Sunday, March 14, 2010

No hacking Required

IPS B.S. got this e-mail this week.

Blogmaster,

There's a teacher I know who claims that they have successfully "hacked" into ips-bs, and they know the names/computer addresses of people who've made comments on your blog. This arrogant little twit also stated that she "couldn't say who wrote things," because obtaining that knowledge was "illegal."

Is it possible to do this? Twit claims she has a relative who's skilled at computer forensics. If this is true, and your site has been compromised, then what? I'm sure that the majority of the people who keep this blog going do so on the condition of anonymity.

If this is a real concern, something that can indeed be done, what can you do to help? I would gladly give you this person's name, just not through an e-mail.

Please respond to this e-mail if this could become a legitimate concern.


There has been no hacking of this cite. IPS B.S. doesn't do anything on company time or use company equipment. We don't like the administration, but we obey the rules. All comments are anonymous and will stay that way.

17 comments:

  1. As the blogmaster said, it is highly unlikely something like this has happened if nothing has been done outside of a home computer. Personal computers are hooked up to routers which are your personal ISP number. In order to hack into the account, the person would essentially have to have access to the blogmasters home computer or router (hacking into that). Hopefully the router is scrambled.
    However, if a poster on this blog has shared an outside link, their security may be compromised (but is equally as unlikely). By posting an outside link you are leaving footsteps from an unsecured location and you could be tracked. If someone really has this much time on their hands and really feels it is necessary to determine posters identities, then let them. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and at least IPSBS is a place to vent those opinions outside of the workplace.

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  2. I don't think people can figure out who you are even if they obtain your ISP address unless they have something else connecting your ISP address and name. But unless you use a scrambler, it is easy for anyone who knows source code to find all the posts posted by a single user. So if you've posted your identity on this blog, people can find all other posts you posted on this blog. It's also easy to tell when one person posts numerous times in a thread, pretending to be different people (which happens in virtually every thread on this blog). You don't have to "hack" a site to read the source code. You just have to right click the page and choose "view source code." But the posters who post the bad stuff (names, rumors, personal info, etc.) use scramblers, which does make it impossible to trace (unless you are CIA)

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  3. Even if they could hack into THIS site and get a report of each IP (Internet Protocol) address that visited, so what? I change mine daily or it changes whenn the lease is renewed. Besides, it still would be hard, with that info to link it to individuals. And even IF that happnened, so what again? I am in the privacy of my own home doing what I want to do, reading what I want to read. Somebody is making an empty threat, I think.

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  4. I seem to remember something in our constitution regarding the freedom of speech.

    Please ask this arrogant little twit to enter my grades.

    I have 25 kids, with 10 competencies/grade level/subskills/work habits to enter. That means I have to type more than 3000 keystrokes to do something that high school and middle school teachers could do with Scantron sheets and a #2 pencil 25 years ago.

    Yes, it's being done from my home computer on Sunday afternoon, since I don't have the time available during school hours (and, Dr. Bennett, if I only teach 6 hours a day, why do I leave home at 7 AM and return after 5?)

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  5. Scare tactic to try to control us!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  6. Copied and pasted: "I seem to remember something in our constitution regarding the freedom of speech.

    Please ask this arrogant little twit to enter my grades.

    I have 25 kids, with 10 competencies/grade level/subskills/work habits to enter. That means I have to type more than 3000 keystrokes to do something that high school and middle school teachers could do with Scantron sheets and a #2 pencil 25 years ago.

    Yes, it's being done from my home computer on Sunday afternoon, since I don't have the time available during school hours (and, Dr. Bennett, if I only teach 6 hours a day, why do I leave home at 7 AM and return after 5?)"


    As I read this. My question is this. Can I have 25 students? I know I am HS, but please. I have been working on 162 kids grades and entering them. My HS does not have a scantron for grading and we get pounded not to use multiple choice. So, lots of short answer, fill in the bland, and essay. They require reading.

    I to want to know what kind of teacher only works 6 hrs a day. I arrive at school daily around 6:30 and do not leave until after 6 or 7. Then go home have dinner and work more during the school year. Will not even discuss weekends. Sure sounds like a lot more hours than Bennet is giving me credit for.

    Maybe, I should be billing over-time to the district and Dr. Bennet if I am suppose to only be doing this in 6hrs a day and no weekends.

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  7. Heck, IPS computers are even immune to tracing stuff if a person uses their own 'cellular air card' which by passes the IPS server.

    I don't have a cellular air card, but lots if IPS employees do, and they use them daily to check their home email, etc.

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  8. Even if they could hack in, which I highly doubt, who cares.

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  9. You've gotta be kidding right??Given the competency of my past experience with IPS "technology" compared to the rest of the world this is laughable. While the rest of the world uses Microsoft Vista we are stuck with Microsoft 2003. We can't get palm pilots for Dibels to work correctly. We are in the stone age compared to most of the world with our ancient equipment.

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  10. 2003 refers to MS Office 2003 and Vista refers to an Operating System. And last time I checked, I had XP on my machine (as most IPS computers do)which I like better anyway and MS Office 2007.

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  11. Most, if not all, IPS computers run on XP; however, some admininistrators and Ed Center employees use MS Office 2007 which occasionally screws things up for the rest of us when these folks send Office 2007 created documents. Why doesn't IPS purchase site rights for Office 2007 for all of us?

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  12. That is a good question. But the only thing one has to do to make it work is download the compatibility pack from Windows update. Not that big of a deal in reality.

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  13. Why don't they give us computers that don't operate at the speed of molasses and don't sound like they are about to blast off into space? I'm lucky if a document prints out within an hour!

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  14. The laptops furnished to teachers at our school work well and rapidly. We no longer have our individual printers but there are several so you are never far from one and they print in a timely manner. Perhaps you need to talk to your principal about spending priorities in your building.

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  15. When are the rest of us getting our laptops? We were first told by Christmas, then by February, now I hear by the end of April. My goodness!!!

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  16. IPS students are expected to learn more with less technology in the classroom. Parents should be outraged at this segregation.

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  17. The stuff I've done to counter IPS pathetic technology...buy more memory, know an IUPUI student for free/cheap software and explore the depths of the iPhone, Blackberry and Droid. There is no way that anyone could know who is writing what, even if the IP addresses were available, as they are usually dynamic and not static. Plus, no entity has to remit identity of a specific IP address at a given time/date, unless served with a court order, warrant, etc.

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