Sniffing the Wireless Traffic of MIT Students

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Sniffing the Wireless Traffic of MIT Students

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday May 20, 2010 @04:56AM from the guess-who's-back dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Someone got permission to sniff the wireless traffic during an MIT class. The professor: none other than Robert Morris, creator of the first Internet worm! The lecture: computer security! I love it."

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Thank you, Apple by Anonymous Coward · 2010-05-20 05:02 · Score: 5, Funny

Highest number of packets: MDNS (Multicast-DNS, Zeroconf) with a whopping 30% of all packets. Because computer Barbie says: Configuration is hard.
1. Re:Thank you, Apple by metamatic · 2010-05-20 05:27 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  On the other hand, Zeroconf was basically invented by Stuart Cheshire, who works for Apple (and invented the tank game Bolo, another good way to waste network bandwidth).
  
  --
  GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
2. Re:Thank you, Apple by ThrowAwaySociety · 2010-05-20 05:29 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Highest number of packets: MDNS (Multicast-DNS, Zeroconf) with a whopping 30% of all packets. Because computer Barbie says: Configuration is hard.
  *rolls eyes* Yeah, what's with kids these days and their automagical service discovery.
  Back in my day, we manually entered protocol names and IP addresses. Forget zeroconf, we didn't have DNS. We kept a list of IP addresses in a text file on our systems. And if we didn't know the IP address, we went out and walked over to the datacenter, uphill, both ways, in the snow, and we wrote it down using our own blood for ink so we wouldn't forget it.
  And we liked it that way!
3. Re:Thank you, Apple by natehoy · 2010-05-20 06:24 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Now get the hell off my LAN! :)
  
  --
  "This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
Re:Laptop Useage in Class? by Ephemeriis · 2010-05-20 05:08 · Score: 4, Informative

I haven't been to university for 9 years, but are students really using laptops during class???
Laptops, netbooks, smart phones, tablets... Yup.
In theory they're typing notes or recording the lecture or something.
In practice, I suspect it is more of a distraction than anything else.

--
"Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde
Re:Laptop Useage in Class? by Monkeedude1212 · 2010-05-20 05:09 · Score: 5, Insightful

In my class 2 years ago, it was pretty much mandatory. Prof would be walking you through a PHP script for logging onto the server. If you weren't following along, you were considered not learning the skill.
In this way, the prof could look around at everyones laptop. He'd be able to see how people coded differently, and give suggestions on how to either improve their style, or what languages they'd be most comfortable in, what editor they might like, etc etc. It went beyond simple reading of the code, it was an inspection of how you wrote the code you did, and I found it very helpful.
It's not uncommon... by zero_out · 2010-05-20 05:13 · Score: 5, Insightful

It's not uncommon. In fact, at my alma mater, the students do the same thing in their IT security class. It's an exercise to show how easy it is to sniff packets, and find passwords for things like email accounts. This is meant to encourage better security. If the students don't know why something is important, they won't care. When I was in grade school, many kids didn't see why algebra was important, so they didn't care, and didn't bother learning the material.
Money well spent by Reason58 · 2010-05-20 05:13 · Score: 5, Interesting

FTFA:

I got permission from Robert Morris and Sam Madden to monitor the wireless traffic during their Computer Systems Engineering class and made an announcement at the beginning of a class period explaining what I’d be doing.
He told everyone up front he was going to do this and people were still chatting, watching TV, reading about Warcraft, and updating their blogs. Just imagine how bad it would have been if he hadn't said anything. I bet some hard working people who were rejected by MIT are really happy to read this.
1. Re:Money well spent by Reason58 · 2010-05-20 06:14 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  There is a lot to be said for work ethic. Trust me, I know. I'm posting this from work.
It beats sniffing MIT students by RandomUsername99 · 2010-05-20 05:35 · Score: 5, Funny

It beats sniffing MIT students. Trust me.