[109329] in Cypherpunks
RE: FWD: PC Computing Online: Bombshell
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jim Burnes)
Thu Mar 18 17:51:42 1999
From: "Jim Burnes" <jburnes@iss.net>
To: "'Jean-Francois Avon'" <jf_avon@citenet.net>,
"'Cypherpunks'" <cypherpunks@toad.com>
Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 15:23:40 -0500
In-Reply-To: <199903181956.OAA16524@cti06.citenet.net>
Reply-To: "Jim Burnes" <jburnes@iss.net>
My guess is this is a scam by ZD or its editor(s) to
increase their hitrate and glom more dollars from
advertisers.
I think it says a lot about the present state of
big brother that many people found the scam marginally
believable.
jim
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
[mailto:owner-cypherpunks@cyberpass.net]On Behalf Of Jean-Francois Avon
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 1999 2:55 PM
To: Cypherpunks
Subject: Re: FWD: PC Computing Online: Bombshell
Greetings Cypherpunks!
Sorry guys, but my sense of humor stops pretty short of that one!
I find this darn pretty serious! Did you check the source for the "april's
fool" banner? Did you dis-assemble the code and check it out? If no, how
do
you know it is innocuous? A hoax disguizing a joke disguizing gawdz knows
what! Pretty clever. People will go OUT OF THEIR WAY to download it just
to
see the cute little banner!
Some people WILL believe it and WILL download the crap. Some other will
want
to see the joke, but is it one? This is like a pickpocket having an
accomplice yelling "fire" in a theatre and later on say "T'was a joke...
April's fool...".
Ciao
jfa
and yes Tim, you can reply to me on Cypherpunks, I am still subscribed...
:-p
On Thu, 18 Mar 1999 11:01:33 -0500, Sunder wrote:
>Right, sure. When you try to "download" this program you get this:
>
> APRIL FOOLS!
>
> But it could happen . . .
>
> What a world, huh? Do you <I>really</I> trust your IS department? Your
>boss? Do you know that they can legally snoop through your e-mail, look at
>the files on your computer, listen in on your phone calls, check out the
Web
>sites you visit?
>
> Is this justified because they own the equipment and they're paying for
your
>time? Or is it an absolute abuse of authority and a violation of your
>privacy? Do you have any privacy rights at work? Let us know how you
feel.
>
>
>
>[My comments]
>
>However, I will add that any machine with a microphone, sound card, and
speedy
>network connection can do this. Most users won't notice, anyone with a
>sniffer tool will notice the extra continous traffic. Under most unixen
you
>don't even have to write much software to listen to the microphone. (Netcat
is
>a great tool!) With 9x/NT you'll have to write a bit of code, but it's no
big
>deal.
>
>A while back, at a previous employer we used to have racks and racks and
racks
>of Sun servers and since we were bored we uploaded Bevis & Butthead sounds
to
>all of them and setup cron jobs. Every night the machines would say "I am
>Cornholio, I need TP for my bunghole." But we could have just as easily
>plugged in microphones and listened and used netcat to pipe the sounds to
our
>own stations should we chose to. Of course we wouldn't have heard much
more
>than the fans in the racks, but I digress.
>
>The warning in the article about blinking hard drive lights is fairly
>ominous. Have no fear. Microsoft Swapping algorithms are shit. They
always
>swap randomly, even when there's little activity on the machine. So you
will
>normally see the lights blink and hear the drive going even if there's
little
>activity otherwise.
>
>
>packetstorm@Genocide2600.com wrote:
