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Death by Google Calendar
Posted by
Hemos
on Mon Sep 04, 2006 09:17 AM
from the Dial-G-for-Murder dept.
from the Dial-G-for-Murder dept.
the_harlequin writes "Ok, so the title is a little extreme, but it's a possibility. The link gives an example of how easy it is to obtain information about someone who uses Google Calendar, and is unaware of what they're allowing the world to see."
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Easy problem to solve. (Score:5, Funny)
That's entirely unnecessary. (Score:2, Insightful)
This person isn't hacking google, he's simply viewing public calendars. If your calendar isn't public, there's no problem.
Check TFA.
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I always know I can rely on Slashdot to lift my spirits with the crazy, unpredictable observations of the web's finest aspiring humorists.
An extra special thanks to TFA for driving home the ancient bloody obvious while helping the less informed among us to live in fear. Not enough people live in fear these days or structure their lifestyles around paranoid stalker fantasies! If only more folks would tune
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Meanwhile, the article IMO misses an important point, that all this information is stored somewhere, and that in and of itself is a liability.
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1) Write a Blog entry detailing how I can "hack" a website by typing in the URL of said website and viewing publ....erm...."private" web content.
2) Place Adsense on said blog
3) Submit article showing this ultra-cool top secret hack to Slashdot.
4) Slashdot's monkeys begin the review process
5) ?????
6) PROFIT!!!
Did we really need a front page story telling how if you post your friggin calendar information on an internet service, an
Re:Easy problem to solve. (Score:5, Funny)
But you shouldn't need to worry about money you lose, as 99 out of 100 common burglars don't know jack about teh Intarnet and will visit you anyway, at night if you are away or not. And that's where the hairy part begins and those firearm lessons will come in extremely handy. A burglar in the same house with you, your wife/husband/partner, and kids and grandma and the family dog, is something totally entirely different. Your children may come out unharmed if you bend over and spread, but your dog is either large enough or toast. Think of the dogs, please.
First: put an NRA sticker on your car, if you like and can stand being looked-down-on occasionally. Second: pretend to be interested in guns and order a for-free gun catalogue from somewhere. The resulting self-defense-centered bulk mail you receive might make an impression sometimes. Third: obtain empty rifle and handgun shells and disperse them liberally around your outside property. Not too much, you are no dangerous neighbor, remember. But two or three empty cartridges will make a bold impression on people in the violent businesses. Criminals want easy prey or easy opportunities, otherwise they'd be in the Rat Race like you and me, by the way. And any criminal who sees a clue on a potentially gun-hoarding, concealed-carrying, full-auto-skilled, hard-hitting, M249SAW-under-the-pillow-hiding expert-marksmanly Redneck will wait at least until the house is empty. In which case it's just property damage, again. Not unless you have a vulgar display of wealth in the middle of Somalia...
Parent
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You could hide yourself, drive that old rustbucket until it falls apart and build a modest house with all goodies strictly indoors in the basement. You could adapt to the constant threat of crime all around you and keep a low profile, pre-emptively forfeiting your self-determination. Or you could vote fo
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Merely monetary damage? Huh? Which kidnappings are you reading about? A significant percentage of abducted kids are sexually abused and/or killed. Does anybody even kidnap for ransom anymore, outside of third-world countries? Seems to me that the
Re:Easy problem to solve. (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Bah (Score:5, Insightful)
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now that information is available about a large sample of people without
so much as leaving your house.
-~
Huh? (Score:2)
It should be "Hey, you know, if you publish all your day tasks with all the information, I can use it it for something"
It nothing new. It's just as if a eleven-years-old published his home address in some website - it's known to be done, it's stupid, and the eleven year old is responsible for it.
Same here. If you publish everything, it mean I can see everything, and I can use everything. Duh.
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Perhaps you mean, the eleven-year-old's parents are responsible for allowing the eleven-year-old to use the Internet unsupervised without first educating the child about basic safety rules.
You shouldn't let your children play in a public park without first teaching them not to take candy from strangers...
so should we expect a slew of new crime? (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know the answer to, "should we expect more crime?" because of the internet. There are stories in the news about molesters and the internet, but is the internet merely a different avenue for crime? Or does it open floodgates for increased crime?
I don't know that I've seen overwhelming evidence the crime rates have surged -- makes me wonder, is there some expected value for crime rates, regardless of the mechanism? This would make for an interesting study -- to date what I've seen is mostly anecdotal.
The example cited in the article is interesting, but I wonder that it really changes tactics -- a thief, a burglar, usually works on opportunity, and someone's calendar is as reliable in determining what a "household" is doing as the person maintaining that calendar.... My experience has been people maintaining calendars accurately, not so much.
On the uncertainty alone, a criminal would still have to case a target on the chance a calendar entry was inaccurate, an event was canceled but not taken off the calendar, etc.
Credit to the author for giving instructions to make Google calendars private -- an option with which I strongly agree...
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Besides, now I don't have to leave my mom's basement^H^H^H my house anymore for anything other than food! I'm much safer this way, right?
