July 7th, 2010

Crackpots in computer security: The neighbors are looking at me weird

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

The security team gets all sorts of email to report security issues. Nearly 200,000 each year. And of course the reports vary in quality greatly. The ones I’m fascinated by are the crackpots.

Subject:  IMMEDIATE THREAT AND NW INTRUSION, SAME AS FRIDAY MM/DD/YY, TOWN NAME YR SOFTW STOPPEDM SOME BUT ACCESS IS STILL THEREN 1000 YD FROM MY HOUSE
Importance:  High

IMMEDIATE HELP NEEDED, PHONES  PHONE NUMBERS DELETED, EM XXXXXXXX@ GMAIL,HOTMAIL,LIVE,AOL.YAHOO. IM ALMOST POSITIVE HE IS USING BLUETOOTH.  BUT HE CAN INTRUDE AT WILL. HE COULD  BE VERY DANGEROUS. LAST FRIDAY YOUR DEPT HAS GPS SEARCHING, BUT THE HACKER CUT US OFF. THEN TRASHED 4 OF MY PCS.PLEASE ON CONTACT ME IMMEDEDIATLY, LOOK IN THE RECORDS.  HE MAY BE IN MY AREA, THE NEIGHB ORS ARE LOOKING AT ME WEIRD, AS THIS CANT BE DONE.  im NOT ON DRUGS.  JUST CONTACT ME. NAME AND ADDRESS DELETED

Capitalization is preserved from the original, but identifying information has been deleted.

It’s possible that he’s actually onto something. After all, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.

Category
Old New Thing
Topics
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Author

Raymond Chen

Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

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