My stance on it is that it's silly. What you're looking for is probably going to be more encrypted than is easy to find and the rest isn't worth trying to get in there for.
The only time I even understand going for it is when you just want to prove that you can and don't care if people find out who you are.
Anyone else have any thoughts?
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
Well, it depends. What are you talking about cracking?
Posted by cmc (Member # 9549) on :
Sorry... I mean personal computers.
Well - I mean personal computer 'stuff' specifically and proving you can get in there without caring who knows who you are with regard to anything...
I just don't get the trying to get into someone's personal, 'meaningless' stuff for no reason.
edit - i mean, specifically, trying to get into a pc that's just a pc. the way i work is if you want to know something, just ask. don't try to sneak in. that's pretty much what i mean.
[ November 07, 2006, 12:30 AM: Message edited by: cmc ]
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
Personal information can be used for identity theft.
Posted by cmc (Member # 9549) on :
I edited my last post, mr_porteiro_head, before I saw yours... I meant more the 'stuff' one keeps on a computer - random writings when that computer is handy, silly things like websites viewed, dumb stuff that no person should care about but still try to see!!!
Personal stuff should be/is/please start to carry/ied... somewhere else.
Posted by ricree101 (Member # 7749) on :
Is there something specific that prompted this?
Posted by cmc (Member # 9549) on :
I've got a work computer that I take home and do most of my 'play' stuff on. Mostly because I'm home doing work and just need a break for a while, that's the computer I'm on and I go for it... I know I don't go anywhere 'bad' and the IT/IS guys are my good friends.
There's more protection on the work computer. I guess someone's been trying to get in, I don't claim to know the ins and outs of anything computer... I just know that there's someone trying to get in because they tell me.
It made me wonder if anyone else 'gets' it. The trying to be sneaky while still reading thing stuff.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
People are nosy. People would ALSO like to take control of your work PC, because that is likely to give them access to your work network. And it's very likely that something on your work network is of interest to thieves.
Posted by Nighthawk (Member # 4176) on :
People try to get in to systems, for the most part, just to see if they *can* get in to the system.
In the early 80s, when all this began, I personally know people that bragged about getting past the first page of Department of Defense mainframes, or had "little black books" that contained access phone numbers for places like the Pentagon, NORAD, the CIA, etc...
Nowadays a lot of people try to gain access to machines in order to turn them in to "zombie mailers"; machines who are now used to send mass mailings, illegal mailings, advertising porn, pharmaceuticals, cheap loans, identity theft and phishing scams, announcing a royal death in Nigeria, etc... It's one hell of a lucrative business, and because ISPs don't generally allow it, they use machines hardlined into the global Internet to do their mailing for them.