Bio professor owns one student!

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Nikamichi

Nikamichi

Diamond Member
Nov 21, 2003
7,759
0
0
Ah, so the professor owned himself by letting his laptop get away from him.

Lame.

:thumbsdown::|
 
K

Kremlar

Golden Member
Oct 10, 1999
1,426
3
81
Probably the prof is the one in such trouble for not keeping such critical information more safe... ;)
 
OREOSpeedwagon

OREOSpeedwagon

Diamond Member
May 30, 2001
8,485
1
81
Originally posted by: HardcoreRobot
i would actually venture to say the student that stole the laptop pwned the prof
Click to expand...

true, but the guy who stole the laptop is definitely getting owned.. he stole a laptop that had the exam on it but it turns out its got all kinds of confidential infomation on it and he (according to the prof) might serve jail time, lol
 
SarcasticDwarf

SarcasticDwarf

Diamond Member
Jun 8, 2001
9,574
2
76
Originally posted by: OREOSpeedwagon
Originally posted by: HardcoreRobot
i would actually venture to say the student that stole the laptop pwned the prof
Click to expand...

true, but the guy who stole the laptop is definitely getting owned.. he stole a laptop that had the exam on it but it turns out its got all kinds of confidential infomation on it and he (according to the prof) might serve jail time, lol
Click to expand...

What would be the point of turning yourself into the prof at that point? I'd clean the laptop and ditch it.
 
SarcasticDwarf

SarcasticDwarf

Diamond Member
Jun 8, 2001
9,574
2
76
Originally posted by: WinstonSmith
Originally posted by: Armitage
Originally posted by: WinstonSmith
It's a marvelous combination of BS and truth. MS calling is BS. Most of the rest probably is too. That does NOT mean that it is untraceable.

Having first hand knowledge of how these things work, I can tell you that professors do indeed keep these kind of things on their lappys, and they are often completely stupid enough to keep it unencrypted. Assuming that the data on the computer is as advertised, he is indeed correct as to the importance of the data and the very real penalties the student faces. If Glaxo/SmithKline or whoever has drug trial information on that lappy, then they would be very keen to do something about it. First concern is the recovery of the laptop. Failing that, harsh prosecution. The judge may be quite lenient, and he may get out in ten years, but would be very lucky to do so.

This student better hope it is ALL BS.
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So a thief can be held liable for the value of the information on the laptop, even if he had absolutely know way of knowing the value of that data when he stole it? He thought he was stealing a crappy 4 year old laptop that was $1K new, but it actually has data worth millions on it. Is he now busted for a million dollar theft? Or only if he tries to market that data? I don't have much sympathy for the guy, but *still*.

Kinda like photo labs & such - they are only liable for the cost of the film if they botch a job. Not the value of the pulitzer prize you would have one if they hadn't botched the development.
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A reasonable person could be be expected to understand this would be no ordinary laptop with games etc. It would have value beyond the machine itself. True, he probably didn't understand the magnitude of the theft, but he would most likely be made an example of, then given some time off for circumstances.
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Again, you are asuming that he knew there was significant value there. A profs tests really have no value, how could he know there were trade secrets?
 
A

AFB

Lifer
Jan 10, 2004
10,718
3
0
Originally posted by: WinstonSmith
Originally posted by: Armitage
Originally posted by: WinstonSmith
It's a marvelous combination of BS and truth. MS calling is BS. Most of the rest probably is too. That does NOT mean that it is untraceable.

Having first hand knowledge of how these things work, I can tell you that professors do indeed keep these kind of things on their lappys, and they are often completely stupid enough to keep it unencrypted. Assuming that the data on the computer is as advertised, he is indeed correct as to the importance of the data and the very real penalties the student faces. If Glaxo/SmithKline or whoever has drug trial information on that lappy, then they would be very keen to do something about it. First concern is the recovery of the laptop. Failing that, harsh prosecution. The judge may be quite lenient, and he may get out in ten years, but would be very lucky to do so.

This student better hope it is ALL BS.
Click to expand...

So a thief can be held liable for the value of the information on the laptop, even if he had absolutely know way of knowing the value of that data when he stole it? He thought he was stealing a crappy 4 year old laptop that was $1K new, but it actually has data worth millions on it. Is he now busted for a million dollar theft? Or only if he tries to market that data? I don't have much sympathy for the guy, but *still*.

Kinda like photo labs & such - they are only liable for the cost of the film if they botch a job. Not the value of the pulitzer prize you would have one if they hadn't botched the development.
Click to expand...

A reasonable person could be be expected to understand this would be no ordinary laptop with games etc. It would have value beyond the machine itself. True, he probably didn't understand the magnitude of the theft, but he would most likely be made an example of, then given some time off for circumstances.

Where your photo lab analogy fails because in your scenario they didn't commit a crime. It is more like if they had gone out and stolen film from someone they knew worked for an intelligence agency then discovered it had national secrets. Going before the judge, there would be little sympathy.

