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April 15, 2009 at 9:09 am #2158652
It’s getting scary out there…
Lockedby maevinn · about 14 years, 11 months ago
Overzealous campus and state police officers arrested a college student for suspicious behavior.http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/04/boston-college-prompt-commands-are-suspicious
Damn the command line!
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April 15, 2009 at 9:21 am #2955855
You mean, maybe
by santeewelding · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to It’s getting scary out there…
When has it not been.
I was barred from entry to an event long ago by armed military because, they said, my press credentials did not add up.
I was carrying an SLR, not the Speed Graphic they identified with my sort.
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April 15, 2009 at 9:31 am #2955850
Talk about law-enforcement overreach
by robo_dev · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to It’s getting scary out there…
Wow.
This IT guy is accused of sending a mean email, so the Police accuse him of being a hacker and seize all his stuff.
The search warrant application used the ‘computer expertise’ of the IT guy as part of the probable cause. And the warrant request alleges that the IT guy used multiple operating systems to hide his illegal activities.
So having IT skills and using Linux is now considered a ‘suspicious activity’ and sending email is a crime worthy of state police investigation.
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April 15, 2009 at 9:44 am #2955839
Ah, but you’re jumping to conclusions!
by charliespencer · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to Talk about law-enforcement overreach
He may not have been using Linux.
Users of any OS with a CLI should be suspect, not just Linux users!
Now, please excuse me while I close my account on our VAX.
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April 15, 2009 at 10:26 am #2955820
ROFL (no text)
by —tk— · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to Ah, but you’re jumping to conclusions!
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April 15, 2009 at 5:32 pm #2938482
Sure, he could have been running DOS, but
by seanferd · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to Ah, but you’re jumping to conclusions!
he did have his Ubuntu CD confiscated. :0
Using to different OS to hide his activities. WTF does that even mean?
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/04/boston-college-prompt-commands-are-suspicious
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April 15, 2009 at 7:24 pm #2938449
Must Be
by the scummy one · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to Sure, he could have been running DOS, but
that he used the live cd to do his ‘criminal’ activities with, that way there was no trace left on the system (unless the BALTHOR theory is correct and the BIOS saves everything ever done with the system).
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April 15, 2009 at 10:32 pm #2938423
The evidence should be available in the Government Torrent
by seanferd · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to Must Be
in that case. :0
And I still want a PC VMS live CD. 😀
What I don’t get is how any of the charges map to an actual crime. And all this on the say-so of a roommate. No one would ever have to worry about warrantless searches or wiretapping with this judge – he’ll sign off on anything!
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April 15, 2009 at 9:46 am #2955837
Another episode of “Your Tax Dollars at Work”
by notsochiguy · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to Talk about law-enforcement overreach
This week’s sponsor: Massachusetts. $3 Billion budget deficit or not, our law enforcement works for you!!
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April 15, 2009 at 9:41 am #2955843
But we all know
by the scummy one · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to It’s getting scary out there…
by watching movies that, anyone who uses the command line is a cracker!
Where have you been? :^0Seriously though, this is just another stupid tactic to try to get more evidence than they can legally get otherwise.
evidence of what you ask? Anything that they can fine or prosecute him for.-
April 15, 2009 at 9:47 am #2955836
He must be a hacker!
by charliespencer · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to But we all know
He knows the cheat codes to Super Mario Brothers! He uses a cordless mouse! He doesn’t have a girlfriend!
Hey, watch that accountant over there! She’s good with numbers! She must be embezzling!
And that house painter! He does a hell of a good job! He must be an art forger!
Since when is being good at your job a sign of criminal intent? Fortunately, being incompetent, I have nothing to worry about.
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April 15, 2009 at 10:11 am #2955824
you’re not incompetent
by ed woychowsky · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to He must be a hacker!
You?re very good at getting me to spew coffee.
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April 15, 2009 at 11:24 pm #2938407
We should not be surprised by this
by jackofalltech · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to He must be a hacker!
When the Fed Govt is doing all it can to punish the successful businesses. Socialism rewards the lazy and punsishes the go-getter.
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April 16, 2009 at 12:43 pm #2938163
:)
by robo_dev · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to He must be a hacker!
But just showing up at work may be considered ‘conspiracy’ and getting in the car on the way to work is an ‘overt act’.
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April 15, 2009 at 9:42 am #2955842
The B.C. operating system?
by charliespencer · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to It’s getting scary out there…
“… Mr. Calixte uses two different operating systems … One is the regular B.C. operating system …”
I wasn’t aware Boston College had it’s own operating system! Has anyone else tried it? Is it proprietary or open source? Can anyone else us it, or is it restricted to police detectives who clearly know nothing about computers?
