4 ms·

If that's hacking then security must be putting your hands over your ears, shutting your eyes and going la la la la. Seriously the "security" measures were to

by bananas 13y ago

If that's hacking then security must be putting your hands over your ears, shutting your eyes and going la la la la. Seriously the "security" measures were to remove the run box and the icon. That was it.

eterm 13y ago
Well it is hacking though. We used to do a similar thing, they quickly abandoned trying to lock down IE afterwards. Also all ".exe" were disabled. The solution? Rename q2.exe to q2.com and it ran like a peach.
- blueblob 13y ago
  or run command.com and type whatever exe you want
skrebbel 13y ago
So if a system is easy to hack, it's not hacking? You were clearly not intended to access IE, and you knew it, so you were intentionally breaking a wall that you knew you weren't intended to break. That's pretty much the definition of "hacking" in this context. Whether you needed 2 months of full time analytical cryptography, brute forcing and custom exploit discovery or a 3 line Word macro is completely besides the point. The idea that because it's possible or easy, it's allowed, is ridiculous. Most crimes are easy to commit. So indeed, not hacking, for technically able people, means that when faced with a security hole, you decide not to exploit it. I don't walk into people's homes that have the door unlocked either. You call that "putting your hands over your ears, shutting your eyes and going la la la la". Well, I hope you don't live near me. EDIT: don't get me wrong, I did my share of high school hacking too. I don't condemn what you did. But own up to what it is. You were committing a (petty) crime, just like I was back in the days.
- jnbiche 13y ago
  I completely agree with you that in fact this is "hacking" in the negative sense of the word (ie, accessing forbidden resources). However, at least in this instance, let's not use the word "crime" to describe breaking school or corporate policies. Opening a harmless program that administrators took minimal steps to disable may have been breaking the school rules or policies, but it wasn't a crime. We're already an over-criminalized society (at least here in the U.S.). We don't need any more "crimes", even if qualified as petty.
  - skrebbel 13y ago
    great point, I fully agree. Thanks!
danielweber 13y ago
It's perfectly okay for part of your security solution to be telling your employees/students that "if you do X you will be fired/kicked out." In fact, in any legit security policy, there has to be an explicit telling of users not to do certain things. I'm not allowed to walk into the server room and plug in a cellular modem and start transferring things out to pastebin. There are just about zero technical countermeasures in place to stop such a thing.
stcredzero 13y ago
If that's hacking then security must be putting your hands over your ears, shutting your eyes and going la la la la That's pretty accurate for many big companies. Quite a few startups too.

by bananas 13y ago

eterm 13y ago

Well it is hacking though. We used to do a similar thing, they quickly abandoned trying to lock down IE afterwards. Also all ".exe" were disabled. The solution? Rename q2.exe to q2.com and it ran like a peach.

blueblob 13y ago
or run command.com and type whatever exe you want

skrebbel 13y ago

So if a system is easy to hack, it's not hacking? You were clearly not intended to access IE, and you knew it, so you were intentionally breaking a wall that you knew you weren't intended to break. That's pretty much the definition of "hacking" in this context. Whether you needed 2 months of full time analytical cryptography, brute forcing and custom exploit discovery or a 3 line Word macro is completely besides the point. The idea that because it's possible or easy, it's allowed, is ridiculous. Most crimes are easy to commit. So indeed, not hacking, for technically able people, means that when faced with a security hole, you decide not to exploit it. I don't walk into people's homes that have the door unlocked either. You call that "putting your hands over your ears, shutting your eyes and going la la la la". Well, I hope you don't live near me. EDIT: don't get me wrong, I did my share of high school hacking too. I don't condemn what you did. But own up to what it is. You were committing a (petty) crime, just like I was back in the days.

jnbiche 13y ago
I completely agree with you that in fact this is "hacking" in the negative sense of the word (ie, accessing forbidden resources). However, at least in this instance, let's not use the word "crime" to describe breaking school or corporate policies. Opening a harmless program that administrators took minimal steps to disable may have been breaking the school rules or policies, but it wasn't a crime. We're already an over-criminalized society (at least here in the U.S.). We don't need any more "crimes", even if qualified as petty.
- skrebbel 13y ago
  great point, I fully agree. Thanks!

danielweber 13y ago

It's perfectly okay for part of your security solution to be telling your employees/students that "if you do X you will be fired/kicked out." In fact, in any legit security policy, there has to be an explicit telling of users not to do certain things. I'm not allowed to walk into the server room and plug in a cellular modem and start transferring things out to pastebin. There are just about zero technical countermeasures in place to stop such a thing.

stcredzero 13y ago

If that's hacking then security must be putting your hands over your ears, shutting your eyes and going la la la la That's pretty accurate for many big companies. Quite a few startups too.