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Speaker: The great New Zealand phone hacking scandal

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  • Ross Mason,

    They then built a huge infrastructure to brute force their way into the keys.

    And is the traditional classification of them as geniuses influenced by them being on the Right Side?

    Just remember all they had were a few relays and glass valves hooked up capable of a few hundred cycles per second. The ultimate in machine code programmng?? Oh...and the odd guy with names like von Neumann. And if you were really really good at cryptic crosswords you were in as a "calculator",

    A Calculator in those days was 99.999% a girl who did paper calculations of one piece of an algoritm..

    Upper Hutt • Since Jun 2007 • 1590 posts Report Reply

  • Ross Mason,

    Gaaaa....Alan Turing!!!!!

    Not von Neumann!!

    Bletchley Park Ok.. 80% were women.

    Upper Hutt • Since Jun 2007 • 1590 posts Report Reply

  • Sean Murgatroyd, in reply to Ross Mason,

    Essentially, if we're talking about "one girl with one piece of an algorithm" as being a unit in the "calculator"... aren't we talking about crowdsourcing accurate computational outcomes?

    This is where genius lies.

    New Zealand • Since Apr 2011 • 18 posts Report Reply

  • merc,

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing
    Turing's homosexuality resulted in a criminal prosecution in 1952, when homosexual acts were still illegal in the United Kingdom. He accepted treatment with female hormones (chemical castration) as an alternative to prison.

    Since Dec 2006 • 2471 posts Report Reply

  • Islander, in reply to merc,

    Didnt he also commit suicide afterwards?
    Aue, waste of a genius-

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • merc,

    Reported as suicide, there was recently a biography written. I mean, suicide by cyanide delivered in an apple, and the apple was not tested for traces of cyanide?

    Since Dec 2006 • 2471 posts Report Reply

  • Islander, in reply to merc,

    Innterrresssting....

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • nic.wise, in reply to Rich of Observationz,

    I would say Bletchly Park people were a combination of both - some geniuses breaking codes and building machines, some script kiddies using the tools created to do the breaking.

    Ok, I'd say there were a bit smarter than script kiddies see days, but I suspect there migt have been two tiers of people there (or more - I went there s year or so ago, it's very interesting)

    they were definitely on the right side of history.

    While I agree that some hackers - Charlie ___ who tends to kick arse at the p0wn2own thing comes to mind - are brilliant and know their field well, most are not. We* got anonymous'ed the other week. Amywinehouse.com and a few others got defaced, and some user data nicked.

    How did they get in? User: admin. Password: admin (or the name of the designer, which was also at the bottom of the homepage. ). Stupid human error stuff. And the user info was a backup left in the web-readable folder. That's not hacking, any more than it is lock picking if i leave the key under the matt.

    Humans are always the weakest link. Especially nontechnical ones.

    * I'm on contract to universal music in the UK. It wasn't my team's stuff which got done, but it was the same (mega sized) company.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 87 posts Report Reply

  • Steve Barnes,

    Peria • Since Dec 2006 • 5521 posts Report Reply

  • Steve Barnes,

    Peria • Since Dec 2006 • 5521 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Dalziel,

    *Eraser Head?**

    ....then did the dealing on his kid's Etch-E-Sketch. Two swipes and it's all gone.

    or was it more it takes a swiper to ketch a thief ...


    speaking of phreaks...

    ...one piece of an algoritm.

    ...but I suspect there migt have been...

    I'm worried that Michael Laws is hacking PAS
    and dropping random aitches...
    it's like someone removing the goal posts...

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • stever@cs.waikato.ac.nz,

    Bletchley Park's website (how things have changed! It was a secret place until fairly recently!)

    http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/

    I guess if you think that the stored-program, digital, electronic computer is a good thing ( :-) ), then you will think that the people and the work that they did is a good thing, since Turing's, Newman's, Flower's etc. work led to where we are today, as a side effect, in a sense, of the code breaking work and the techniques and hardware developed to support it.

    Oh! And it's the centenary of Turing's birth next year---BIG celebrations are planned around the world:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing_Year

    Hamilton • Since Nov 2006 • 73 posts Report Reply

  • Christopher Dempsey, in reply to merc,

    Reported as suicide, there was recently a biography written. I mean, suicide by cyanide delivered in an apple, and the apple was not tested for traces of cyanide?

    Indeed there was a biography, which I picked up a few years ago. Interesting to read if one skips over the mathmatical bits. Who knew; brilliant homosexual saves the day?

    Unfortunately his sexuality came into conflict with the 'morals' of the day and indeed underwent chemical castration. Not surprisingly he killed himself by eating an apple laced with cyanide. This was a mirror image of Snow White who was 'put to sleep' eating an apple (read the biography). Apple apparently continue to deny that their logo has anything to do with the image of Turing's mode of death, but one wonders.

    Parnell / Tamaki-Auckland… • Since Sep 2008 • 659 posts Report Reply

  • merc,

    I recall a reference made also to Socrates and Maria Prophetissa being forced to suicide by the State.

    Since Dec 2006 • 2471 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha, in reply to Christopher Dempsey,

    Apple apparently continue to deny that their logo has anything to do with the image of Turing's mode of death, but one wonders.

    Now there's an image that's sticking. Wow.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

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