You may be forgetting the accounts of people being legally vulnerable to rediculous lawsuits because of posting interesting news regarding Scientologists (because they are basically athiest Nazis no matter what they say)
In those cases, the people post something to their web site. It can be as simple as "This is what they said on such-n-such a date about such-n-such a topic" referencing a publication name, date, author etc. Then the scientologists come along and sue like mad costing the posting site lots of $ and pain in the butt.
That is definitely a case of "The day anybody becomes liable for linking to a page on the internet will be the end of the world wide web...that's the whole premise of the thing..."
Don't forget the whole deep linking issue that pisses off law departments of big sites.
Even accounting for people that do this, Universities will save loads of bandwidth. The few and far between that can do this will do this. The vast majority of kids sharing out their e:\mp3 drive will be affected, to the gain of everyone else on campus (reduced network strain = less frequent equipment upgrades; faster DB access for inside comuting, faster comm between universities).
There are so many lazy parents that, when reading the above ideas, break into a sweat thinking of all the work that might involve. They promptly go to the fridge and get a beer to congratulate themselves on all the work that they could have just done, had they thought about it more.
This is a much underappreciated tactic. Who is going to look at anything that resembles pr0n when some girls you may know, or want to get to know, may wonder by and see?
Stuff like this isn't done in the open unless by the hard core addict.
A kid or some teen isn't going to do that in public while supervised by parents / administrators.
A university I attended does a lot of research for secure software that is funded by grants of government institutions, or large computing coprs.
Fortunately for all of them, their network is totally isolated, save a single very secure point of entry. The CS department (same building) is swiss cheese by comparison. The administrator (former MS admin) did not quite understand how to integrate the ancient HP-UXes, RH Linux's, and Win2Ks into the same environment (as much as that can be done). he was also only part time, and was aided by very bright under grads who worked ceaslessly to help out their department. Those student's probably had a better idea of how things ran than the admin.
Another problem is that the paid admin changed almost every other year as the person got sick of the job and moved on. That meant that the students were more likely to know the whole system better than the paid admin (seeing as most CS students took 4.5-5 years to graduate). That kind of turn over is a shotgun to the head of any security measures.
Right. But you are thinking in terms of obtaining a valid one. A criminal isn't going to jump through those hoops. They just have to see a current Birth Cert for that state, and then fake all the rest of the info. Some agencies even have pics of blank ones posted so that really stupid people will know what they look like so that they know what to bring with them for other purposes.
Fortunately (or not) public universities could be mandated to report thefts of this nature. Private universities . . . . Unless there is a State / National law they won't have to.
Freedom of information and eas of access, the much touted crutches of the lazy or stupid.
Because much of this information is a matter of public record you can find all sorts of other information about someone with just that number / name combination.
And with the email, you have a link in to psychological engineering practices. Contact them and pretend to be a creditor or some sort and "verify their identity" with their SSN which most Joe Shmoe's would think could only come from someone you have legit business with (bank, school, employeer, the Feds).
IT is more important than a SSN. With an SSN someone could ouse public records to find place of birth, date, etc (heck even the SSN itself is coded for regions of the US).
Using that info someone could generate a false passport. Get the picture. False passport, fals entry into the States. False entry under a name that exists, that is legit. Airlines would see this person as a green threat (under the proposed new system) and ignore them. If the actual person was a Branch Dividian, an IRA terrorist, PLO, etc they have transparency of movement.
Someone just got all the information they need to smuggle thousands of people around our country. Give each illegal 5-10 different identities, never use the same one for connecting flights, then travel tracking becomes really hard for FBI.
Reading the article (as I am sure everyone already has), would tell you that the informatio nwas not tied in to any student grades. Two different systems / databases.
This does mean a spam has a few thousand live accounts of young (read: target audence) college students (read: active email users).
A smart cracker would already have lined up the buyer(s) for the information (probably spam companies) before doing the crack. At least one copy of the data would have been made at the time of the crack to insure that it doesn't get captured and lost.
But nothing says that these cracker(s) are smart. Possibly just lucky.
You bet it is hard! It is writing an AI agent to live on your server and interact with messages generated by humans (indirectly).
When you can write a filter that will only delete all spam and let 100% of the legit mail through, then you have either created an all knowing program, God, or you have the knowledge of the origin of all communication and the intention of the sender, God.
You are only counting immediate monitary issues. You are forgetting user base affects. Sure they have a huge user base of millions of users. But what happens when they fail to meet a majority of the customer's requests for spam free email or even for less spam? They loose customers. That hits them where it hurts, the bank account. Where do the customers go? Probably MSN. Is that something AOL wants?
Those users of AOL can always sign up for a web mail account from one of the thousands available. Lycosmail.com does a great job of filtering (or else I have managed to not give away my address to a spammer) because in the last week I have gotten 0 spams.
