💾 Archived View for clemat.is › saccophore › library › shorts › defcon › 25 › DEFCON-25-technogizmo-… captured on 2022-07-16 at 15:47:47.
⬅️ Previous capture (2021-12-03)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Piggybacking By technogizmo
/***the rise and fall of http
Dead Addict foresaw a bright future for HTTP. And he was right � which
alarmed many and led Xanadu to sue CERN. Then things got complicated.
NeXT settled the matter by buying the right patents and copyrights, and
the rest is history.
***/
Alexis sat on the curb near the bus stop, playing on her phone. Game
music gave an excuse for her focused attention on the screen. It was a
soundtrack to cover what she was really doing. She was war-driving her
tiny drone through the storm drain.
Normally, she did her war-driving on the bus. Using the drone wasn�t
that practical. But she liked the idea of running aerial technology in
an unexpected place. Also, until the courts decided whether or not
airspace could be owned and leased, it was best to stay out of delivery
zones.
Her drone was part robot, part copter, part bumper car - and pretty good
at negotiating dark spaces. Attaching a wifi card to scan for networks
made it even cooler! Not that it could pick up much through the thick
concrete. The concept was a work in progress.
�Wow, the Arduino load really runs the juice down. Better come back,
peque�a polilla.� Alexis reeled it back in and out of the drainage
hole. She pulled out the makeshift access point connected to her phone,
and slid everything carefully into a carry box inside her backpack.
3-D printer technology was booming. While her friends were making
self-watering planters and calavera-beaded curtains, Alexis made
modifications to her drones. As she could afford to, she scoured the
internets for plans and shared ideas with other enthusiasts. She stored
her progress notes in HyperCard stacks, using them to trade for more
info.
Thank God for her college�s 3-D printers. She had to pay for her
printing materials, but having access to a good printer was a huge cost
savings.
The bus came. Alexis got on and sunk into her seat. She was heading to
her school, Sands College, to work with her team on their project.
Alexis was beginning to suspect it was way too ambitious - not for their
skills, but for their available resources. A key piece of it was
gathering information online. The college simply didn�t have the
resources for that much access. �The internets are too damn expensive,�
she fretted.
In theory, educational institutions got free access to all the
internets. In reality, surfing was slow and bandwidth was capped.
Forget what the internets were supposed to do. Alexis knew for a fact
that not all the internets opened up all their spaces to education. At
least, not to no-name colleges like hers. She knew because she�d surfed
on networks that did have unlimited access. VERY different experience.
She was solving that disparity problem. She was also solving the cost
problem. She was having trouble solving the legality problem. And that
was starting to make her really nervous.
/***Your NeXT friend could be your best friend
When the deal between Apple and NeXT fell apart, Commodore was quick to
step in. Although Commodore officially bought NeXT, practically
speaking it was NeXT that absorbed Commodore. NeXT made the Amiga cool
again, becoming the stylish cube that revolutionized computing. And the
rest history.
***/
When Alexis got to school, she went straight to the computer lab. The
cluttered space was affectionately dubbed The Sands Pit. It had a
variety of PCs, many of questionable age, lots of spare parts, and a few
power-hogging servers. The dean kept promising a Commodore Cube for
running research models, but she�d believe it when it happened.
Yes! She was the first one there! She got dibs on the Amiga! She
staked her spot with her backpack and took out the drone box. She
started looking around the lab for a connection cable.
Two of her project partners entered the lab talking in hushed tones.
Alexis called to them. �Arti, Caesar � either of you know where a cable
is I can use for my drone?�
Ignoring the question, Arti rushed over to her and whispered, �Alexis,
Monte�s in Marsh�s office!�
�Arti, you�re such a goon! Monte�s in there all the time.�
�It didn�t look friendly.� He glanced at Caesar, who shrugged. �Monte
looked upset. We saw him follow Marsh into his office, and then they
closed the door.�
�Ahh.� Alexis sat down. �You think Monte�s� confessing?�
�I almost hope so,� Caesar said. �I�m tired of the stress.�
�You want to give up the project?� Alexis challenged. �Lose your access,
lose the data?�
Caesar sighed. �No. Maybe. I don�t know.�
Alexis sighed, too, and turned to log into her computer. A few moments
later she hit the keyboard. �Mierda!�
�What is it?�
Alexis waived angrily at the screen. Caesar and Arti read the message.
They each tried to log in, and they got the same error message: �Your
account has been suspended. See your advisor immediately.�
The three students stared at the screen. Arti broke the silence.
�Well, we might as well get it over with.� He got up and grabbed his
backpack.
They trudged out of the computer lab and down the hall to their
advisor�s office. The door was closed. They could hear the voices of
Professor Marsh and Monte. The students looked at each other. Alexis
bit her lip and knocked on the door. The voices stopped, and a moment
later the door swung open.
�Glad you got my message,� Marsh said. �Let�s go for a walk. Leave
your stuff here.�
The students dumped their backpacks in his office, and all five of them
shuffled out into the hall. The professor grabbed a binder, locked the
door, and led them outside.
They sat on the grass in a shady spot near a row of rumbling
compressors. They huddled close because it was a little hard to hear
each other talk, which was probably the point. Any IR-Mic that might
happen to be pointed their way couldn�t possibly overhear them.
�Why does this feel like a fire drill?� Alexis quipped nervously.
Professor Marsh held up the binder. �Officially, we are taking advantage
of the nice weather to talk about Unix and .Net compatibilities.
