

MIT's Saturday hoax incident - mikexstudios
https://gist.github.com/anonymous/5051617

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cschmidt
A more official looking source for the same information:

[http://techblogs.mit.edu/news/2013/02/letter-from-israel-
rui...](http://techblogs.mit.edu/news/2013/02/letter-from-israel-ruiz-mit-
executive-vp-and-treasurer-about-saturdays-hoax-incident/)

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noonespecial
This sounds a lot like swatting, a favorite of anonymous.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatting>

~~~
aaron695
I've never ever heard of Anonymous swatting so please feel free to post a
link??

~~~
Maxious
> Posted October 9, 2009

> Are you an enemy of Anonymous? If so, you’d better be sure to keep your home
> address closely guarded, lest you be targeted for a “swatting.”

[http://anonymouslegions.wordpress.com/2009/10/09/anonymous-s...](http://anonymouslegions.wordpress.com/2009/10/09/anonymous-
swatting-their-enemies/)

~~~
danielweber
Lots of other people have also taken to this tactic. SWAT teams have been sent
to an ADA's personal residences by someone forging a call from within the
house, as just one example.

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jurassic
> At 8:52 AM, a campus-wide alert was sent.

It took over an hour after the report of an armed gunman on campus for the
community to be notified? Even though it sounds like they were doing a great
job physically clearing buildings with armed security, a lockdown procedure
seems like a no-brainer. At ~7:30 most people are still in their dorms and it
would be easy to keep them there.

~~~
AdamTReineke
It was a Saturday, so I'd expect there weren't many people in campus buildings
anyway.

~~~
jpdoctor
> _It was a Saturday, so I'd expect there weren't many people in campus
> buildings anyway._

That's not the same MIT I remember.

~~~
Symmetry
Well, it'll be at a minimum at least. Grad students probably won't quite be in
yet, and for undergrads nothing is going to be due Saturday, so I wouldn't
expect too many people pulling all-nighters.

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jpwagner
This is just terrible.

Couldn't have been someone affiliated with the institute; MIT hacks are
creative and witty.

~~~
astrodust
MIT hacks are not supposed to be damaging in any way, at least according to
lore.

Source: _If At All Possible, Involve a Cow_
([http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/407327.If_at_All_Possible...](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/407327.If_at_All_Possible_Involve_a_Cow))

~~~
esrauch
If someone thought this was a fun idea to begin with, I could easily see that
same person seeing this as non-damaging.

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MichaelGG
"It's not a game" - no, but for the people calling in hoaxes, it can very well
be. The administration can't choose to stop responding. But the cost of
committing such a hoax is effectively zero - what's to stop the hoaxer from
calling in each day?

How do other police handle high volumes of hoax calls that aren't traceable
(i.e., aren't 911)?

~~~
eli
Abusing the TTY relay intended for the deaf is pretty much only as traceable
as an IP address, even if calling 911.

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jlrubin
The attacks on MIT are really unintelligent. MIT has some of the most
brilliant students and future/current tech leaders, who may have a large
impact on how information policy will be shaped. These attacks have only
served to alienate MIT students from the cause.

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achille
Can someone explain to me how is it possible that Sprint Relay is still
running completely free without any form of authentication?

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kevingadd
Relays are a necessity for letting the deaf engage with phone services.
Authentication would inevitably deny some deserving deaf people access to
those services, so it's not really an option.

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mrbill
I started reading and saw "A big gun" and "armor" and thought it was going to
turn into a normal MIT prank, with a guy wearing a metal suit of armor and
carrying a cardboard cannon.

Was displeased to learn it was an actual hoax and not a ha-ha-laugh prank.

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dreamdu5t
Can someone explain why this hoax call isn't traceable to the original caller
in anyway?

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corresation
The world phone system has virtual no security or legitimate traceability. It
is one gigantic cluster-f*.

~~~
pyre
So if I call the White House right now and made threats, there wouldn't be
black helicopters showing up outside? I find that hard to believe.

~~~
corresation
If you made a call from your AT&T home phone, sure. However there are
countless anonymous proxies that you can chain, and countless VOIP providers
(many free). Making anonymous, practically untraceable calls is not a
difficult thing.