There are many others. Donate $10 to some orginization / charity that has a free web mail account with membership. Many don't even require you to donate to get the account!
Exactly. Tell me where it says in the USA Constitution that a corporation is required to pay to support your missguided interpretation of freedom of speech? The government isn't even required to do this.
The only thing the government can't do is supress or prevent you from doing so.
I should be allowed to stand on the steps of the White house and demand that I be given press conference time immediately following the President, just because I am a citizen. But I should be reqected my requests and even asked to shut up and read the Constitution that I tried erroneously to wave in my defense.
And how many spams originate from citizens of USA any way, more from outside I would venture.
1)The spams are reported by the users of the system. If you don't like the aggregate use of spam filters that your ISP is using, then switch to an unfiltered ISP and filter your own (or not at all.
2)The voices are not being silenced. People are choosing not to listen to it any more. They already heard the message of "free speech" as applied liberally by the spammer from russia. They act upon that message and choose not to hear it any more.
If that isn't a exercise in freedom of speech, or rather a freedom from the spammers speech, then there is no way to classify freedom of speech and the USA should get rid of that reference in the Constitution.
The "part time help has nothing at stake" myth is invariably spouted by regular employees who are jealous that we make twice as much money, don't have to do unpaid overtime, are immune to politics, and we do the "same work" that they do.
I'm not sure what planet you are on (a better one), but the contract workers (I am one) at a certain huge Cali. based printer manufacturer are paid 1/2 to 2/3 the employees, are used as disposable minions in proxy battles with other departments, are hired and fired with no regard to impartiality, get no reasonable medical coverage ($300-500/month), are restricted from all company facilities not related to work, cannot address grevious behavior by other employees, etc etc.
Many people I personally know were employees, fired to reduce head count but hired back as "resources" (like a power bill) at 2/3 origional $ (not including loss of all benefits). Then their projects were shuffled from department to department due to funding feuds between employee managers, only to be told that no one wants to pay for their contract so they have no hours to work but are expected to reserve all 8-5 time just in case the company wants them to work.
I would dump this company if it wern't the only game in town. Fortunately I am single and young so I have time to get the "duck out of fodge" before I accrue assets that tie me to this city.
This is funny, and sad at the same time. Spammers in China, Russia, or where ever, will stick in all sorts of stuff like this so that they can abuse American political freedoms.
We will have these problems until America converts to a dictatorship (ie Sadam, Castro) or communism (ie China, N. Korea, France, etc etc). Then there won't be these freedoms to abuse. We could just cut off all email traffic (or just all net connections) from external sources except countries friendly to us (which by that time would be none).
But you aren't the target audience. The people [probably] they are after are the blogging crowd. The peoiple for whom this is their entertainment. Ever seen some of the stunts bloggers pull. Some are neat. Most are odd / stupid. That is just how things work in the free to publish [speech] free to read [beer] world of blogging.
"You get four tickets for $15. Where could you buy a video game for 15 bucks? You can't," said Derevensky, co-director of the McGill University Youth Gambling Research and Treatment Clinic in Montreal. "You wouldn't give your 9-year-old a drink of alcohol because you know it is not appropriate. Most parents are totally unaware that gambling is a problem among youth."
Derevensky may be missing many of the items that make good games (and even crappy new games) cost more than $15. I am betting that this game does not have great graphics, fluid gameplay, engaging story line, or even cool weapons and gor ydeath scenes. What kid is going to want to play it.
You can go to Walmart and get tons of totally crappy games for $15. robi
Can you think of any cracker that would submit their cracked code, try to claim the winnings but in the process have to go through all the legal steps required? Having scrutiny by The Man(tm) as soon as they are announced as winners?
What a great tie in for the FBI. Convince many states to hold computer aided lotterys. "Rig" the lottery so that a medium to advanced cracker had a guarenteed winning game. Then swoop in an monitor all the winners interactions online, IRL, etc.
What is the Simpson's audience? Un supervixed kids, or the older than 18 crowd. With all the political satire, in jokes, and social comentary the Simpson's is hardly a kid show.
The comparison doesn't hold that some cartoons talk about gambling so it must be ok for all to do so. Think target audience.
Slashdot Mirror
You may be forgetting the accounts of people being legally vulnerable to rediculous lawsuits because of posting interesting news regarding Scientologists (because they are basically athiest Nazis no matter what they say)
In those cases, the people post something to their web site. It can be as simple as "This is what they said on such-n-such a date about such-n-such a topic" referencing a publication name, date, author etc. Then the scientologists come along and sue like mad costing the posting site lots of $ and pain in the butt.
