Zeeskite,are the mods lying?

Another common thing to look out for- many people will hide a key under the doormat or in the mail box. If I was a burglar, guess where the first 2 places are that I would look for a key? And those fake rocks they sell that hide keys? You typical burglar will scope out locksmith stores looking to see these gadgets so they can recognize them for what they are.

True story way back when in Israel- a certain yeshiva had doors that locked to prevent theft. Many bochurim stored keys on top of the door ledges so they wouldn’t have to carry them around. One yom kippur day, someone sneaks into the yeshiva, goes to the dorm, feels for the keys, and this bochur is now out 1200 shekel. Moral- don’t hide keys in obvious places.

As for actual details of the current case, they must remain secret until the indictment is unsealed, to make sure the guilty party’s only 2 choices are Otisville or Riker’s depending on the level of the felonies. Otisville has a minyan and Daf yomi (and a weekly Friday trip to the mikveh in the Catskills- if you are ever by the mikveh you can see them lined up in orange), and is less dangerous than Riker’s.

What actually happened to me once was that a certain infostealer somehow found out my real name, and made up a facebook name. I confirmed him as a friend but asked him “who are you”? My intention was to remove him in a day. Sure enough, I completely forgot to remove him until he tried connecting to another friend of mine, after which I removed him. So I know something about IT security, and I got nailed. How many of you confirm every facebook friend without thinking?

Now, let’s say you use your birthday or license plate # as a password, or a favorite character. Someone with access to your facebook page will soon know your likes, dislikes, favorite shows/movies, license plate (occasional photo of car), birthdays of spouses and kids, their names, etc. A good technique for your password is to mash 2 words together from the dictionary that have no relation to you, change a letter to a number and add in %%%in the middle to throw off brute force password crackers. The CIA assigns code names from random dictionary words unrelated to the project, to avoid easy guessing.

Haleivi, welcome back. Long time no see.

No comment on anything that did or did not happen. Seyag lechachma shtika.

But why is email worse than a telephone? threatening phone calls=harassment. Email is the same felony.

I pick things up because I work in IT security. I read articles on phishing and social engineering, and are therefore attuned to security-related things that others might miss. It’s the same way that a linguist might notice accents others might miss, and an economist might notice how economics plays into things we never would have guessed. Example of good social engineering- someone grabs a purse from a woman. He now has her wallet, phone, and her bank card. he sees a contact labeled “hubby”. He texts the victim’s husband: what’s the pin for the bank? He texts it back. Before anyone realizes, the bank account has been cleared out. yes, it actually happened.

Also, many people use things like birthdays, children, etc as passwords. If you find out enough info, you can connect the dots and do serious damage.

This social engineering trick happened in Brooklyn recently- may be on ywn from a while back- a guy goes around and says he’s from Con Ed. people open the door for him, he checks the meter and disappears a few other items before anyone realizes. 2 guys scammed much of Brooklyn this way.

So if I see criminal-looking activity, I point it out. I am doing a chessed for the rabbim and get attacked for it, sometimes from well-meaning people, sometimes from SN’s of one of the infostealers. Al menas kein. The CR deserves no less. I assume this will get better after the indictment.

Once the indictment is unsealed, people can relax their guard a bit.

If anyone has had unwanted email contact from any user in or have been harassed in any way by email, please click the “contact us” button above. Thank you. confidentiality assured.

And multiple people have said that more fire spotters are needed.

As my rebbe once said, no good deed goes unpunished. I am ruining the agendas of the infostealers, and am being targeted and harassed for this. Charlie Brown agrees with me, Kapusta agrees with me, 2scents agrees with me, multiple mods agree with me. BTguy, you’re the daas yochid here.

pba, you sound bitter.

BTguy,many people actually want to maintain a kesher with their yeshiva, as a moral anchor in an immoral world. The question is, what methods will work.

any yeshiva. I am specifically talking about yeshiva [redacted].