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The great thing about Internet crime is that you don't have to even set foot outside the house. In the bad old days of analogue crime you had to go rummaging through hotel dustbins and the like in order to steal somone's identity. Or, you had to go along to a fleamarket with your knock-off dodgy goods and risk the long arm of the law nabbin
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I do, there'll be less random crime 'cause of the better intelligence.
Modern internet enabled crime will be properly targetted, just the way the Il Capo di Capi always wanted it.
The trigger happy Slashdotters that recommend fake or real indications of arms in the house will be pleased to note that your local criminal is thankful for the warning and bring his own armor.
Eh, unnecessary... (Score:5, Insightful)
Furthermore, in the real world, this is very likely rediculous. If I'm a criminal, what are the chances that I'm going to find someone in my area that uses google calendar on a regular basis, AND has a trip or event planned with specific times that tell me when they're going to be out of the house.
If I were trying to steal something, it would be much easier to just get in my car, cruise around, find a house that looks empty, bump/pick the lock, walk in, and take stuff.
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The chances keep getting greater and greater. As the article said, not only GOOGLE calendars but all other information pusblishing page. I find interesting how easly people share their personal information via webpages. Even s
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1) They probably have a computer. That they are using Google Calendar means that they are probably
2) They use it to plan
Also, try logging into Google Calendar and searching for whatever city you live in. For me, Houston, TX showed a bunch of people, many with full names and travel/event schedules that they pl
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But you're right. I hadn't fully considered the implications for large cities.
pool party? (Score:5, Funny)
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After some more research on Daisy's identity, I dediced I pass: http://www.tubgirl.com/ [tubgirl.com]
Of course... (Score:4, Insightful)
By default the caldendar is unshared, so the fault is in the end user.
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Death by FUD (Score:2)
Voluntarily and explicitly choosing to reveal data to the world isn't a security hole. Being aware of what you say and who you say it to is part of a person's personal responsibility whether they're talking on teh phone in a public place or blogging while on vacation, telling the world what a great time they're having thousands
bah (Score:3, Insightful)
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That is just incredible... They're no better than those pirates downloading MP3s... Helping terrorists spread in our beloved countries!!! Even worse! funding their movement!!!
We should killl them all.
X
Lotus Notes Too (Score:4, Funny)
...utterly stupid that people display their lives (Score:5, Funny)
Such as a blog?
Re:...utterly stupid that people display their liv (Score:2, Funny)
obligatory... (Score:3, Insightful)
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Single? (Score:4, Interesting)
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House mates are clearly possible, but her calendar never mentions any partner like it would if she was married or living with a partner.
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But what if she is a closeted lesbian, and that's why she doesn't mention her partner?
then if you die via google calendar.. (Score:4, Funny)
Utterly Uninteresting (Score:5, Insightful)
This is, to me, akin to the old scare about putting your phone number online.
Do any of you remember? The attitude of the 1990's was: Oh My God Jesus Christ, That Man Has His Phone Number Online! Somebody stop that man, he's a menace to himself, and to Society!
Then I read something Philip Greenspun wrote, where he said: (A) I have X,000,000 gajillion hits on my site per day. (B) My cell phone number is featured prominantly on my website. (C) I have only once received a phone call that was unwelcome, but I have far more many times received phone calls that I wanted (due to the posting.)
Personally, I have never received the unwanted phone call.
I think people have a way of inflating plausible threats to themselves, [usemod.com] regardless of the actual risks. [snopes.com]
In the event (it has to actually happen several times!) that people start using Google Calendars to raid homes, and in the event that it's statistically significant as far as threats go, I will simply wire up my apartment with cams, hard drives, and redundant offsite storage.
There are many easier traditional ways (Score:3, Insightful)
My try:
1. Find some sports club with scheduled activities.
2. Follow home someone that looks like a young professional with a sports bag. You now know their address.
3. Next time that class is on, watch her or his house. If the person leave before the class begins, with their trusted sports bag, you know they are going to the gym. If the person switches off the lights, then you are set!
4. Break in and enjoy the goodies!
This is a lot easier, and you have a bigger chance of figuring out whether the person has anything worth stealing straight away. Fancy clothes is a give-away.
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Death by internet (Score:2)
It's amazing what people will make public. (Score:2)
What looks like a flight crew trip schedule
Various reservation details including a person's name, flight # or reservation number and date
I'd be more worried that a jokester friend would cancel my flight than someone breaking in; one did that to a friend going on a honeymoon (canceled the hotel as a joke)without realizing a convention was in town. Real funny.
Similar results can be had with other keywords. Some can be useful - I noticed some hotels put up eve
A dash of hypocrisy (Score:5, Funny)
"I find it utterly stupid that people display their lives online."
So I guess after "people" there is an implicit "(other than me)"?
Bloggers do it all the time. (Score:2)
And then get upset when their parents read their blogs or something...
Doh...
If you are a creature of habit (like most people), an attacker can know what time you are likely to be at home posting on slashdot/your blog etc. Just a simple sampling of the times you've posted will do.
But hey if you're going to target a physical house, you might as well just watch it first...
Sadly, the ones that SHOULD read that won't (Score:2)
People are very careless with their data. Why do you think we're losing more and more privacy and there's no public uproar about it? Got nothing to hide, got nothing to hide, right?
Well, this is where this attitude leads to.