Preaching To The Choir

Jul 03, 2011 14:20

So I was going to do a "Top Ten Computer-related Pet Peeves In TSN Fandom" post, but then I realized that all I wanted to do was bitch about hacking ( Read more... )

not about myspace

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Comments 24

neery July 3 2011, 21:24:05 UTC
There are some ways Facebook would make it a whole lot easier to "hack" into someone's account - for example, there's a story about RL Zuck checking people's failed FB log-in attempts and using those passwords to get access to their email accounts. Considering how many people re-use the same password and user name for every website they visit, he could probably access a bunch of accounts of like a third of FB's user base fairly easily. But that's not really what most people mean when they talk about hacking, I guess.

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neery July 3 2011, 21:29:18 UTC
Uh, that is - do the FB people have access to people's passwords? I know passwords aren't stored in plaintext, but I was assuming that if you know what your own system uses to salt and hash PWs you would have an easier time figuring out what they are than a hacker who gets access to the hashed tables some other way.

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thedeadparrot July 3 2011, 21:33:42 UTC
I'm pretty sure they have access to the hashes and salt, though there are probably protections on what people and processes can access those hashes.

I do web development, and while I do have read access on the production database, they don't let us have access to the hashed passwords. I imagine at Facebook it's even more locked down.

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thewhiteowl July 3 2011, 21:50:35 UTC
I don't have read access to my prod DB (the business analysts and data services do, devs don't), and it's not even the one that holds the passwords. We use an "authentication solution"/single sign-on created by a third-party security company, which is a PITA to set up, but otherwise works great except for the occasions when it throws a tantrum and refuses to let anyone log on. Happily it mostly confines itself to non-prod. LDAP also comes into the mix somewhere, which is a frequent source of pain in dev as the lookup randomly spikes up to >60 seconds and we can't work out why.

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1001cranes July 3 2011, 21:25:26 UTC
I know nothing about hacking, but I have this general same huge pet peeve with all things Harvard-, and to some extent, Boston-related.

So even if we're not on the same page - you've enlightened me about a few things hacking related! - I at least totally feel your pain about details in fic :|

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thedeadparrot July 3 2011, 21:43:52 UTC
I'm in the Boston-ish region now, so I can totally laugh at some of the Boston details! (WHY IS A TUFTS STUDENT WORKING AT A COFFEE SHOP THAT IS FULL OF BU STUDENTS) I mostly can't laugh at the Harvard fuck ups, but I imagine they're funny.

(I also imagine that the movie does its own share of fucking up the Harvard culture, too, no?)

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1001cranes July 3 2011, 21:53:24 UTC
hahahaha oh TSN writers. we need to start a Boston-picking movement, like Brit-picking. I would totally make it work.

Part of that is hard to judge, because I honestly did not give a flying fuck about final clubs, or things like that. But yeah, its kind of like... not MY Harvard experience, ahaa.

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thedeadparrot July 3 2011, 22:22:33 UTC
I'd probably need someone to fix all my Silicon Valley fuck ups too /o\. Really, the solution is to either stare at a lot of Google StreetView pictures or read a lot of Wikitravel. Or both. I'm not picky.

And yeah, makes sense! Apparently it wasn't Mark Zuckerberg's Harvard experience either! :p

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girl_wonder July 3 2011, 21:46:41 UTC
My uncle is one of those scary people that fly around the country working for the government protecting systems from hackers and his stories? Make me giggle every I read about or see "hacking" on tv. He has this story about a guy that almost, almost beat him. And that guy went to jail for a billion years.

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thedeadparrot July 3 2011, 21:56:22 UTC
Oh man, I would love to sit around and listen to your uncle's stories! I'm not a 'hacker' in any way (see: illegal and time consuming), but I do love hearing about the various ways people break into things. It's sort of like watching a heist film, but with more code!

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merisunshine36 July 4 2011, 01:23:14 UTC
Hee! I know exactly which fics you are thinking of; I read them this week! I almost sent them to you, but it was more fun to sit patiently on my hands and wait for your rant to appear. And it was totally worth the wait :D

*cackle*

I think you need a firefox add-on that will keep you from clicking on any of those kind of fics. Much better for the blood pressure in the long run, yep.

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thedeadparrot July 4 2011, 01:40:38 UTC
It's probably not those exact fics, either! It's an entire fandom full of this trope.

Well, there was a fic that I didn't read because the summary gave me a facial twitch. So maybe that's the one you're talking about. I DIDN'T READ IT. I RESISTED.

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merisunshine36 July 4 2011, 16:52:31 UTC
I'm pretty sure we could get some kind of arts grant to catalog all of your facial twitches that occur while you read TSN fic. I'd go see that exhibit!

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thedeadparrot July 4 2011, 16:56:52 UTC
You'd probably be better off recording my howls of nerd rage. Those have a particularly agonized, disbelieving quality to them.

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