Besides the fact that a company can run itself how it sees fit, this kid will see jail time when he's eventually caught. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Yeah that was a pretty dumb thing to post if you're going to hack Zuckerberg's FB account.

I actually don't think it's that dumb. I think he's right, first of all, and second of all, if zuckerberg doesnt hire him, who's the stupid one. If the president of a CEO is vulnerable, it behooves the man to acknowledge it - my daughter FB chat was hacked recently - they need to pony up the resources to prevent this, and it highlights a super important isssue with facebook - security of EVERYONE's account.

Maybe zuckerberg doesn't hire active criminals? I know I don't.

I actually don't think it's that dumb. I think he's right, first of all,

So if I "hacked" into your online bank account and then sent you an email on how you should be spending your money you'd be ok with that? It doesn't matter if what he posted was right or not, he got into his account. Also, who knows what other things could have been in his private conversations?

and second of all, if zuckerberg doesnt hire him, who's the stupid one.

Good idea, might as well just post "Hey everyone, if you can hack into our servers we'll give you a job here." I'll try this with Steve Jobs' email account to get a job at Apple!

Not a great idea to be so public about breaking the law.

However it isn't a bad idea to suggest hiring him. Lots of really big orgs hire the criminals that fleece them as security advisers.

Some famous casinos have done this a couple times.

>>However it isn't a bad idea to suggest hiring him.

i guess that depends if it was a known exploit, or a brute force password attempt

or a totally new and ingenius way was discovered to hack into the account,

only the last displays real talent

Wouldn't what he's suggesting that Facebook do constitute a violatoin of SEC regulations regarding public offering of stock any way?

Well, actually, its a matter of what you consider criminal. And there are different levels of criminals... If this person can hack Zucks page, how vulnerable is everyone on facebook? I think its actually really important that zuck take this seriously, and it really shows how open the code is - and yes, if you are going to brag about security ( as facebook has been) you'd better be able to NOT let something like this happen, or face the opportunity when it does to take advantage of it, make lemons out of lemonade and figure out how to strenghten your code.

I think there is a distinct difference between hacking a facebook page, which may or may not require stealing inforamtion (I don't know, I"m not a hacker) and stealing my information money and using it somewhere - that's stealing and identity theft. If someone hacked my site and told me about it, I'd be pissed, but I'd also know that hey, I have to fix the damn site. IF they took my site down (as happenned) I would be pissed but hey, whose fault IS THAT - I need better site security, clearly, because if they can get in, then my customers are at risk - same as facebook info.


And some of the best IT places in the world use former hackers to expose security vulnerabilities - sometimes you have to go OUTSIDE to get INSIDE.

note: I am not endorsing hackers - I hate the pain that they cause, but I do understand them, I think, and know that there are ALWAYS going to be people who do this - most are far more malicious than the zuckerberg incident, and I am NOT suggesting that those are good things. That said, I think some hacking IS cool and can be a force for good, just like I think illegal ham radio operators (like radio caroline) were cool.

And you know what - I think there is a business opportunity here - is there hacker kid i can hire to try and hack my site proactively, before the nasty people do it? Doesnt zuck do that? Shouldnt he? He must.

OH and i meant the hacker was right about asking the social community to invest in the site. He might have just sent an email, tho! :)

hackers are criminal. It's not cool of any kind.

You may think it's a simple defacement. For people with 'real' websites, being hacked can cause days of downtime and thousands of $'s in hard costs at a minimum.

If you're in the camp that hacking shouldn't be illegal, why don't you offer to pay the consulting bill I had to pay last time one of my sites got hacked?

Geesh, that's like saying if I graffiti spray paint and an obscene message all over your store front but don't steal anything, well, no harm done.

And I'm not the only one that feels that way. Most lawmakers in most countries seem to feel that way too. That's why there's laws against this kind hacking. It's against the law for a reason. I hope they make an example out of the guy, send him to prison for a long long time.

hackers are criminal. It's not cool of any kind.

This is outright wrong. There are a lot of "white hat" hackers who find exploits and report them rather than exploit them.

Perhaps you are using the term hacker as someone who actually does exploit vulnerabilities that they find, but the guys who hack away at security only to report the exploits are still hackers but not criminals.

Hi Wheel - As i said, I don not agree with malicious and damaging hacking, nor do i endorse it.

