Hacking the underbrush
Grrrr! I hate when the commercial media picks up on something they think will sell more advertising dollars by dumb and dumber folks actually watching or reading the commercial crap sliced into it! Anything reasonable to report will be boring, I'm sure...but cough up on something that would fit just as easily on the cover of the National Enquirer (speaking of which...if you want an example of a BAD web site, go there...most of the material on the main page is selling their print editions...duh!), and you get that piece of data chewed up by nonsense editors (who are also instructed to make it sound worse intentionally) and then clipped until it is primo sensationalism.
What's got me riled this time, you ask? The Daily Hack a Mac bleed, of course!
Okay. Okay. I use one. I don't want the adware, spyware, BSOD, or perpetual troika of reboots. I don't want the reinstallation of Windows monthly. I do want to be able to work in a standard document format, so I don't use Brand U 'nixes and OpenOffice. Macs are fine with me, and I hate to see folks looking for ways to slice Steve and the Cupertino Gang down. (Another side note: you never see Steve spin doctoring these tabloids, do ya? Learn it, Ballmer!)
So a week or so ago some nimrod in Sweden boasts that he hacked a Mac in less than 30 minutes. BIG tabloid exploitations!!! Almost as big as Tom Cruise gets!!!! Film at eleven!!! Ah...but read the fine print...and the next day we hear that this guy got in because (1) the Mac was intentionally left open for rlogin and (2) the fool was given a local account ID and password. But NO WAY can you tell the tabloid media nebbishes THIS factoid. It doesn't SING. It doesn't sell Preparation-H or Depends.
So last week I have a friend come over and hang out. I was fired up with my WoW character, slicing and dicing when he walks in.
"Dru! You still using a MAC???? Girl, they got hacked!!!"
I glower and complete the quest before replying. "Did you read the rest of the story?"
"There was a rest?"
"Yeah. But if you want, we'll let you try and smite mine." (The boy thinks he's a hacker...Univeristy of Idaho regents, take note: no danger from this one as you will see...) He brings over his Toshiba that is running Fedora 4 and is supposedly radioactive with hack tools and such. I connect him to my network, give him my local ip address, and start playing WoW. "Free pizza for you if you do it in under 30 minutes," I say before he presses a key.
"Solid! It's mine!"
30 minutes go by. "Any luck yet?" I ask, busily flying into Silithus. I see no interruptions.
"Uh..."
"Didn't think so. Prize is now a free Coke if you do it in under an hour."
Another hour goes by. I've managed to increase my rep with the Cenarion Circle folks by 1000 points. "Well?"
No reply.
"Dude, your credibility as a closet hacker is on the line," I say. No reply. "Prize is now I DON'T tell your boyz about this," I warned him.
"Aw, Dru!"
"Hey! You said it was easy...show me."
"Well, the press..."
"Ah-ha!!" I stand up and point skyward. "There's your first mistake, monkey-boy. You believe in THE PRESS?" I close up show in Azeroth and walk over to his PC. How far did you get? Maybe I'll give you partial credit."
"I can ping it..."
"Amazing! So can the rest of the world. Did you get in? Any way, shape, or form of same?"
"Uh..."
"I thought not," I grinned, rankling him more. "Go back and re-read the article. When you have the machine in its normal mode, with all of the current updates, basic security stuff turned on, and DON'T give out a login ID, you are Fort Knox on this baby. I wouldn't use it otherwise."
Exit another fallen warrior. This is why I get rankled. None of these media dweebs...these n00bs of the Internet RSS feeds (notice none of the real news folks on the web would ever give out a PARTIAL story)...none of them ever try it themselves. What ever happened to the concept of "freedom of speech" and protecting the "free press" by being RIGHT? Gone the way of Redford and Hoffman, I suppose.
Windows and UNIX users take note: yeah, yeah, properly secured your boxes will resist kryptonite. But they DON'T come out of the box that way, do they...?
Got a machete handy, anyone?
What's got me riled this time, you ask? The Daily Hack a Mac bleed, of course!
Okay. Okay. I use one. I don't want the adware, spyware, BSOD, or perpetual troika of reboots. I don't want the reinstallation of Windows monthly. I do want to be able to work in a standard document format, so I don't use Brand U 'nixes and OpenOffice. Macs are fine with me, and I hate to see folks looking for ways to slice Steve and the Cupertino Gang down. (Another side note: you never see Steve spin doctoring these tabloids, do ya? Learn it, Ballmer!)
So a week or so ago some nimrod in Sweden boasts that he hacked a Mac in less than 30 minutes. BIG tabloid exploitations!!! Almost as big as Tom Cruise gets!!!! Film at eleven!!! Ah...but read the fine print...and the next day we hear that this guy got in because (1) the Mac was intentionally left open for rlogin and (2) the fool was given a local account ID and password. But NO WAY can you tell the tabloid media nebbishes THIS factoid. It doesn't SING. It doesn't sell Preparation-H or Depends.
So last week I have a friend come over and hang out. I was fired up with my WoW character, slicing and dicing when he walks in.
"Dru! You still using a MAC???? Girl, they got hacked!!!"
I glower and complete the quest before replying. "Did you read the rest of the story?"
"There was a rest?"
"Yeah. But if you want, we'll let you try and smite mine." (The boy thinks he's a hacker...Univeristy of Idaho regents, take note: no danger from this one as you will see...) He brings over his Toshiba that is running Fedora 4 and is supposedly radioactive with hack tools and such. I connect him to my network, give him my local ip address, and start playing WoW. "Free pizza for you if you do it in under 30 minutes," I say before he presses a key.
"Solid! It's mine!"
30 minutes go by. "Any luck yet?" I ask, busily flying into Silithus. I see no interruptions.
"Uh..."
"Didn't think so. Prize is now a free Coke if you do it in under an hour."
Another hour goes by. I've managed to increase my rep with the Cenarion Circle folks by 1000 points. "Well?"
No reply.
"Dude, your credibility as a closet hacker is on the line," I say. No reply. "Prize is now I DON'T tell your boyz about this," I warned him.
"Aw, Dru!"
"Hey! You said it was easy...show me."
"Well, the press..."
"Ah-ha!!" I stand up and point skyward. "There's your first mistake, monkey-boy. You believe in THE PRESS?" I close up show in Azeroth and walk over to his PC. How far did you get? Maybe I'll give you partial credit."
"I can ping it..."
"Amazing! So can the rest of the world. Did you get in? Any way, shape, or form of same?"
"Uh..."
"I thought not," I grinned, rankling him more. "Go back and re-read the article. When you have the machine in its normal mode, with all of the current updates, basic security stuff turned on, and DON'T give out a login ID, you are Fort Knox on this baby. I wouldn't use it otherwise."
Exit another fallen warrior. This is why I get rankled. None of these media dweebs...these n00bs of the Internet RSS feeds (notice none of the real news folks on the web would ever give out a PARTIAL story)...none of them ever try it themselves. What ever happened to the concept of "freedom of speech" and protecting the "free press" by being RIGHT? Gone the way of Redford and Hoffman, I suppose.
Windows and UNIX users take note: yeah, yeah, properly secured your boxes will resist kryptonite. But they DON'T come out of the box that way, do they...?
Got a machete handy, anyone?
posted by Drusilla Joplin at
4:17 PM
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