That is definitely a case of "The day anybody becomes liable for linking to a page on the internet will be the end of the world wide web...that's the whole premise of the thing..."
Don't forget the whole deep linking issue that pisses off law departments of big sites.
robi
Even accounting for people that do this, Universities will save loads of bandwidth. The few and far between that can do this will do this. The vast majority of kids sharing out their e:\mp3 drive will be affected, to the gain of everyone else on campus (reduced network strain = less frequent equipment upgrades; faster DB access for inside comuting, faster comm between universities).
robi
There are so many lazy parents that, when reading the above ideas, break into a sweat thinking of all the work that might involve. They promptly go to the fridge and get a beer to congratulate themselves on all the work that they could have just done, had they thought about it more.
robi
This is a much underappreciated tactic. Who is going to look at anything that resembles pr0n when some girls you may know, or want to get to know, may wonder by and see?
Stuff like this isn't done in the open unless by the hard core addict.
A kid or some teen isn't going to do that in public while supervised by parents / administrators.
robi
A university I attended does a lot of research for secure software that is funded by grants of government institutions, or large computing coprs.
Fortunately for all of them, their network is totally isolated, save a single very secure point of entry. The CS department (same building) is swiss cheese by comparison. The administrator (former MS admin) did not quite understand how to integrate the ancient HP-UXes, RH Linux's, and Win2Ks into the same environment (as much as that can be done). he was also only part time, and was aided by very bright under grads who worked ceaslessly to help out their department. Those student's probably had a better idea of how things ran than the admin.
Another problem is that the paid admin changed almost every other year as the person got sick of the job and moved on. That meant that the students were more likely to know the whole system better than the paid admin (seeing as most CS students took 4.5-5 years to graduate). That kind of turn over is a shotgun to the head of any security measures.
robi
Right. But you are thinking in terms of obtaining a valid one. A criminal isn't going to jump through those hoops. They just have to see a current Birth Cert for that state, and then fake all the rest of the info. Some agencies even have pics of blank ones posted so that really stupid people will know what they look like so that they know what to bring with them for other purposes.
robi
Fortunately (or not) public universities could be mandated to report thefts of this nature. Private universities . . . . Unless there is a State / National law they won't have to.
robi
Is their a different ID that applies to you and nullifies the SSN when you turn 21? To the best of my knowledge (as a US citizen) no.
What other number will be tied to you for the rest of your life?
If you get your credit card stolen, you change cards (and card #s). It is hard to change your SSN (if even possible) in the case of identity theft.
robi
Freedom of information and eas of access, the much touted crutches of the lazy or stupid.
Because much of this information is a matter of public record you can find all sorts of other information about someone with just that number / name combination.
And with the email, you have a link in to psychological engineering practices. Contact them and pretend to be a creditor or some sort and "verify their identity" with their SSN which most Joe Shmoe's would think could only come from someone you have legit business with (bank, school, employeer, the Feds).
robi
IT is more important than a SSN. With an SSN someone could ouse public records to find place of birth, date, etc (heck even the SSN itself is coded for regions of the US).
Using that info someone could generate a false passport. Get the picture. False passport, fals entry into the States. False entry under a name that exists, that is legit. Airlines would see this person as a green threat (under the proposed new system) and ignore them. If the actual person was a Branch Dividian, an IRA terrorist, PLO, etc they have transparency of movement.
Someone just got all the information they need to smuggle thousands of people around our country. Give each illegal 5-10 different identities, never use the same one for connecting flights, then travel tracking becomes really hard for FBI.
robi
Reading the article (as I am sure everyone already has), would tell you that the informatio nwas not tied in to any student grades. Two different systems / databases.
This does mean a spam has a few thousand live accounts of young (read: target audence) college students (read: active email users).
That is bad in more ways that one.
robi
A smart cracker would already have lined up the buyer(s) for the information (probably spam companies) before doing the crack. At least one copy of the data would have been made at the time of the crack to insure that it doesn't get captured and lost.
But nothing says that these cracker(s) are smart. Possibly just lucky.
robi
"There's no reason AOL can't censor you, and there's nothing to stop the Slashdot mods putting you to -1"
So I finally used that little grey orb for "friend, foe, neutral". I wonder if it can help filter out dribble? I am liking that system.
robi
You bet it is hard! It is writing an AI agent to live on your server and interact with messages generated by humans (indirectly).
When you can write a filter that will only delete all spam and let 100% of the legit mail through, then you have either created an all knowing program, God, or you have the knowledge of the origin of all communication and the intention of the sender, God.
It can't be done.
robi
You are only counting immediate monitary issues. You are forgetting user base affects. Sure they have a huge user base of millions of users. But what happens when they fail to meet a majority of the customer's requests for spam free email or even for less spam? They loose customers. That hits them where it hurts, the bank account. Where do the customers go? Probably MSN. Is that something AOL wants?