I have a 'real website', and I have been hacked. Thatis not cool. In august, I went down for 2 weeks - it cost me about 30,000 dollars in 'real' income.

I think you are not reading what I am saying - I think there are different types of hacking - there are malacious hackers who set out to do harm, and their are hackers who like to investigate code and mess with it - but not illegally or to do harm. I do not think it's cool to hack into someones space - but I do agree with what HE STATES. I am not saying that what the facebook guy did was RIGHT, I am saying that I agree with HIS MESSAGE. READ MY WORDS> I AGREE WITH THE FACT THAT HE SUGGESTS THAT ZUCKERBERG SHOULD GO TO HIS AUDIENCE TO GET FUNDING OR TO ALLOW HIS AUDIENCE TO BUY IN TO FACEBOOK!


If you spraypaint my store with an obscene message, you have defaced private property and alienated customers. I don't think this hacker did either of those. Nevertheless, he should not have invaded someone elses space.

Hands up if you know of someone who's been hacked.

/wave

Expect no privacy or security on Facebook, if you absolutely need them shut down your account AFTER deleting everything on it.

[edited by: Sgt_Kickaxe at 8:47 pm (utc) on Jan 26, 2011]

Oh, but I have a 'hacker' cousin, and he has taken code and reworked it and reposted the code and that was cool. It was opensource, and it was free. He is still a hacker, in my mind.

/wave

Perhaps if the hacker had spent more time building his own projects instead of hacking into others, he might have something worthy of a "social investment".

Hi Wheel - As i said, I don not agree with malicious and damaging hacking, nor do i endorse it.

No, but you seem to be saying that this hacker wasn't the malicious type.

Exploiting someone's security, even if it's facebook's, for any reason is wrong and illegal in most countries. I don't give two toots about their motivation.

Interesting coverage by the Guardian, nice to see an SEO outfit getting 2 links from the article.

[guardian.co.uk...]

- Hack linked at an edited version of a wiki page
- IP of wiki edit points to a DoD building in Williamsburg, U.S.
- A spammy link in the unique wiki excerpt pointing to an SEO company

And to boot the SEO chap has a history in the military. It'll be interesting to see how this pans out and what happened, I just hope it wasn't an elaborate ploy for link-bait :o)

Facebook Blames A Bug For Allowing The Cryptic Message To Appear On Zuckerberg's Page [bbc.co.uk]

Facebook has said "a bug" was to blame for an odd posting purporting to come from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Initially Facebook would not comment but it has since issued a statement: "A bug enabled status postings by unauthorised people on a handful of pages, The bug has been fixed," the statement read.

"It was a handful of public Facebook pages and no personal user accounts were affected," it added.

Pesky bugs, eh!

I actually don't think it's that dumb.

I agree, the idea of Facebook funding itself using it's unprecedented user base is a good one. I suppose the question then becomes how much say (or the appearance of a say) you give those supporters in return, but in any case it's a good thought.

if zuckerberg doesnt hire him

Zuckerberg probably would hire him. Brin and Page would consider it too.

You won't see a lot of support for the concept here, where the average user is a bit older and not a serious coder, but at the young-centric companies that are ruling the net these days, hacking is a good thing.

Of course there are different connotations of the word hack, but among coders (and the founders of nearly all the uber successful web empires were/are coders) all but the most malicious of hacking is looked upon with a certain amount of fondness.

This is the prevailing perspective on hacking among ITechies, even if it's not well represented here at WW.

At Facebook they call themselves hackers. The word "hack" is featured prominently on the wall. Zuckerberg himself is a hacker, both white and black hat. In fact it's that mentality that is at least partially responsible for Facebook remaining under his control. He still loves the experience of doing something cool with a computer.

So if I "hacked" into your online bank account and then sent you an email on how you should be spending your money you'd be ok with that?

Absolutely! If my bank account is going to be hacked, I would consider it Christmas if the hacker did it to point out a vulnerability instead of steal money. They could send me an email detailing the fictitious sexual history of my mother and I would still be more grateful than pissed. :-)

And the bank's position should be the same.

The idea that all hacking is a terrible crime simply makes things easier for malicious hackers. If people are going to jail for relatively harmless pranks, which do a beautiful job of pointing out flaws as a side benefit, then less people are going to do it.

Leaving those flaws to be discovered by someone that wants to do real damage.

perhaps I am jaded, but sounds like facebook is testing the waters for going public