5 ms·

I carefully and quietly walked into an academic building with a pair of bolt cutters and walked out with a pair of bolt cutters and an iMac hefted under one arm

I carefully and quietly walked into an academic building with a pair of bolt cutters and walked out with a pair of bolt cutters and an iMac hefted under one arm (having relieved it of its lock-cable) and nobody seemed to even notice. That said it was my actual job to do this- but I could have been anyone with a pair of bolt cutters!

koonsolo 8y ago
My dad used to work as a technician for a company selling expensive hospital equipment. He says there are countless times when he or with another colleage would go in any hospital and roll out such a device. Nobody asks any questions. At my university there were some actual thefts like this. Someone stole a beamer from a high ceiling in the middle of the day. And another time someone stole a heavy (=unliftable) new server.
- andrewshadura 8y ago
  You probably mean a projector (beamer is a German word, not English).
  - cyphar 8y ago
    Unrelated, but TIL why the LaTeX package for making presentations is called "beamer". I guess the author is German.
    - majewsky 8y ago
      Yes he is. Both TikZ and Beamer are maintained by Till Tantau of University of Bremen.
  - koonsolo 8y ago
    Yes, you are correct (I speak Dutch, not German, but they are very close). In Dutch we use a lot of English words: Computer, keyboard, ... . So when I hear an English sounding 'beamer', I think it's English :). We basically use 'projector' for anything from slide to video projector. But it seems the digital age introduce a new word 'beamer' in our language (and German), that didn't happen in English.
    - auto 8y ago
      Beamer is pronounced just like bimmer, which to most in the US (or at least my part of it) is just a nickname for BMW cars. That said, beamer as the word for projector has that German feel of being “obvious” to it, and is neat.
      - askmike 8y ago
        In Dutch it is pronounced beamer like "Beam[er] me up scotty".
        koonsolo 8y ago
        yes
      - opless 8y ago
        In the UK beam-er is how we pronounce our nickname for BMW cars.
- avip 8y ago
  May have worked. I have worked in hospitals in US and there's no way you could walk in without someone (officially, the nurse in charge) asking you who you are. I was actually expelled from hospitals even though I did have a nametag and an approval to work there.
  - ytjohn 8y ago
    Interesting. Are these bigger city hospitals? I've visited people in several hospitals and you just walk in. Unless you actually go up to a counter to ask for help, you're free to roam. Sure, some areas are off limits. You can't go into the ER patient area without someone opening the door, and I'm sure the surgery section is off limits. But you can walk to a patient's room, the maternity ward, the cafeteria, etc. In fact, our local hospital has a pretty decent cafeteria. It's nothing fancy, but it's relatively cheap (cash only) and decent food. There are definitely people that just go there for lunch.
    - avip 8y ago
      I’m referring to stuff zone. Most hospitals would obviously have public access areas.
    - jdeibele 8y ago
      At the hospital where my wife gave birth, they gave wristbands with some sort of sensor in them to spouses, partners, etc. The only way (for civilians, I assume) in to the maternity ward would open for you if you had one. It wouldn't if you didn't. There were some other precautions they told us about to prevent someone coming in and snatching a newborn but it's been too many years to remember them.
zaarn 8y ago
The trick is to behave like you're not doing anything wrong. If you have a pair of bolt cutters and you look like you're aimlessly wandering, people will notice. If instead, you walk in and go straight into any random office, you're fine. If you know where the building manager's office is, go straight for that and make it look like you talked to them, people won't question anything you do afterwards. (Source: watched someone do this during a pentest)
- honestoHeminway 8y ago
  The trick is to look pissed about your job.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- cyxxon 8y ago
  During my university years I orked as IT support. We always joked we could just steal computers off campus, nobody of the security team (or students) even looked at us twice when we took computers from offices and walked out with them...
JoeAltmaier 8y ago
I lost the key to my bike lock, took the bus home. Next AM brought a hacksaw to work. As I sat sawing through the cable, somebody I didn't know walked by and said "If you were stealing that bike, you'd be sawing a lot faster", smiled and walked on by.
- dorfsmay 8y ago
  One of my kid threw a temper tantrum in a restaurant, so I walk with her to go sit in the car together till she calmed down. She was screaming and crying while we were walking and a stranger with a concerned look asked if she was my daughter. I told them she was but that at that particular moment they could have her. They just walked not knowing what to do or say. I was amused by my smart-ass answer and their reaction, but later, when everybody had come down, thought it was a good question. How do you prove you're the parent? Who's business is it to ask anyway? Do you call the police to verify every time s kid's upset? Or is kidnapping an insignificant statistic that we just live with it?
  - juiyout 8y ago
    Child abduction in broad daylight and crowded place had been happening in China. A group of people consist of grandma, husband, uncles would pick on single mom with infant on the street. They would brazenly take away her infant. Of course the mom would be upset and fight. The fake family would act like they were just having a family quarrel. Bystander would just leave them be. I saw documentaries in China and police were advising people to call for police and help those who are in distress. I would not be surprised if there are fake cops now in the fake family group. But I hope for the best for China.
  - phyzome 8y ago
    Kidnapping is pretty damn rare, at least here in the US. I say this because I have never heard of anyone I am socially connected to (including transitively) who has encountered it. (I just hear about it in newspapers, every once in a while.)
    - 8y ago

koonsolo 8y ago

My dad used to work as a technician for a company selling expensive hospital equipment. He says there are countless times when he or with another colleage would go in any hospital and roll out such a device. Nobody asks any questions. At my university there were some actual thefts like this. Someone stole a beamer from a high ceiling in the middle of the day. And another time someone stole a heavy (=unliftable) new server.