Did someone not get his donut one morning? Don’t they have Krispy Kreme in Boston?
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April 15, 2009 at 10:40 am #2955812
Would that be
by magic8ball · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to The B.C. operating system?
Bosix or BCUix or BCollix. I’m not sure and google isn’t very helpful finding this elusive B.C. operating system. haha
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April 15, 2009 at 10:47 am #2955810
Wasn’t
by jellimonsta · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to The B.C. operating system?
QDOS around before Christ? :p ;\
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April 15, 2009 at 10:52 am #2955806
So were dumb flatfoots :-)
by charliespencer · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to Wasn’t
Archeologists have unearthed Egyptian tablets with glazed crumbs embedded in the hieroglyphs.
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April 15, 2009 at 10:57 am #2955804
Mmmm….
by jellimonsta · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to So were dumb flatfoots :-)
donuts… gah
*drools*
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April 15, 2009 at 2:38 pm #2955714
That’s a new one on me, too….
by captbilly1eye · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to The B.C. operating system?
Maybe you get the B.C.O.S. as a bonus when you buy the B.C. Mouse Pad:
http://www.cafepress.com/johnhartstudios.339574598I’ll let ya know when mine arrives.
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April 16, 2009 at 6:45 am #2938342
A-ha! That’s where I went wrong.
by charliespencer · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to That’s a new one on me, too….
I just assumed ‘B.C.’ meant ‘Boston College’, the site of the infractions. As you noted, it clearly refers to the comic strip B.C. It’s probably one the cop reads when he’s mooching free ‘day-olds’ at Dunkin’ Donuts.
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April 15, 2009 at 7:32 pm #2938447
B.C.
by boxfiddler · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to The B.C. operating system?
Before Clever.
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April 15, 2009 at 6:45 pm #2938461
what!!!
by arjaym · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to It’s getting scary out there…
Are they crazy???!! Or their police enforcer don’t know how to use computers. I guess not. 😉
BC Operating System? hmmm I think its a Unix based OS created by them. 🙂
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April 15, 2009 at 11:18 pm #2938408
I’m glad I don’t live in Boston
by jackofalltech · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to It’s getting scary out there…
I almost alway have a cmd window open in windows and I use Telnet a puTTY to admin all the *nix servers where I work.
We have come so very far from what our founding fathers put into place. Heavy Sigh!
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April 16, 2009 at 1:32 am #2938393
Works fine
by the ‘g-man.’ · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to It’s getting scary out there…
sorry!
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April 16, 2009 at 3:23 am #2938380
Police Press Release:
by dixon · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to It’s getting scary out there…
“We are, at this time, currently investigating a particular individual who was reported to be engaged in suspicious computer related activities of an unknown nature. Other particular individuals report that the particular individual under investigation was seen utilizing a suspicious operating system comprised of a threatening black screen with white letters on it, similar to what we’ve seen in the films “Firewall” and “The Matrix”. He also used another operating system technically known as…as…the regular good kind like everybody else uses. Our in-house experts have informed us that particular individuals often utilize that black-screen thingy to commit nefarious activities like IP renew, ping, and even worse, disk check. Our current investigation continues at this time.”
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April 16, 2009 at 4:15 am #2938377
I wonder
by shellbot · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to Police Press Release:
what the consequenses of IPCONFIG are???
🙂Maybe this is part of M$ master plan???
Criminal NOT to use windows..*snickers*
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April 16, 2009 at 4:07 am #2938378
Wow
by shellbot · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to It’s getting scary out there…
In this day and age I think if a police officer is going to be doing that kind of duty, they need to be educated.
Thats just ****ing ridiculous. I hope they eventually feel ashamed of themselves for being idiots. Not saying they idiots because they don’t “know” about command prompt..I’m saying thiey are idiots because they haven’t educated themselves to do the type of work they are doing.
A bigger question:
At what stage do you need to be retrained for your job, or fired? Just that I work with people who have all moved over to the pc for at min 5 years now, and they STILL can’t figure out how to do the most minute thing on it..and this is after a lot of expensive user training. At what stage does an employer say “well sorry darling, but you can’t seem to grasp the fact that all your work is done on the pc now and frankly your lack of knowledge despite trianing now means you are no longer qualified for the job..get out”Sorry..bit of a rant there..
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April 16, 2009 at 5:05 am #2938372
Wasn’t there…
by ed woychowsky · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to Wow
Wasn’t there a similar case a year or two ago where someone was arrested for software piracy, because they were distributing copies of Firefox? It seems that rather than keeping up with technology some in law enforcement have taken the stance, “If I don?t understand it, it must be illegal.”
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April 16, 2009 at 6:08 am #2938357
Maybe…
by jellimonsta · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to Wasn’t there…
You could be right in your assumption of the law enforcement stance.
