"Using Prompt Commands" May Be a Sign of Criminal Activity

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In his application, the investigating officer asked that he be permitted to seize the student's computers and other personal effects because they might yield evidence of the crimes of "Obtaining computer services by Fraud or Misrepresentation" and "Unauthorized access to a computer system." Aside from the remarkable overreach by campus and state police in trying to paint a student as suspicious in part because he can navigate a non-Windows computer environment

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I know that my quote and thoughts are a little bit offtopic in regards to this news, but its the offtopic that worries me a bit more concerning that any OS other than microsoft is seen as "suspicous" to some law enforcements.

Doesnt the state police or campus security have any school education whatsoever?


Taken from:

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http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/04...are-suspicious

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Errr... He got nailed because his hostname and MAC addresses showed up in the logs as the one sending the offending emails. Read the warrent, especially the "Basis for Probable Cause" bit. This whole "black screen with white letters" bit got blown out of proportion. He did something stupid and got nailed for it, period.

Yes SirDice, you are right. As i said, its the offtopic part that bothered me a bit, as you call it "overbloated".

Also i first read it @

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http://athens.indymedia.org/front.ph...cle_id=1018782

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where the main idea of the article is the overbloated part. Actually... if you would like i would gladly translate it into english for you if you like. The original report is as you stated, but offshore the entire story appears differently :p

Cheers.

Yeah.. A dutch security site picked it up as "Police finds linux users suspect". That bit about the "black screen with white letter" got written up as the reason why he was brought in. Ridiculous sensationalist journalism which got nothing to do with the real reason why he was brought in.

Scarey....

I use dos to troubleshoot issues....and everyso often I have a shoulder surfer ...usually some misogynist knowitall

"nobody uses DOS anymore"

:rolleyes:

I find here in Canada our government is full of luddites and its scarey on how much information they have control of.

MLF

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"nobody uses DOS anymore"

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Wow, I use the command prompt all of the time, in Windows, Linux, and Mac. It is ideal for automating some of the tasks that need to run on a routine basis.

I agree with SirDice, that most media is focusing on one statement in this case, that really wasn't the issue to begin with. You basically have a technologically incompetent judge, who has probably watched one too many episodes of 24. What else is new? :D The fact remains, that the suspect was sending offensive emails. And that is why he was arrested, not because of knowing how to use an alternative OS.

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misogynist

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had to look that one up. ;)

Actually if everyone where on guest accounts to begin with... you could prevent everyone from using the command prompt.

Hmmm,

Looking at the case I would say that the College/Police have screwed up.

1. I don't see how sending an offensive e-mail is a criminal offence. Sure I would imagine it violates the AUP/Code of Conduct or whatever, but that is an internal discipline issue.

2. There does not seem to be any prima facie case for

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"Obtaining computer services by Fraud or Misrepresentation"

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3. Altering student grades is certainly a criminal offence, but where is the evidence?

The uncorroborated allegations of one of the parties to a dispute would certainly not be acceptable over here. Anyway, how difficult would it be for the College to check if any grades have been illegally altered?

If they haven't then the witness is totally discredited? If they have then you have to prove who did it.

As for illegal downloads and cracks that is more a matter for the owners of the IP, although it might also fall foul of the AUP.

I would guess that the EFF are on a winner with this one ;)

Since guests can't touch anything on disk there would be no reason to use the command prompt.

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I use dos to troubleshoot issues....and everyso often I have a shoulder surfer ...usually some misogynist knowitall

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Women have never offered much to society. Most still make attempts to stay relevant within household settings but can easily be replaced with nudie mags and a dishwasher.

If that is in Win 2k XP or Vista.. You're not using DOS...And tell the id-10-T's that Your using the Windows Command Prompt interface.. and while it looks and has the same dead smell as DOS.. it isn't.. .. I'd like to see DOS run much of the stuff we run in the CMD prompt..

Remember

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Win•dows: n. A thirty-two bit extension and graphical shell to a sixteen-bit patch to an eight-bit operating system originally coded for a four-bit microprocessor which was written by a two-bit company that can't stand one bit of competition.

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Originally Posted by morganlefay

Scarey....

I use dos to troubleshoot issues....and everyso often I have a shoulder surfer ...usually some misogynist knowitall

"nobody uses DOS anymore"

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SSDD - Same **** Different Department (Day, Director, etc) add the media to this and you have the full teaching and control cycle in the world..

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I find here in Canada our government is full of luddites and its scarey on how much information they have control of.

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The media is what is teaching most people what is and isn't in the world.. if a Black screen and white text is a hacker screen then many will believe that..
Like in Aus with the Conroy Act.. Kiddy Porn is bad vis.. It Is Porn ..so.. ALL Porn is Kiddy Porn and Will be banned.. and just for good measure we will remove sites that have a violent or hacking content.. (BTW..What's Happened to AO.. It wasn't on the last 2 lists that I saw)

DOS is still alive and kicking. Well, sort of :D

http://www.freedos.org/

Comes in 8Mb and 153Mb download versions and a thing called "Balder" that fits on a 1.44Mb floppy.

The source code is also available. :)

[My wife bought a new kitchen, so I have been rather busy these past few days, and haven't had a chance to play with it].

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if a Black screen and white text is a hacker screen then many will believe that..

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Better not let anyone see my black screen with green text then (DOS v.3.3) :lildevil:

IIRC Windows ME was the last OS that was DOS based. I also seem to recall that whilst NT wasn't DOS based, it ran some sort of virtual DOS machine?

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I also seem to recall that whilst NT wasn't DOS based, it ran some sort of virtual DOS machine?

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That's more or less the same cmd.exe that you still get today.
It is not only a DOS emulator but also a full 32bit protected mode
Windows command shell. amazing, really.

what I do is change the colors to black text on a white screen.
The Luddites don't notice then.
:cool:

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what I do is change the colors to black text on a white screen.
The Luddites don't notice then.

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Great idea.....

Then the misogynists will think I am just working on a document...doing my usual secretarial duties...LOL

MLF

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doing my usual secretarial duties

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And the coffee. Don't forget the coffee. That's a good girl, LOL

RCG,

Shame on you sir! this is Boston!............dammit man, B-O-S-T-O-N.......... you know, where they make tea with salt water, and their "finest" blow up road traffic counters :lildevil:

Nasty, bloody Al-Quaeda traffic counters though..............I mean they have white on black readouts don't they?.............gotta be terrorist scum?:shocked:................ or hackers?

For those of you who are new around here I first posted this a couple of years back:

http://digg.com/world_news/Boston_po...d_to_lightpost

Now you have elected that Obama feller, perhaps he will ban chaining them to lamposts just like he banned waterboarding?

More:-

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archive..._police_b.html
http://coyoty.livejournal.com/56202.html
http://www.homelandstupidity.us/2007...nting-traffic/

With such a stellar track record of policing, I can't say that I find their performance too surprising.:D