In one of the even more absurd cases: According to an AP report (cited in Slashdot), Intentia International has filed criminal charges against Reuters PLC, alleging that the news service illegally obtained an earnings report that the company had not yet released, by guessing the URL at which it had been posted on Intentia’s public web site. Intentia claims that the report was “not available through normal channels,” according to AP. (Also see Financial Times and CNET News.com reports.) DES
I was once accused of hacking at a former job. I used File Explorer to log into a remote system and look at files of a program we were troubleshooting, while they were logged into the desktop remotely. In those days, Windows only allowed 1 connection (plus console, but that’s another story), so when I started describing the file structure, they got all quiet. Then they asked how I could see that, which I explained I just used File Explorer. They didn’t know how I could use Explorer (they didn’t know the difference between File and Internet Explorer) to access the server, so obviously I must be hacking. I explained how I was just looking at the files, and if that’s really relevent as the software was currently broken and we were trying to fix it for them. They insisted that I stop hacking their servers. So I had to spend the rest of the session asking them to describe the file structure over the phone so I could troubleshoot their software.
You’d think this was at some podunk little company…but no, this was a multi-billion dollar oil company in Texas. Never overestimate the abilities of someone just because they work for a large company.
Peter principle. Everyone rises up to the exact level of their incompetence. The vast majority of people have no fucking clue of what they’re doing, and at best they’re taking educated guesses.