No, his ass would be in a sling.
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But he didn't know the guy worked for the NSA, only that he was a smart guy who was interested in satellites. Judging from the prof's tone, the students had no idea he worked for these entities.

 
Boze

Boze

Senior member
Dec 20, 2004
634
14
91
This is such bullshit that I really can't even force myself to watch it. We don't even keep transponders on the laptops onboard nuclear submarines (Not even in the ones in the Radio Room, which have the kind of secrets that you really don't want to know about and are considered a lot more valuable than information about a lawsuit and a company that's about to go public).

This professor is in deep shit, and he knows it. He better pray to every god he's ever heard about that somehow... some way... he gets that laptop back, because its sound to me like its gonna be his balls on the chopping block and he's sweating bullets, just as well as he should be. It is high time people learn to protect their data and to protect their physical machines as well. I truly hope he's the one who gets made an example of, although nothing would please me more than seeing the thief get his just rewards as well.
 
jpeyton

jpeyton

Moderator in SFF, Notebooks, Pre-Built/Barebones
Moderator
Aug 23, 2003
25,375
142
116
He's trying to BS his way to a confession. If the guy had eyewitnesses, then the cops would have already nabbed the kid. I know if my laptop had any important information, I wouldn't INFORM the person who stole it of that data...I would go straight to the cops and have them recover it.

Basically, the prof is playing a game of poker and he's bluffing BIG TIME. The kid would be smart to call his bluff, format the laptop, and erase any proof that he ever had it.
 
W

whistleclient

Platinum Member
Apr 22, 2001
2,700
1
71
Originally posted by: Boze
This is such bullshit that I really can't even force myself to watch it. We don't even keep transponders on the laptops onboard nuclear submarines (Not even in the ones in the Radio Room, which have the kind of secrets that you really don't want to know about and are considered a lot more valuable than information about a lawsuit and a company that's about to go public).

This professor is in deep shit, and he knows it. He better pray to every god he's ever heard about that somehow... some way... he gets that laptop back, because its sound to me like its gonna be his balls on the chopping block and he's sweating bullets, just as well as he should be. It is high time people learn to protect their data and to protect their physical machines as well. I truly hope he's the one who gets made an example of, although nothing would please me more than seeing the thief get his just rewards as well.
Click to expand...


boze, did you serve on a submarine? just curious. they fascinate me.



 
jamesbond007

jamesbond007

Diamond Member
Dec 21, 2000
5,280
0
71
In regards to the possible transponder in the laptop, doesn't IBM have some kind of BIOS/tool in their laptops these days that report where it is online, no matter if you change NICs or dialup? I thought that was a feature I saw in a commercial a while ago. It was an anti-theft utility.

Could this be what the professor was talking about? If so, he has some legitmacy there.

JustAnAverageGuy, thanks for another mirror!
 
halik

halik

Lifer
Oct 10, 2000
25,696
1
81
man that point,
I'd zip that crap up and make a script that would post it to known message boards and newsgroups. Throw that in cron.daily with a condition that it will execute the payload if i don't ssh into that box every day.

It's not like you got somethign to lose ...
 
W

Wadded Beef

Banned
Dec 15, 2004
1,482
0
0
Originally posted by: halik
man that point,
I'd zip that crap up and make a script that would post it to known message boards and newsgroups. Throw that in cron.daily with a condition that it will execute the payload if i don't ssh into that box every day.

It's not like you got somethign to lose ...
Click to expand...

hehe like that russian guy from rainbox six...
 
S

sxr7171

Diamond Member
Jun 21, 2002
5,079
40
91
Originally posted by: HardcoreRobot
i would actually venture to say the student that stole the laptop pwned the prof
Click to expand...

Somehow I don't buy the whole story him getting a call from Redmond over the same copy of Windows on two machines. I do believe that the MAC address was logged somewhere on campus but, he just told him how to avoid that in the future.
 
S

sxr7171

Diamond Member
Jun 21, 2002
5,079
40
91
Originally posted by: Boze
This is such bullshit that I really can't even force myself to watch it. We don't even keep transponders on the laptops onboard nuclear submarines (Not even in the ones in the Radio Room, which have the kind of secrets that you really don't want to know about and are considered a lot more valuable than information about a lawsuit and a company that's about to go public).

This professor is in deep shit, and he knows it. He better pray to every god he's ever heard about that somehow... some way... he gets that laptop back, because its sound to me like its gonna be his balls on the chopping block and he's sweating bullets, just as well as he should be. It is high time people learn to protect their data and to protect their physical machines as well. I truly hope he's the one who gets made an example of, although nothing would please me more than seeing the thief get his just rewards as well.
Click to expand...

True and it's time for a T42 or X41 with integrated fingerprint reader.
 
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