Slashdot Mirror
Stealing Laptops For Class Credit
First time accepted submitter core_tripper writes "Students at the University of Twente have stolen thirty laptops from various members of the university's staff. They were not prosecuted for this, so they could just get on with their studies. Indeed, these students even received ECTS credits for these thefts. UT researcher Trajce Dimkov asked the students to steal the machines as part of a scientific experiment. Stealing these laptops turned out to be a pretty simple matter."
This sounds like Pwn2Own taken to the next (and otherwise illegal) level. In this case, it looks like they were auditing physical security amongst other things.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
It doesn't mention whether the cleaners or caretakers knew the people they were letting in or not.
Does it matter? A lot of thefts are inside jobs.
At the UofMN people walk out with entire desktops; while the people are still in their office. We had one person who was at her desk talking on the phone, with her back to the door, looking behind her out the window. Someone walked in, unplugged her iMac, and walked out with it.
Suppose one of the students followed his friend around to see how he stole a laptop, and then later copied the method? Would he get credit, or be marked down for plagiarism?
I have used social engineering to get past people that can speak the English real good,
Have you used it on anyone who could speak English really well?
William of Ockham had no beard. The most likely explanation is that it was chewed off by squirrels every morning.
They were testing whether or not the staff followed good practices with physical security.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
From the description, I suspect the notification was more along the lines of "If you catch a student stealing a laptop, see if they are on this list before you call the cops" and not "sure, they can take whatever they want"
I think its just the opposite. They didn't tell them to let the students steal the laptops, they let them know in advance that if they catch someone taking the laptop that it may be legit. Just by mentioning this would have made it harder because laptop theft would be on the security teams mind making it easier to spot.
Im a gamer, not a grammer major. This post is full of spelling and grammer mistakes.
That's an odd name for a dog.
They can take my LifeAlert pendant when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.
Cat's are perfectly capable of learning their own names. They simply don't give a fuck when you use it.
Of course, it would be a good scam to tell security that it's a class project anyway. Then after all the laptops are missing and don't show up again, they look up your name and find out you're not a professor and are nowhere to be found.
Of course cats can learn their name! How else would they be able to spitefully ignore you?
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
It doesn't mention whether the cleaners or caretakers knew the people they were letting in or not.
Given that the University has 9,000 students and 3,300 faculty/staff, and that they were 60 attempts of thefts (only 30 of which succeeded). And given that this experiment was conducted in the context of a security audit, I doubt that the successful cases were all due the cleaners actually knowing the student (may be some of them knew some of the students, but surely not all of them did, and in at least one case, the student got to the laptop just because the door was found unlocked when the door was supposed to be locked).
Besides, "knowing" someone and building rapport can be faked in an extremely short amount of time. For instance, when Steven Spielberg was still a teenager, he got into the Universal Studios through a guided tour, but when he left the Studio that night, he escaped from the guided tour, he dressed himself up in a suit, and he made a point to address the guard on his way out by his first name. After that night, he was able to go back and forth through that security checkpoint as long as that same guard was there, no questions asked. He was wearing the right uniform, a suit, plus the guard "knew" him from the previous day.
I once gave my undergrad students a similar assignment where they had to each score an ounce of weed for me.
It was also a great success and provided them with an important life lesson about society and individual liberty. Or something.
The Dean of my department at the time was not amused, though he did think the sticky red bud was the bomb.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Of course not. why would anyone confess to a crime? Coincidentally, is anyone looking to purchase a completely legitimate iMac? Only thing wrong with it is that its serial numbers seem to have fallen off.
who prays for Satan? Who in 18 centuries has had the humanity to pray for the 1 sinner that needed it most? ~Mark Twain
Our dog doesn't call when called, but knows the cat's name. Every time the cat is called for dinner, dog comes running.
...speaking of food, I still think that as long as there are hungry people in the world, there is no such thing as an unwanted pet.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
I assume you mean a citation for the Spielburg anecdote. Unfortunately, it is exaggerated. Read more here: http://www.snopes.com/movies/other/spielberg.asp
Using disctinct names to identify a series of cats is a technique I highly recommend. I don't remember where I learned this practice, but it has been invaluable to me in my life. I have had nothing but good experiences following this practice. My friend has two cats named Daryl, and they aren't even brothers. It's a nightmare!
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun