Updated OP: I just lost my job for going above and beyond.

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

That's not hacking, hacking looks like this:

He was hacking surveillance equipment, not the damn Gibson!

 

[Red Squirrel]

Well shit, the OP got fired for doing something I had to do for my data communications class for my degree. I guess I 'hacked' 25 universities from all over the world by their logic.

I better go hide from the feds. I'm an international criminal. :ninja:

I'm pretty much a hardcore phreaker by their definition. I login to the console for the DMS (regional phone switch) and MTX (switch for CDMA cellular). I can hack into everybody's phones. I should be in federal prison!

Actually there is a feature that's pretty cool, I can hookup to any phone I want and make a phone call as if it came from them. It's a good way to test stuff like line noise or long distance related troubles.

 

[Ketchup]

I'm pretty much a hardcore phreaker by their definition. I login to the console for the DMS (regional phone switch) and MTX (switch for CDMA cellular). I can hack into everybody's phones. I should be in federal prison!

Actually there is a feature that's pretty cool, I can hookup to any phone I want and make a phone call as if it came from them. It's a good way to test stuff like line noise or long distance related troubles.

We can do the same. What kind of phones do you guys use?

 

[Red Storm]

ITT: People who are as clueless as the OP's former employers. As well as some who know what they are talking about.

Good luck to you OP, I would do what you can to make sure that company doesn't affect your future employment, but I think you can find much better places to work.

 

[Ketchup]

If you haven't done so already, get a set of good references from that company. From the way you explained things, there should be plenty of people there who still know what a good employee you were. Get them on LinkedIn if they are not already.

 

[marmasatt]

How was he being an idiot? Those are very basic commands, they don't weaken or compromise the security of the network in anyway.

Not too mention, way to pour salt in the guy's wounds.

 

[HeXen]

UNLESS you are IT you never mess with the command propt. there is no reason to do it.

HR and such are idiots and have no clue that /ipconfig is. all they see is a lot of numbers scroll by.

they take this as you are either installing software, hacking, or worse.

never a good idea.

also as six mentioned this was not "above and beyond" for his job and in no way would have helped him in a interview

agree...he went above and beyond the scope of his employment. Just do your job to the best that can be done and end it there.

 

[Jeff7]

Either he wanted the position, as Red Storm suggested, or else he'd only ever seen command prompts on CSI-type TV shows, where the only ones using a command prompt are either people breaking into a system illegally, or the police/FBI/whatever who are trying to catch them.

---

In high school, I decided to run a defrag program on one of the super-awesome Pentium I PCs in one of the computer labs. (This was right around the same year that the Pentium III was released. High-end stuff there. :awe
The programming teacher saw the defragmentation map, and thought I was running something that was going to damage the computer. She was unfamiliar with this "defragmenting" process. Luckily, I didn't get in trouble, though I did have to close the program.

 

[PenguinPower]

Unless he can show that the termination was pretextual...in other words, show a pattern that people from other races were disciplined less severely for more severe violations...it's a stretch though to be honest.

Yep. Already said that.

 

[HeXen]

For whatever reason, this thread reminds me of the kid who brought a Linux CD to class at school, passed copies around and got expelled for pirating?
...it made funny

 

[Jeff7]

For whatever reason, this thread reminds me of the kid who brought a Linux CD to class at school, passed copies around and got expelled for pirating?
...it made funny

Seriously? Link?

Let me guess...the school had a zero-tolerance policy about this sort of thing?

"But the license says that the software may be freely distributed!"
"LALALALA EXPELLED GO AWAY I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!"

 

[HeXen]

Seriously? Link?

Let me guess...the school had a zero-tolerance policy about this sort of thing?

"But the license says that the software may be freely distributed!"
"LALALALA EXPELLED GO AWAY I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!"

It's been a couple years back. Had the Linux community in quite the uproar over it. I'm sure someone here remembers more about it, I think it was even discussed here. What I recall is the teacher didn't know what Linux was and took it to the principal who thought he was pirating software cause they knew nothing of open source. I think they let him back in with an apology.

 

[yllus]

I came in expecting that you ran netcat or nmap, which are borderline activities (they shouldn't be, but alarm bells would ring for most competently managed networks). But what you ran is totally innocuous, especially if the commands were in fact accessible.

Sorry to hear about this. You were clearly fired because your supervisor wanted you out of the way.

