines, but he had to make it 1,000 so it'd be readable.

Re:Don't believe it

[bitt3n]

This article isn't credible. It must be a hoax. I mean, c'mon, you really expect me to believe someone wrote a 1,000 line perl script. And that it did what it was supposed to?

actually, the script was originally intended to locate hot teenage girls.. like any good programmer, when he saw the results, he updated the spec sheet.

Easier

[MrSquishy]

That seems like a complicated way to get the same results as:
SELECT * FROM userbase WHERE SexOffender="1";

Re:Easier

[sdBlue]

or SELECT * FROM userbase WHERE interests LIKE '%molest%' OR interests like '%catholicism%' ouch, yes he did!

Heh, don't ask me - and I posted it!

[NotQuiteReal]

I was only looking for a "funny".

I posted it under another "funny".

I think there are folks who take the mod system way too seriously and have some sort of problem with the fact that "funny" doesn't garner "karma", so they feel obliged to give it "insightful" or some such. I don't care, If I post a "funny", I don't expect "karma".

My personal opinion is that "funny" is just that - for those who think it is funny. Maybe having zero karma for funny is "right", maybe it is "wrong".

I dunno.

Hey mods - don't zap me down too much. I didn't mod myself up. You are in a pissing match with other mods! (Not that I give a shit what my "karma" is, I am soo going to hell, maybe, depending on who you ask.)