Maybe that is why the police officer divorce rate is so high? They kept arresting their spouses as they didn’t understand them. :p ;\
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April 16, 2009 at 6:58 am #2938338
How long until ‘darling’ retires?
by maevinn · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to Wow
I worked with a woman who’d been a secretary all of her professional life. One of her jobs was to compile a monthly report based on emails from 30+ people. All she should have had to do was copy and paste their text into her template.
Instead, she printed out the emails and re-typed them into a single document. Every month. Despite being shown how to copy and paste several times.
Management decided it was easier to wait until she retired on her own than to document enough reasons to fire her.
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April 16, 2009 at 7:24 am #2938330
Well..
by shellbot · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to How long until ‘darling’ retires?
its one thing if someone is 60 and is going to be retiring in a while..fair enough it migh tbe easier to wait..
But i’m talking about a group of 40-50 year olds.. Can’t have 20 people taking 10 hours each to do things they should be doing in 5 mins. Plus..the time for the helpdesk to support them constantly for every little thing.
My mother in law is like 78 and does her banking online, email, and lots of other things. she’s a bit hesitant at times..but she’s getting there.
So I reckon there’s no excuse for some people. In a small business with a couple staff, it may not matter as much, but for larger places where time is money..no excuse.
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April 16, 2009 at 7:48 am #2938323
A copy of the affadavit
by locolobo · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to It’s getting scary out there…
is here:
http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/inresearchBC/EXHIBIT-A.pdf
After reading the section titled “Basis of Probable Cause” I’m not sure. The allegations are more like setting up a fake profile to embarrass the victim. It sounds to me more like a beef between college room mates. NOT the crime of the century.
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April 16, 2009 at 7:59 am #2938311
Complete Search Warrant
by marie.truman · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to It’s getting scary out there…
Interestingly enough EFF put the complete search warrant on their website: http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/inresearchBC/EXHIBIT-A.pdf
The part quoted in the article is the portion of the warrant the was quoting what another person was stating not the officer. I’d read the whole warrant before making a judgment based on only a couple sentences from a 18 page document.
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April 16, 2009 at 9:19 am #2938270
I have read the Complete Warrant……Still…..
by jpesadilla · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to Complete Search Warrant
First thing that comes to mind….
If Mr. Calixte did actually post the “outing” e-mail about his roommate, then might all this “witnessed” evidence from said roommate just be retaliation?
How many people here get asked to “Help fix my computer…” Come on you know who you are. I have brought home many a company computer to fix as I usually have better repair tools at home….. I have yet to be arrested for said action, although I have received a few bonuses for saving the VPs laptop after he spilled coffee on it… But it wasn’t his fault.
I still think the Police in this case are being over zealous in their actions, and obviously have a very basic understanding of Computers. I think further investigation and consultation with IT experts is in order.
Including a more thorough “interview” with the Complaintant.
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April 16, 2009 at 12:26 pm #2938176
The worst part is
by ic-it · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to I have read the Complete Warrant……Still…..
all the time and resources being wasted on this.
The kid will likely be prosecuted though because of the cyber-stalking laws of Mass.
His biggest downfall is the DNS logs showing his computer going to the adam4adam site. The It head already turned over those logs, the rest is pretty much a roomie vs roomie deal, until they allowed him to act as a trusted informer (pretty weak when your involved). That could be the technicality that gets it thrown out. -
April 16, 2009 at 1:02 pm #2938152
Here locally there was a school superintendent
by robo_dev · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to The worst part is
who was on a school-related trip.
In the hotel at night he had a few drinks and used the school-issued blackberry to visit a naughty porn web site.
Next day the LAN admin guy sees the “porn alert” on the BES server and reports it.
The following day the school board votes 5-0 and this $165K a year superintendent is without a job.
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April 17, 2009 at 3:35 am #2936873
I read it too…
by dixon · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to I have read the Complete Warrant……Still…..
…and got a real kick out of this ‘hi tech’ expert explaining how ‘Microsoft Explorer’ uses things called cookies. I wouldn’t want any part of my fate in this guy’s hands.
It would simply be stupid kiddie dorm-room crap gone way out of hand, if it weren’t for the disturbing 4th Amendment implications.
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April 17, 2009 at 4:06 am #2936867
And a couple of other things…
by dixon · about 14 years, 11 months ago
In reply to It’s getting scary out there…
If the kid in question works in the school’s IT department, it seems likely that he has been given the info necessary to access the network. In what way is this ‘hacking’? And, why can’t the head of the school’s IT department determine who’s accessed and/or changed information in the grading database? Seems like pretty simple stuff to me, and shouldn’t involve the confiscation of anybody’s property.
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