 

[Eli]

Ask someone in IT for permission to run a command prompt and some network commands, lol.. some of you folks are insane.

I wouldn't think twice about opening a command prompt and checking some things out just for the hell of it, let alone any legitimate reason like preparing for an internal job interview.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

The best i've got is inconsistency.

As i've said earlier, someone installed a wireless router on the surveillance network with the intention of breaking the internet block (he failed lol) and was caught by IT in the process.

He was promoted.

Good lord. Earlier in the thread it just sounded like some guy set up a wireless router as a necessary job function in a secure environment and left it open out of incompetence. I would expect someone to be written up over that, and possibly terminated depending on how sensitive the environment it. The fact that he did this with the sole intent of bypassing a web block and still has a job is mind boggling.

You got fired because someone wanted you out o the way. Sorry man.

 

[Pheran]

I'm very close to my CCENT.

The problem is all jobs available in networking want a 4 year degree.

Pay no attention to this requirement when applying for jobs. Sure, you'll sometimes get filtered out by mindless HR departments, but some of us really don't care and will evaluate your skillset in an interview regardless of what pieces of paper you hold.

 

[Cattlegod]

Here is a different way to look at it. Say there is a room at the company. It says restricted access on the door. Inside the room is a high voltage panel without any safety guards and all of the wires are exposed. You are interviewing for a job to work on high voltage panels.

You sneak into the room to look at the panel to learn about it and the security guard sees you walk in. The security guard turns you in and you get fired under the condition that it doesn't matter if you we're just looking around even though you didn't touch anything.

Do any of you view this situation differently?

 

[Ns1]

Here is a different way to look at it. Say there is a room that is locked at the company. It says restricted access on the door. Inside the room is a high voltage panel without any safety guards and all of the wires are exposed. You are interviewing for a job to work on high voltage panels.

You sneak into the room to look at the panel to learn about it and the security guard sees you walk in. The security guard turns you in and you get fired under the condition that it doesn't matter if you we're just looking around.

Do any of you view this situation differently?

Yes because CMD isn't locked nor does it say restricted access. OP didn't have to "sneak", all he had to do was hit start -> run -> cmd

 

[Turin39789]

Here is a different way to look at it. Say there is a room that is locked at the company. It says restricted access on the door. Inside the room is a high voltage panel without any safety guards and all of the wires are exposed. You are interviewing for a job to work on high voltage panels.

You sneak into the room to look at the panel to learn about it and the security guard sees you walk in. The security guard turns you in and you get fired under the condition that it doesn't matter if you we're just looking around even though you didn't touch anything.

Do any of you view this situation differently?

It wasn't like this at all.

You work at a security company that installs security alarms. You are interviewing for a security installation job. You walk around the building and count the doors, so during your interview you can discuss how you would setup a security system for the building.

You are fired for counting doors.

You didn't sneak into anything, you didn't open a single door. You walked down a hallway.

 

[Cattlegod]

Yes because CMD isn't locked nor does it say restricted access. OP didn't have to "sneak", all he had to do was hit start -> run -> cmd

Updated to remove the word locked.

If it is restricted where he went, ignorance isn't an excuse.

 

[tranceport]

That's not hacking, hacking looks like this:

That looks like a gibson.

 

[Ns1]

Updated to remove the word locked.

If it is restricted where he went, ignorance isn't an excuse.

And nowhere does CMD get labeled as "restricted".

 

[her209]

Good thing the OP didn't issue a ping command or he would have been considered to be DoS'ing a system.

 

[Cattlegod]

And nowhere does CMD get labeled as "restricted".

I'm not saying what the OP did was wrong. The company he works at may be full of idiots and jerkoffs.

What I am saying is that if he wasn't told upfront that it was restricted, he should have picked it up based on company culture and the conversations he has had with people prior.

 

[Ns1]

I'm not saying what the OP did was wrong. The company he works at may be full of idiots and jerkoffs.

What I am saying is that if he wasn't told upfront that it was restricted, he should have picked it up based on company culture and the conversations he has had with people prior.

If it wasn't labeled as restricted, "picking it up based on company culture and conversations" is a pretty shitty threshold.

//edit

wait a second, he DID pick that up based on company culture and conversations!

As i've said earlier, someone installed a wireless router on the surveillance network with the intention of breaking the internet block (he failed lol) and was caught by IT in the process.

He was promoted.