No.
robi
Those users of AOL can always sign up for a web mail account from one of the thousands available. Lycosmail.com does a great job of filtering (or else I have managed to not give away my address to a spammer) because in the last week I have gotten 0 spams.
There are many others. Donate $10 to some orginization / charity that has a free web mail account with membership. Many don't even require you to donate to get the account!
robi
Exactly. Tell me where it says in the USA Constitution that a corporation is required to pay to support your missguided interpretation of freedom of speech? The government isn't even required to do this.
The only thing the government can't do is supress or prevent you from doing so.
I should be allowed to stand on the steps of the White house and demand that I be given press conference time immediately following the President, just because I am a citizen. But I should be reqected my requests and even asked to shut up and read the Constitution that I tried erroneously to wave in my defense.
And how many spams originate from citizens of USA any way, more from outside I would venture.
robi
You are missing two issues:
1)The spams are reported by the users of the system. If you don't like the aggregate use of spam filters that your ISP is using, then switch to an unfiltered ISP and filter your own (or not at all.
2)The voices are not being silenced. People are choosing not to listen to it any more. They already heard the message of "free speech" as applied liberally by the spammer from russia. They act upon that message and choose not to hear it any more.
If that isn't a exercise in freedom of speech, or rather a freedom from the spammers speech, then there is no way to classify freedom of speech and the USA should get rid of that reference in the Constitution.
robi
The "part time help has nothing at stake" myth is invariably spouted by regular employees who are jealous that we make twice as much money, don't have to do unpaid overtime, are immune to politics, and we do the "same work" that they do.
I'm not sure what planet you are on (a better one), but the contract workers (I am one) at a certain huge Cali. based printer manufacturer are paid 1/2 to 2/3 the employees, are used as disposable minions in proxy battles with other departments, are hired and fired with no regard to impartiality, get no reasonable medical coverage ($300-500/month), are restricted from all company facilities not related to work, cannot address grevious behavior by other employees, etc etc.
Many people I personally know were employees, fired to reduce head count but hired back as "resources" (like a power bill) at 2/3 origional $ (not including loss of all benefits). Then their projects were shuffled from department to department due to funding feuds between employee managers, only to be told that no one wants to pay for their contract so they have no hours to work but are expected to reserve all 8-5 time just in case the company wants them to work.
I would dump this company if it wern't the only game in town. Fortunately I am single and young so I have time to get the "duck out of fodge" before I accrue assets that tie me to this city.
robi
This is funny, and sad at the same time. Spammers in China, Russia, or where ever, will stick in all sorts of stuff like this so that they can abuse American political freedoms.
We will have these problems until America converts to a dictatorship (ie Sadam, Castro) or communism (ie China, N. Korea, France, etc etc). Then there won't be these freedoms to abuse. We could just cut off all email traffic (or just all net connections) from external sources except countries friendly to us (which by that time would be none).
Then we won't have any spam to fight against.
(note: that was satire)
robi
But you aren't the target audience. The people [probably] they are after are the blogging crowd. The peoiple for whom this is their entertainment. Ever seen some of the stunts bloggers pull. Some are neat. Most are odd / stupid. That is just how things work in the free to publish [speech] free to read [beer] world of blogging.
robi
"You get four tickets for $15. Where could you buy a video game for 15 bucks? You can't," said Derevensky, co-director of the McGill University Youth Gambling Research and Treatment Clinic in Montreal. "You wouldn't give your 9-year-old a drink of alcohol because you know it is not appropriate. Most parents are totally unaware that gambling is a problem among youth."
Derevensky may be missing many of the items that make good games (and even crappy new games) cost more than $15. I am betting that this game does not have great graphics, fluid gameplay, engaging story line, or even cool weapons and gor ydeath scenes. What kid is going to want to play it.
You can go to Walmart and get tons of totally crappy games for $15.
robi
Just like it is moral to steal bread to feed a starving family, but not if you put anything on it like jelly.
robi
Can you think of any cracker that would submit their cracked code, try to claim the winnings but in the process have to go through all the legal steps required? Having scrutiny by The Man(tm) as soon as they are announced as winners?
What a great tie in for the FBI. Convince many states to hold computer aided lotterys. "Rig" the lottery so that a medium to advanced cracker had a guarenteed winning game. Then swoop in an monitor all the winners interactions online, IRL, etc.
robi
What is the Simpson's audience? Un supervixed kids, or the older than 18 crowd. With all the political satire, in jokes, and social comentary the Simpson's is hardly a kid show.
The comparison doesn't hold that some cartoons talk about gambling so it must be ok for all to do so. Think target audience.
robi