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While I think that breaking into people's stuff and vandalizing it is horrible, in the specific cases I've seen(such as the one in the article), no actual harm

by ekiru 17y ago

While I think that breaking into people's stuff and vandalizing it is horrible, in the specific cases I've seen(such as the one in the article), no actual harm is done. All the victim has to do is change their password and inform people that someone else obtained their password and that they were not the ones who posted the untoward messages and photos. If the attackers have permanently taken the account by changing the password and email address, that solution is not possible, but then it's not really the scandalous posts that are the issue, is it?

profgubler 17y ago
Except you don't actually know that no harm was done. What if this person that this happened to was married (that is not a fun conversation to have even if it didn't happen), or because of what was posted they lost their job. You have no idea. I am sorry this isn't a joke it is vandalism.
- ekiru 17y ago
  I never said that this was a joke, funny, not vandalism, or even not a horrible thing to do. Your example of a person losing their job over this is a good argument that harm can result from this kind of vandalism. However, I do think there is a distinction between an event causing someone to lose their job and their boss making an incorrect assumption about an event(in this case, that their employee actually posted an untoward message) and firing them. It's still horrible to break into someone's account and cause "them" to say something which will cause them to lose their job, but the vandal is not the only one at fault in that situation. No employer should fire someone for a post on facebook that appears to be written by them without first at least making sure. Realistically, they might. Regarding the case of a married person, if you don't trust your spouse enough to know that they're not having anal sex with some other man, or at least enough to consider that less likely than that their account was compromised, you shouldn't be married to them.
- angstrom 17y ago
  I've occasionally obtained a coworker's password (If I see the keyboard and their fingers, I can see the password). However, in my case I've always taken the "Fly on the Wall" approach. It's like people watching at the mall, but you discover the unseen. Like the 29 year-old marketing girl is a sexual deviant and nympho maniac, but still loves her husband of 9 years and their 7 year-old son. The CEO is a 44 year-old man child suffering a mid-life crisis and his wife got pregnant again because she was afraid he would divorce her for someone younger like his friends have done. Secretly he fears his wife will discover the reason he hired the marketing girl was because she reminded him of a younger version of her. And my 31 year-old coworker is a bigger geek than I ever could imagine and absolutely clueless all this and more is going on around him. We live in a matrix, not the Wachowski ripoff matrix, but the one that hides the real world with fake smiles and shallow conversations. This isn't news to most people. I get my kicks on looking at it from time to time. That said, I would never go to the level of logging in anonymously at a public wi-fi and vandalizing someone's life. My favorite password to figure out was an old boss's: 8675309 It's one thing when they make sense alphabetically or an alphanumeric with a few numeric permutations, it's another when it's an 80's song older than you with 5,040 permutations :) Coincidently, Tommy Heath became a computer analyst and moved to Portland, Oregon after the band broke up.
  - shiranaihito 17y ago
    Like the 29 year-old marketing girl is a sexual deviant and nympho maniac, but still loves her husband of 9 years and their 7 year-old son. The CEO is a 44 year-old man child suffering a mid-life crisis and his wife got pregnant again because she was afraid he would divorce her for someone younger like his friends have done. Secretly he fears his wife will discover the reason he hired the marketing girl was because she reminded him of a younger version of her. And my 31 year-old coworker is a bigger geek than I ever could imagine and absolutely clueless all this and more is going on around him. Did you actually secretly go through their computers and dig up all this very private information about them? Seriously? Because if you did, then you're not quite normal yourself. We live in a matrix, not the Wachowski ripoff matrix, but the one that hides the real world with fake smiles and shallow conversations It's possible to have Real Friends, though, with whom you can have heartfelt conversations about anything.
- radu_floricica 17y ago
  > or because of what was posted they lost their job. And this is why I can't help but sympathize with 4chan on this. I agree it's not pleasant for people involved, and that overall it's an unethical thing to do... but. From a social point of view, on a large scale and timeframe, what 4chan does stretches the limits of what is socially accepted. Means aside, their purpose in this is to make a parody of christian social inhibitions. Not exactly evil, and arguably not even mean.
deleted 17y ago
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by ekiru 17y ago

profgubler 17y ago

Except you don't actually know that no harm was done. What if this person that this happened to was married (that is not a fun conversation to have even if it didn't happen), or because of what was posted they lost their job. You have no idea. I am sorry this isn't a joke it is vandalism.

ekiru 17y ago
I never said that this was a joke, funny, not vandalism, or even not a horrible thing to do. Your example of a person losing their job over this is a good argument that harm can result from this kind of vandalism. However, I do think there is a distinction between an event causing someone to lose their job and their boss making an incorrect assumption about an event(in this case, that their employee actually posted an untoward message) and firing them. It's still horrible to break into someone's account and cause "them" to say something which will cause them to lose their job, but the vandal is not the only one at fault in that situation. No employer should fire someone for a post on facebook that appears to be written by them without first at least making sure. Realistically, they might. Regarding the case of a married person, if you don't trust your spouse enough to know that they're not having anal sex with some other man, or at least enough to consider that less likely than that their account was compromised, you shouldn't be married to them.
angstrom 17y ago
I've occasionally obtained a coworker's password (If I see the keyboard and their fingers, I can see the password). However, in my case I've always taken the "Fly on the Wall" approach. It's like people watching at the mall, but you discover the unseen. Like the 29 year-old marketing girl is a sexual deviant and nympho maniac, but still loves her husband of 9 years and their 7 year-old son. The CEO is a 44 year-old man child suffering a mid-life crisis and his wife got pregnant again because she was afraid he would divorce her for someone younger like his friends have done. Secretly he fears his wife will discover the reason he hired the marketing girl was because she reminded him of a younger version of her. And my 31 year-old coworker is a bigger geek than I ever could imagine and absolutely clueless all this and more is going on around him. We live in a matrix, not the Wachowski ripoff matrix, but the one that hides the real world with fake smiles and shallow conversations. This isn't news to most people. I get my kicks on looking at it from time to time. That said, I would never go to the level of logging in anonymously at a public wi-fi and vandalizing someone's life. My favorite password to figure out was an old boss's: 8675309 It's one thing when they make sense alphabetically or an alphanumeric with a few numeric permutations, it's another when it's an 80's song older than you with 5,040 permutations :) Coincidently, Tommy Heath became a computer analyst and moved to Portland, Oregon after the band broke up.
- shiranaihito 17y ago
  Like the 29 year-old marketing girl is a sexual deviant and nympho maniac, but still loves her husband of 9 years and their 7 year-old son. The CEO is a 44 year-old man child suffering a mid-life crisis and his wife got pregnant again because she was afraid he would divorce her for someone younger like his friends have done. Secretly he fears his wife will discover the reason he hired the marketing girl was because she reminded him of a younger version of her. And my 31 year-old coworker is a bigger geek than I ever could imagine and absolutely clueless all this and more is going on around him. Did you actually secretly go through their computers and dig up all this very private information about them? Seriously? Because if you did, then you're not quite normal yourself. We live in a matrix, not the Wachowski ripoff matrix, but the one that hides the real world with fake smiles and shallow conversations It's possible to have Real Friends, though, with whom you can have heartfelt conversations about anything.
radu_floricica 17y ago
> or because of what was posted they lost their job. And this is why I can't help but sympathize with 4chan on this. I agree it's not pleasant for people involved, and that overall it's an unethical thing to do... but. From a social point of view, on a large scale and timeframe, what 4chan does stretches the limits of what is socially accepted. Means aside, their purpose in this is to make a parody of christian social inhibitions. Not exactly evil, and arguably not even mean.

deleted 17y ago

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