andrewshadura 8y ago
You probably mean a projector (beamer is a German word, not English).
- cyphar 8y ago
  Unrelated, but TIL why the LaTeX package for making presentations is called "beamer". I guess the author is German.
  - majewsky 8y ago
    Yes he is. Both TikZ and Beamer are maintained by Till Tantau of University of Bremen.
- koonsolo 8y ago
  Yes, you are correct (I speak Dutch, not German, but they are very close). In Dutch we use a lot of English words: Computer, keyboard, ... . So when I hear an English sounding 'beamer', I think it's English :). We basically use 'projector' for anything from slide to video projector. But it seems the digital age introduce a new word 'beamer' in our language (and German), that didn't happen in English.
  - auto 8y ago
    Beamer is pronounced just like bimmer, which to most in the US (or at least my part of it) is just a nickname for BMW cars. That said, beamer as the word for projector has that German feel of being “obvious” to it, and is neat.
    - askmike 8y ago
      In Dutch it is pronounced beamer like "Beam[er] me up scotty".
      - koonsolo 8y ago
        yes
    - opless 8y ago
      In the UK beam-er is how we pronounce our nickname for BMW cars.
avip 8y ago
May have worked. I have worked in hospitals in US and there's no way you could walk in without someone (officially, the nurse in charge) asking you who you are. I was actually expelled from hospitals even though I did have a nametag and an approval to work there.
- ytjohn 8y ago
  Interesting. Are these bigger city hospitals? I've visited people in several hospitals and you just walk in. Unless you actually go up to a counter to ask for help, you're free to roam. Sure, some areas are off limits. You can't go into the ER patient area without someone opening the door, and I'm sure the surgery section is off limits. But you can walk to a patient's room, the maternity ward, the cafeteria, etc. In fact, our local hospital has a pretty decent cafeteria. It's nothing fancy, but it's relatively cheap (cash only) and decent food. There are definitely people that just go there for lunch.
  - avip 8y ago
    I’m referring to stuff zone. Most hospitals would obviously have public access areas.
  - jdeibele 8y ago
    At the hospital where my wife gave birth, they gave wristbands with some sort of sensor in them to spouses, partners, etc. The only way (for civilians, I assume) in to the maternity ward would open for you if you had one. It wouldn't if you didn't. There were some other precautions they told us about to prevent someone coming in and snatching a newborn but it's been too many years to remember them.

zaarn 8y ago

The trick is to behave like you're not doing anything wrong. If you have a pair of bolt cutters and you look like you're aimlessly wandering, people will notice. If instead, you walk in and go straight into any random office, you're fine. If you know where the building manager's office is, go straight for that and make it look like you talked to them, people won't question anything you do afterwards. (Source: watched someone do this during a pentest)

honestoHeminway 8y ago
The trick is to look pissed about your job.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
cyxxon 8y ago
During my university years I orked as IT support. We always joked we could just steal computers off campus, nobody of the security team (or students) even looked at us twice when we took computers from offices and walked out with them...

JoeAltmaier 8y ago

I lost the key to my bike lock, took the bus home. Next AM brought a hacksaw to work. As I sat sawing through the cable, somebody I didn't know walked by and said "If you were stealing that bike, you'd be sawing a lot faster", smiled and walked on by.

dorfsmay 8y ago
One of my kid threw a temper tantrum in a restaurant, so I walk with her to go sit in the car together till she calmed down. She was screaming and crying while we were walking and a stranger with a concerned look asked if she was my daughter. I told them she was but that at that particular moment they could have her. They just walked not knowing what to do or say. I was amused by my smart-ass answer and their reaction, but later, when everybody had come down, thought it was a good question. How do you prove you're the parent? Who's business is it to ask anyway? Do you call the police to verify every time s kid's upset? Or is kidnapping an insignificant statistic that we just live with it?
- juiyout 8y ago
  Child abduction in broad daylight and crowded place had been happening in China. A group of people consist of grandma, husband, uncles would pick on single mom with infant on the street. They would brazenly take away her infant. Of course the mom would be upset and fight. The fake family would act like they were just having a family quarrel. Bystander would just leave them be. I saw documentaries in China and police were advising people to call for police and help those who are in distress. I would not be surprised if there are fake cops now in the fake family group. But I hope for the best for China.
- phyzome 8y ago
  Kidnapping is pretty damn rare, at least here in the US. I say this because I have never heard of anyone I am socially connected to (including transitively) who has encountered it. (I just hear about it in newspapers, every once in a while.)
  - 8y ago