• AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Most of us older computer nerds and coders certainly tried to hack Facebook back in the 00’s. To answer Grandma’s question, no, we cannot.

    • cbarrick@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Back in undergrad, before Facebook went HTTPS only, I would setup “free wifi” and steal people’s cookies for shits and giggles. Use the cookies to authenticate with FB and send random messages to people.

      Looking back, I probably shouldn’t have been doing that. Definitely illegal.

      • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        They were just barely starting to get serious about legislating cyber security, so you were only maybe breaking some laws. I remember in the 90’s it was a lawless land. There were no laws against hacking, or at least none that anyone understood, and most sites had terrible security. I gained access to someone’s Hotmail once just by trying “anon/anon” as a user/pass combo. I also used to gain access to e-commerce customer databases just by googling certain SQL strings. I’d poke around and then send the webmaster an email letting them know their site was vulnerable.

        • Sprokes@jlai.lu
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          10 months ago

          There isn’t a law against hacking but I am sure there are other applicable laws when you do harm while hacking.

          • chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            10 months ago

            There is, it’s called CFAA and is absurdly broad. Pretty much any time you

            knowingly accessed a computer without authorization

            it’s technically illegal.

            • kase@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              So you’re telling me every time I stole my sister’s phone and took goofy selfies with it?? Straight to jail???

              • chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                10 months ago

                Seems that way yeah. Naturally this sort of law is selectively enforced to nab whoever they have a problem with though so probably your sister doesn’t have the clout to bring you to justice.

      • SolarMech@slrpnk.net
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        10 months ago

        Looking back, I probably shouldn’t have been doing that. Definitely illegal.

        You know that stuff you post on lemmy is probably on databases everywhere for like, forever, right?

        • cbarrick@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          No one is going to press charges about me fucking around with their FB accounts 10 years ago.

        • gaael@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Who’s gonna press charges for the “hey mom, today I ate my poo” message they sent 10 years ago ?