I worked at in the Microphysics Lab of a state university in Chicago and we used an IBM PC-XT (complete with green-screen and 9-pin dot matrix printer) that had a cable going from its serial port to a device that tests various properties of semiconductors. This machine also sat near a superconducting magnet and worked fine. This was three years ago, I don't know its status now. But it was pretty cool. Go Physics!
I disagree. I am familiar with higher-education institutions that have had their netblocks scanned, then the linux boxes matching certain criteria were examined and attacked based on known exploits. There was no social engineering required, nor were they horribly insecure...there's still a heck of a lot of people using apache 1.3.x without all the patches, and if a script kiddie can compromise your system at that point, he's won half the battle. From there it is a trivial joke for them to get and execute a rootkit on your system. With some of the kits out there, you'd never even know it unless you had tripwire or were just a hell of a sysadmin. If it were up to me, I would say that a rootkit is in its own category in that it uses properties normally attributed to viruses and trojans. On the trojan side, you actually have to run the kit on the machine you want to attack. On the virus side, the kit will usually modify some important system code (like the kernel) in order for it to achieve its purpose. From there, it can allow someone to run anything (including services over tcp/ip) usually unbeknownst to the actual administrator and almost definitely unknown to the users. This activity is very similar to a trojan. So, given that information, it seems difficult in my mind to not classify rootkits by themselves. I do agree that viruses, worms, trojans, and rootkits all can be considered to be of the same genus of malicious code that can affect anyone.
I worked as a translator in a DMV for a while and I had to learn how to identify falsified documents. In less than three months I had gotten everything from blatant fake state IDs to beautiful fake social security cards. All in all, I had around 110 fake documents presented to me. Driving without a license in my state means driving without insurance too. How would you like to be driving your shiny new car only to be hit by someone with a fake license and no insurance? Also, in my state we digitally archive the license photos. That comes in very handy. I had a boy come in two days after his 16th birthday to get his license, and the system wouldn't let me give it to him because apparently it had already been issued. I went and looked at the picture archive, and there's some 40 year old man's picture there. So, now my question to you is this: how would you like it if your children had their identities stolen? I don't think you would feel too secure. After a couple of months, I got really tired of people taking me, a stereotypical 18-year old large-build american geek guy, and thinking that they could get a fake past me and the state records and photo archives that I had at my disposal.
Frankly, more power to Connecticut for taking a stand against idiots. Kansas, Colorado, and Illinois have all done so. Kansas has archived photos, Colorado archives photos and is rumored to use face recognition, and Illinois has licenses that are essentially impossible to fake.
Now that you have the point of view from somebody who worked on the other side of the desk at the DMV, you might reconsider hating us. Depending on the state, your DMV emplyees do much more than just ask you to read the letters on the vision test or to go sit in the corner and take the written test. Some make sure that you have a real piece of government issued plastic that says who you really are, and that your identity stays yours and yours alone.
Nick Former employee Illinois Secretary of State Driver Services Division
Slashdot Mirror
I worked at in the Microphysics Lab of a state university in Chicago and we used an IBM PC-XT (complete with green-screen and 9-pin dot matrix printer) that had a cable going from its serial port to a device that tests various properties of semiconductors. This machine also sat near a superconducting magnet and worked fine. This was three years ago, I don't know its status now. But it was pretty cool. Go Physics!
I worked as a translator in a DMV for a while and I had to learn how to identify falsified documents. In less than three months I had gotten everything from blatant fake state IDs to beautiful fake social security cards. All in all, I had around 110 fake documents presented to me. Driving without a license in my state means driving without insurance too. How would you like to be driving your shiny new car only to be hit by someone with a fake license and no insurance? Also, in my state we digitally archive the license photos. That comes in very handy. I had a boy come in two days after his 16th birthday to get his license, and the system wouldn't let me give it to him because apparently it had already been issued. I went and looked at the picture archive, and there's some 40 year old man's picture there. So, now my question to you is this: how would you like it if your children had their identities stolen? I don't think you would feel too secure.
After a couple of months, I got really tired of people taking me, a stereotypical 18-year old large-build american geek guy, and thinking that they could get a fake past me and the state records and photo archives that I had at my disposal.
Frankly, more power to Connecticut for taking a stand against idiots. Kansas, Colorado, and Illinois have all done so. Kansas has archived photos, Colorado archives photos and is rumored to use face recognition, and Illinois has licenses that are essentially impossible to fake.
Now that you have the point of view from somebody who worked on the other side of the desk at the DMV, you might reconsider hating us. Depending on the state, your DMV emplyees do much more than just ask you to read the letters on the vision test or to go sit in the corner and take the written test. Some make sure that you have a real piece of government issued plastic that says who you really are, and that your identity stays yours and yours alone.
Nick
Former employee
Illinois Secretary of State
Driver Services Division