[Novalug] Boston College Campus Police: "Using Prompt Commands" May Be a Sign of Criminal Activity

Mark Smith mark@winksmith.com
Thu Apr 16 18:24:04 EDT 2009


logic and common sense don't often go into the repetoire of a
policeman who would arrest you in the first place for that.  also,
he would have to back off from his position based on a civilian and
that can't do.  besides, no one ever got in trouble for doing too
much detaining, but sure as heck, you'll get in trouble if it turns
out you're wrong and he really was a terrorist.

On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 09:48:22PM +0000, jecottrell3@comcast.net wrote:
> Arrested? A simple, "Hi, I work here, let's go find my boss or HR" should do, as would showing them your badge if you had one.
> 
> JIM
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "The Doctor" <drwho@virtadpt.net>
> To: "novalug mailing list" <novalug@calypso.tux.org>
> Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2009 10:56:32 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
> Subject: Re: [Novalug] Boston College Campus Police: "Using Prompt Commands" May Be a Sign of Criminal Activity
> 
> Gregory Maxwell wrote:
> 
> > One day he came home and his parents pulled him aside??? "Jason, we need
> > to have a talk. We need know you've been engaging in criminal
> > activities with your computers", certainly not something any BBS
> > operator wanted to hear especially in the early 90s.  Much
> > uncomfortable and confused discussion ensued until it was discovered
> > that the cause for their concern was a Windows system that died during
> > the day, leaving a "You have performed an illegal operation" message
> > on the screen.
> 
> A number of years ago, I worked for a software company in Pittsburgh
> that was an early adopter of 802.11b networking.  Most of the software
> developers used laptops rather than desktops because they preferred to
> wander around the office for a change of scenery whenever the mood
> struck them, so it made a certain amount of sense (especially due to the
> cost at the time of running cable into every cube in the gulag and the
> kitchen).  Before we put the wireless network into production we had to
> determine the best place to put the AP to get optimal coverage (as well
> as determine how far outside the building perimeter the signal would
> reach).  So I popped a wireless card into my laptop, started a
> continuous ping of the AP's management interface, and went for a stroll.
>  Every time the stream of pings stopped, I made a note of the physical
> location, took a few steps closer to the building, and started again.
> 
> Local law enforcement was understandably curious about a slightly funny
> looking gentleman walking around an office bloc and waving a laptop
> computer to and fro.  It was probably only my boss looking out of his
> window at exactly the right moment which kept me from being arrested
> because the police apparently had never seen Linux before and didn't
> know "64 bytes from ap (10.10.10.1): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.433 ms"
> did not, in fact, mean "H4x0r1ng 7h3 m47r1x."
> 
> What tipped them off, they said, was the lack of icons or start menu on
> my laptop because "Only hacker tools don't use GUIs."
> 
> -- 
> 
> The Doctor [412/724/301/703]
> 
> PGP: 0x807B17C1 / 7960 1CDC 85C9 0B63 8D9F  DD89 3BD8 FF2B 807B 17C1
> WWW: http://drwho.virtadpt.net/
> 
> "Right on time, right on schedule." --Terrence McKenna
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
Mark Smith
mark@winksmith.com
mark@tux.org



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