4 ms·

It would be amazing if this latest memo had different wordings per group of people. They search would be narrowed and they would have truly made an effort to t

by msis 5y ago

It would be amazing if this latest memo had different wordings per group of people. They search would be narrowed and they would have truly made an effort to track these leaks.

joshstrange 5y ago
That reminds me of all the espionage and counter-espionage that (at least used to) occurred in EVE clans/guilds (not sure if that's the right word). They even had custom plugins for their messaging boards where they could use BBCode to offer multiple words and the forum software would present a different combo of words so that if someone copy/pasted it then they could narrow it down either right away or with a few examples. As in they would have 4+ words in an announcement that had multiple variants and would record "We showed User A the following 1:1, 2:3, 3:2, 4:3..." (variable-word-instance-index:variant-index).
- cschmittiey 5y ago
  In Eve they’re called corporations/alliances, but it actually goes even deeper. More details here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16048674 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16048674 Also, I can’t seem to find a source for it but there’s also a technique used where screenshots have the logged in user’s ID encoded in the background of the screenshot by using hex colors that effectively look the same.
champtar 5y ago
I remember one lyrics website alternating normal and non-breaking space to prove a competitor was just copy pasting from their website
- chuckee 5y ago
  That competitor was Google, in case this is the incident you had in mind: https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/genius-uses-morse-code-catch-google-stealing-lyrics/ https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/genius-uses-morse-co...
atarian 5y ago
This is something Elon Musk was rumored to have done, but ended up backfiring: https://www.autoblog.com/2009/03/05/not-at-all-quiet-on-the-western-front-is-elon-musk-questioning/ https://www.autoblog.com/2009/03/05/not-at-all-quiet-on-the-...
- cnst 5y ago
  Yeah, if you could just have VPs who know how things work, that would be great!
runawaybottle 5y ago
Next YC batch to include: leak-AB-ly: AB test your emails to see who is leaking. Secures 10m in funding, with a valuation of 10bn. Can’t make this shit up.
MikeDelta 5y ago
That is called a canary trap. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_trap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_trap
- perl4ever 5y ago
  Regarding the related technique, a "barium meal test", there is an xkcd: https://xkcd.com/525/ https://xkcd.com/525/

by msis 5y ago

It would be amazing if this latest memo had different wordings per group of people. They search would be narrowed and they would have truly made an effort to track these leaks.

joshstrange 5y ago

That reminds me of all the espionage and counter-espionage that (at least used to) occurred in EVE clans/guilds (not sure if that's the right word). They even had custom plugins for their messaging boards where they could use BBCode to offer multiple words and the forum software would present a different combo of words so that if someone copy/pasted it then they could narrow it down either right away or with a few examples. As in they would have 4+ words in an announcement that had multiple variants and would record "We showed User A the following 1:1, 2:3, 3:2, 4:3..." (variable-word-instance-index:variant-index).

cschmittiey 5y ago
In Eve they’re called corporations/alliances, but it actually goes even deeper. More details here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16048674 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16048674 Also, I can’t seem to find a source for it but there’s also a technique used where screenshots have the logged in user’s ID encoded in the background of the screenshot by using hex colors that effectively look the same.

champtar 5y ago

I remember one lyrics website alternating normal and non-breaking space to prove a competitor was just copy pasting from their website

chuckee 5y ago
That competitor was Google, in case this is the incident you had in mind: https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/genius-uses-morse-code-catch-google-stealing-lyrics/ https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/genius-uses-morse-co...

atarian 5y ago

This is something Elon Musk was rumored to have done, but ended up backfiring: https://www.autoblog.com/2009/03/05/not-at-all-quiet-on-the-western-front-is-elon-musk-questioning/ https://www.autoblog.com/2009/03/05/not-at-all-quiet-on-the-...

cnst 5y ago
Yeah, if you could just have VPs who know how things work, that would be great!

runawaybottle 5y ago

Next YC batch to include: leak-AB-ly: AB test your emails to see who is leaking. Secures 10m in funding, with a valuation of 10bn. Can’t make this shit up.

MikeDelta 5y ago

That is called a canary trap. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_trap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_trap

perl4ever 5y ago
Regarding the related technique, a "barium meal test", there is an xkcd: https://xkcd.com/525/ https://xkcd.com/525/