Unofficially� do any of you have anything you need to tell me?�
Caesar started to speak, but Alexis stopped him. Motioning to Monte, she
asked �What did he tell you?�
"Nothing! I didn't say anything about anything!" Monte said hotly.
Alexis shot him a look.
The professor tapped on the binder. �Let me ask this a different way.
I�ve been notified by an outside entity that someone at this college has
been engaged in alledgedly illegal computer-related activities. Of
course I thought of you four first. Was I right or wrong?�
Alexis held up her hands. �Wrong! We�ve never violated the Thackeray
Principle, I swear! We�d never committed a felony in front of you.�
�Great. But you may have done so in front of someone else. Listen,
I�ll help you if I can, but I have to know the truth.�
The students looked at each other. �Ay, chihuahua!" Alexis sighed.
"Okay��
The flood gates opened. The students poured out their story for over an
hour. What they said is lost to history because the compressors were
too damn loud.
/*** Fear the government that fears yours cryptography. -- CK
01010000 01000111 01010000 00100000 01110011 01100001 01110110 01100101
01100100 00100000 01101100 01101001 01110110 01100101 01110011 00100000
01110100 01101000 01100001 01101110 01101011 00100000 01111001 01101111
01110101 00100000 01010000 01101000 01101001 01101100 00100000 01011010
OH: �Natural selection will weed out the people who don't read the
manual.�
***/
Let�s say � completely hypothetically � that you had a great plan for a
great school computer project. The digital stars aligned! Everyone on
your team is motivated! AND, everyone on your team can actually
contribute something!
BUT� A key part of your project requires lots and lots of fast internet
access to high quality internet spaces. Alas! You�re all broke-ass
college kids and you go to a broke-ass college. What are you to do?
I�m sure there are lots of legal options out there, so of course you�d
absolutely choose to do something legal. You would refuse to consider
something illegal, like piggybacking.
You definitely would not start war driving, looking for vulnerable
networks. You would never case out marks who might have lots of
capacity, but are rarely home. And you would never, EVER actually go
onto a property and plug in a broadband-over-power-line device into a
neglected external outlet.
You would not do these terrible things. Because if you did, you might
be tempted to do something with all that intel, like create your own
botnet. And botnets are very bad. And you do not want to be bad.
You might tell yourself you could do good with a botnet. You might want
to pretend that what you are doing is okay. Beware! This crazy
rationalization might lead you to do crazy things, like creating a
program that calculates the internet usage of your marks. A program
like that would help you figure out how to use only what is left unused
by the mark.
And if you got that program to work, you might be embolded to create a
secondary program that keeps your botnet code from running when the mark
is using their computer. Beware, again! You aren�t interfering with
your mark�s use of their own stuff, so this would give you a false sense
of righteousness.
A false sense of righteousness would lull you into a false sense of
security. Triple beware! A false sense of security might make you
forget to ask yourself questions like, what if your botnet gets
compromised? What if it gets used for evil? What if you get caught?
So what do you do about your awesome school computer project?
Change your project. I recommend you just copy & paste from the
textbook and move on. Or switch to Marketing. There�s a good idea! In
Marketing, you can get paid good money for making crap up! Has anyone
ever been arrested for lying in a cable commercial? I can�t think of
anyone. Marketing might even be safer from prosecution than Wall Street
banking.
It�s definitely A LOT safer than hacking.
/***An Apple a day keeps the GNU fed
Apple open-sourced it�s OS through the Apple Foundation as a last ditch
effort to rebound its product lines. Open-sourcing created
crowd-sourcing, which created more demand. Not enough demand to make
the company profitable, but enough to make it a juicy purchase target
for Microsoft.
And the rest history.
***/
�The winners of this year�s Apple Foundation Fellowship have done
something remarkable." The podcast moderator beamed at the four students
sitting in the studio. �Not only have they created a program that
benefits schools across the country� Not only have they open sourced
their work, so others can learn from it and improve it� Not only have
they shown that you don�t need to be at a big-name university to
contribute to technology�
�They�ve done something I�ve personally never seen before. They�ve
given botnets a good name!�
The studio audience laughed. Alexis, Caesar, Arti and Monte smiled
self-consciously.
The moderator continued. �Who would have thought that people would
voluntarily let a botnet onto their computer? These students did. They
had vision.
�What these students created is a system that lets communities partner
with colleges. Unused resources don�t have to be wasted. Instead,
these resources are being used to find solutions to complex problems� �
Professor Marsh leaned over to whisper in the ear of the dignitary
standing with him in the back of the studio. �Don�t you think the world
should know the real role you played in all of this?�
�Hell, no!� was the retort. �If my alphabet friends or anyone in the
cDc ever found out I got breached with a BPL device, I�d never live it
down. You�ll keep it secret, won�t you, Jeff?�
�Your secret�s safe with me. I appreciate your advice on steering the
kids out of trouble and helping them get legit.�
�Hmm. You know, stuff like this can go either way. It can be great for
everyone, or it can be really, really bad if it gets compromised. We�re
making a big gamble on open source.�
�That�s true. But I have three reasons I�m placing all my bets on open
source.� Marsh ticked off the count on his fingers. �One- Mistakes kept
in the dark are hard to fix. Two- Open source brings everything to
light. Three- Innovation is being created by all kinds of people. And
some of them aren�t even old enough to drive! We need the experienced
keeping a protective eye on the enthusiastic.�
The two turned back to listen to the program.
�Your fellowship starts in the Fall," the moderator said. "Do any of you
have special plans for the summer?�
Alexis smiled. �I do! Viva la Def Con! I�m going to Las Vegas!�
And the rest, as they say, is history.