"Hacker" Claims Responsibility For Taco Bell Vita Fiasco

[squid5580]

See, I never understood that. Why stick your head above the parapet and shout "I did it!"? Way to draw attention and a curb stomp on your arse.

Because he is a Taco Bell employee scapegoat posting to take the fall and cover up the screw up.

 

[Andy Chalk]

Hacking and using a bot are not, and never will be the same thing. Please look up an appropriate term instead of using a grossly inappropriate one.You might as well replace the word Hacker with rapist because it would be literally just as accurate.

First, if you were a little less eager to publicly froth you might notice that "hacker" is in quotes. Second, your "rapist" comparison is idiotic. The fact that its use in this context doesn't fit whatever narrow definition you think gives it legitimacy or coolness doesn't render it entirely invalid.

 

[Roander]

Going by the Kotaku article it sounds like all his bot did was cycle through entry codes trying to find the winning ones. That does nothing to explain why any legitimate entries would have gotten false positives unless they were just marking every xth entry attempt as a winner.

 

[The Human Torch]

Coming out and saying that you did it, is about as stupid as posting photo's of yourself on Facebook with loot that you stole during a riot.

These "hacker" (and I use the term loosely) idiots just can't stop bragging. Well, he is in a whole lotta trouble now.

 

[Otaku World Order]

As punishment, the hacker will be forced to eat three meals a day from the Taco Bell value menu.

 

[Atary77]

Today on World's Dumbest...

 

[Zeren]

Taco Bell will always win in the end.

 

[viranimus]

Hacking and using a bot are not, and never will be the same thing. Please look up an appropriate term instead of using a grossly inappropriate one.You might as well replace the word Hacker with rapist because it would be literally just as accurate.

First, if you were a little less eager to publicly froth you might notice that "hacker" is in quotes. Second, your "rapist" comparison is idiotic. The fact that its use in this context doesn't fit whatever narrow definition you think gives it legitimacy or coolness doesn't render it entirely invalid.

Actually, yes I did notice the quotations. On that end I did applaud (personally) that attempt as it was a big improvement. Under normal circumstances that might let it slide. However with a word that is so consistently incorrectly used in one location, and the fact you have evidence even within the thread of the negative impact of using the wrong word trumps the validity of quotation marks.


I do agree that the word rapist was over the top. The point was simply to illustrate how using the wrong word creates negative public reaction and Rapist is one of those words that comes to mind that consistently people will automatically look negatively on. It might have been a more measured response to use the word Therapist instead of rapist, but as you see, therapist is not a word that automatically has a negative connotation to it. However due to repeated misapplication of the word hacker to anything negative that happens with a computer, it has fostered only the negative perception of hackers. So I apologize for using a harsh word, I was simply trying to use a word that has a similar level of negative connotation and use a word that has absolutely no defined link to the other word.


I must disagree with your second point. Its not a narrow definition. It is THE definition. Its not about what I think is legit or cool to use, its about what the word means and more to the point how using the word wrong confuses the reader and gives them an incorrect definition of the term that they will perpetuate the incorrect usage of the term.

Spoiler: Definitions

Hacker = Someone who forcibly alters something to make it do what it was never intended to do. Example: Every action tv trope you've seen that has someone infiltrating the enemy base. At some point they will encounter an impasse like a security door. A hacker would be the one who grabs the nearby panel, rips it off, and reprograms it to allow the door to be opened with no security credentials at all.

Cracker = Someone who works within a system to obtain security credentials they are not supposed to have access to. Again in the action TV trope scenario, the Cracker when faced with the security door impasse is the one who will find a local guard, knock them out and use their biometric profile to gain access or takes someones key card to gain entry.

Social Engineering = This is when someone works within the confines of a system, but manipulates the ignorance of people to get beyond the impasse. This is usually shown in our Action tv trope scenario when someone dresses as say a faceless mook, or unknown general to get past the impasse, usually having someone else use their credentials to allow them in.

There are more examples of words made to illustrate this type of deception, but these are likely the most relevant.

In this case as it relates to the Taco Bell Contest, Social engineering fits best. The individual used a basic bot program to inundate the contest with false entries and by doing so they manipulated the people controlling the system of the contest into giving his falsified entry validity and thus physically shipped the device out That is a case of social engineering. However, there is also a level of code cracking involved with this because in order to submit the falsified entries, the entries would have to bear the valid key codes. So this individual likely used a key generator to compile a list of viable submission codes, and then attached those codes to the bot army. However code cracking and social engineering via tactical DDoS attack at no point change the system being used. A hacker in this instance would have reprogrammed the entire server to allow access to even the admin side so that they would be able to assign winners. Not simply working within the system to obtain the desired results. In short a hacker would have won ALL the vitas (or at least as many as they wanted).

I DO get it. Its not practical to change the headline to read "Code cracking social engineer claims responsibility for Vita fiasco" But by that same measure it is not logical to use a term simply because it rolls off the tongue better even though it does not accurately fit what happened.

I am far from frothing. While I likely am exhibiting what might be called definition nazism, there is no vile or venom involved. Its all about using words and labels responsibly because misuse of the word hacker is applying a negative connotation to that word that should not be there.

I still assert the same point. It is the responsibility of the person writing a news article to not color perceptions in what they write. If the reader makes that connection that is unavoidable. However it is irresponsible if the author makes that connection for them.

I have expressed my opinion on the subject, I have done all I can in this instance to try to keep the undeserved negative connotation to be applied to a term that is not even really involved in this topic. Nothing else I can say at this point will change the existing topic, but it is my sincere hope that what I have said helps others to speak more responsibly and might undo some of the undeserved hatred toward hackers anytime Anon does basically anything or Some major corporation gets digitally infiltrated.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

Anonymous hacker claims are meaningless, Taco Bell should be forced to honor all of these winners and such.

Agreed, but at least now Taco Bell knows who to sue over this. Granted they won't be able to recoup the losses from him because he's probably a worthless shit with no value to his name, but they can probably slap him with jail time or some-such to send a "don't fuck with our contests" message.

 

[obisean]

Andy, who said that last line? I want to say you are quoting someone else, but I can't find an original author.

 

[chronobreak]

As I am in the forefront of this fiasco, I can say that we are going to find this guy. We (the people in the faceboo group) are the ones who caught him and handed him and some other over to Taco Bell, and are leaving it up to them to deal with him for now. This whole thing is very far from over, and we will get our Vitas, no matter how hard we have to fight.

 

[ElPatron]

I don't know who is the lower form of scum.
The piece of shit who "hacked" the competition, or the ignorant dickheads congratulating him on a job well done.

Some people seem too eager to take the side of the thieves, (...), hackers and various other cyber criminals these days. It sickens me.

Rule of Cool, Hack the Planet, Stick it to "The Man", Row Row Fight Da Powah!.

Basically I summed up everything. Vandalism and grafitti tagging in general are prime examples of this.

I'd far rather have to deal with one guy determined to exploit the system than a system that's determined to exploit everybody.

You actually expect Taco Bell to be "civilized"? No. "Nothing of value was lost". He ***** slapped a giant.

See, I never understood that. Why stick your head above the parapet and shout "I did it!"? Way to draw attention and a curb stomp on your arse.

Why did Osama claim Al Qaeda was responsible for the 9/11 when someone else could take the blame?

Why do rappers claim they were gangsters who were involved in robbery and shootouts?

 

[Starke]

Andy, who said that last line? I want to say you are quoting someone else, but I can't find an original author.

He did. It reminds me of a quote, maybe Mark Twain or an eighteenth century political philosopher, but I think the actual phrasing is new.