Valhalla Legends Archive

General => Fun Forumâ„¢ => Topic started by: Skywing on September 05, 2003, 07:26 PM

Title: Don't mind me while I walk out of the building with your top secret computers.
Post by: Skywing on September 05, 2003, 07:26 PM
Wouldn't you feel stupid if you were the head of security here (http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/04/1062548967124.html)?
Title: Re:Don't mind me while I walk out of the building with your top secret computer
Post by: Hitmen on September 05, 2003, 07:40 PM
Wow, and people say americans are stupid.
Title: Re:Don't mind me while I walk out of the building with your top secret computer
Post by: Grok on September 05, 2003, 08:56 PM
What's more amazing is the extremely high degree of spin being put on the theft.  They're repeatedly assuring each other that no sensitive information is at risk, as if the repetition will cause it to be true.

al-quaeda didn't steal the computers for their hardware value.  they're not morons.

no amount of spin will make that less than a total success for al-quaeda or whomever did the theft.
Title: Re:Don't mind me while I walk out of the building with your top secret computer
Post by: iago on September 05, 2003, 10:08 PM
That reminds me of my University.. over the course of 10 months last year 60 computers were stolen.  But they were actually stolen for hardware value :)
Title: Re:Don't mind me while I walk out of the building with your top secret computer
Post by: Hitmen on September 05, 2003, 10:14 PM
After the first were stolen you'd think they would want to increase security. Guess not.
Title: Re:Don't mind me while I walk out of the building with your top secret computer
Post by: iago on September 06, 2003, 06:50 AM
I don't think they realized it was happening :)
Title: Re:Don't mind me while I walk out of the building with your top secret computer
Post by: Adron on September 06, 2003, 06:56 AM
Universities are harder to protect - you probably want students to be given as much access as possible, and there are *lots* of students.
Title: Re:Don't mind me while I walk out of the building with your top secret computer
Post by: j0k3r on September 06, 2003, 08:05 AM
Yes but universities can hire staff to watch the stuff and lock stuff up.
Title: Re:Don't mind me while I walk out of the building with your top secret computer
Post by: Adron on September 06, 2003, 10:33 AM
Quote from: j0k3r on September 06, 2003, 08:05 AM
Yes but universities can hire staff to watch the stuff and lock stuff up.

They can, but actually if you think about it, you can afford to lose some computers if it saves staff wages. Hmm, for generic pcs, estimate 60 computers/year = 2 people's wages?
Title: Re:Don't mind me while I walk out of the building with your top secret computer
Post by: Camel on September 06, 2003, 03:15 PM
In my AP Comp Sci class on Friday, a friend and I spent the entire block picking the locks on the keyboards because they obstructed the range of movement of the mouse. We weren't even attempting to hide it, and nobody cared.

[edit] BTW, they are G4s, so they have optical usb mice plugged into the side of the keyboard. The mouse and keyboard are locked down because *cough* someone realized freshman year that they were unsecured.
Title: Re:Don't mind me while I walk out of the building with your top secret computer
Post by: Grok on September 06, 2003, 03:25 PM
There's a typical case of poor economics.  The total amount of cost for all those locks have to significantly exceed the cost of replacement for a few stolen ones.
Title: Re:Don't mind me while I walk out of the building with your top secret computer
Post by: Camel on September 06, 2003, 05:00 PM
I don't know, the locks were pretty cheap...

Additionally, someone attempted to steal a laptop from the library a couple of years ago and was caught.
Title: Re:Don't mind me while I walk out of the building with your top secret computer
Post by: j0k3r on September 06, 2003, 08:19 PM
Quote from: Camel on September 06, 2003, 05:00 PM
I don't know, the locks were pretty cheap...

Additionally, someone attempted to steal a laptop from the library a couple of years ago and was caught.

LMFAO, people steal PC's without consequence and get caught stealing Laptops...
Title: Re:Don't mind me while I walk out of the building with your top secret computer
Post by: Camel on September 06, 2003, 08:34 PM
Actually, he was caught because of the DHCP server -- at my school each WAP has its own set of IP addresses, so they knew he was in one of about three rooms.
Title: Re:Don't mind me while I walk out of the building with your top secret computer
Post by: j0k3r on September 06, 2003, 09:06 PM
So they were coincidentally there and coincidentally noticed one go offline or did the DHCP server alert someone somehow?
Title: Re:Don't mind me while I walk out of the building with your top secret computer
Post by: Grok on September 06, 2003, 09:20 PM
I understand locking the laptops and desktops up, but I misunderstood your assertion as them buying locks for the keyboards and mice.  My bad.
Title: Re:Don't mind me while I walk out of the building with your top secret computer
Post by: Camel on September 07, 2003, 01:49 AM
Quote from: j0k3r on September 06, 2003, 09:06 PMSo they were coincidentally there and coincidentally noticed one go offline or did the DHCP server alert someone somehow?

It's kind of hard to not notice a laptop dissapear with the way they do it. The library keeps its laptops locked up in a case, and when a class comes down to use them, they unlock the case. At the end of the period, the librarians are responsible for getting everyone to bring the laptops back, but one was missing. It was reported, and they probably found out the wireless card's MAC address or something of that nature -- in any case, they were able to identify that the computer had logged on to the network, and knew which WAP it was on by the IP address. Because of the limited range of the crappy WAPs they use, locating him and said laptop was relatively easy.
Title: Re:Don't mind me while I walk out of the building with your top secret computer
Post by: j0k3r on September 07, 2003, 06:22 AM
Ohh ok I get it now...
Title: Re:Don't mind me while I walk out of the building with your top secret computer
Post by: Adron on September 07, 2003, 06:31 AM
Quote from: Camel on September 07, 2003, 01:49 AM
in any case, they were able to identify that the computer had logged on to the network, and knew which WAP it was on by the IP address. Because of the limited range of the crappy WAPs they use, locating him and said laptop was relatively easy.

Kinda stupid not turning the computer off...
Title: Re:Don't mind me while I walk out of the building with your top secret computer
Post by: iago on September 07, 2003, 07:47 AM
It doesn't sound like he was even trying to steal it, just looking for a quiet place to study..
Title: Re:Don't mind me while I walk out of the building with your top secret computer
Post by: Adron on September 07, 2003, 09:09 AM
Haha, probably, and he probably got 3 years in jail for it :P
Title: Re:Don't mind me while I walk out of the building with your top secret computer
Post by: j0k3r on September 07, 2003, 12:15 PM
School is just a an elaborate plan for the government to have reasons to arrest you.
Title: Re:Don't mind me while I walk out of the building with your top secret computer
Post by: iago on September 07, 2003, 12:18 PM
Of course, people who don't go to school or who drop out of school get arrested more..
Title: Re:Don't mind me while I walk out of the building with your top secret computer
Post by: j0k3r on September 07, 2003, 12:48 PM
Only cause they're dumb (I'm talking about stupid dumb, not educational dumb).
Title: Re:Don't mind me while I walk out of the building with your top secret computer
Post by: UserLoser on September 09, 2003, 04:43 PM
Quote from: Hitmen on September 05, 2003, 07:40 PM
Wow, and people say americans are stupid.
(http://darknet.darktech.org/other/funny%20pics/kill%20kid%20spam.jpg)