Breaking Into Other People's Devices Without Authorisation Isn't "Funny" or "Research"
“Chaos was the law of nature; order was the dream of man.” -Henry Adams
The person whom we sued last summer [1, 2] wrote in his own blog: "I managed to borrow a couple of USB ethernet adapters, set up a transparent bridge (brctl addbr br0; brctl addif br0 enp0s20f0u1; brctl addif br0 enp0s20f0u2; ifconfig br0 up) and then stuck my laptop between the tablet and the wall. tcpdump -i br0 showed traffic, and wireshark revealed that it was Modbus over TCP. Modbus is a pretty trivial protocol, and notably has no authentication whatsoever. tcpdump showed that traffic was being sent to 172.16.207.14, and pymodbus let me start controlling my lights, turning the TV on and off and even making my curtains open and close. What fun! [...] It's basically as bad as it could be - once I'd figured out the gateway, I could access the control systems on every floor and query other rooms to figure out whether the lights were on or not, which strongly implies that I could control them as well. Jesus Molina talked about doing this kind of thing a couple of years ago, so it's not some kind of one-off - instead, hotels are happily deploying systems with no meaningful security, and the outcome of sending a constant stream of "Set room lights to full" and "Open curtain" commands at 3AM seems fairly predictable."
So he's basically getting (or 'helping himself' to) unauthorised access to hotel property without informing the hotel. He then boasts he could do the same in other rooms inside the same hotel.
Most people, myself included, would simply not do this. We would not try to, either (technically it's not difficult; he's just raving about using some Swiss knives like network utilities, which he merely uses, not develops*). We'd certainly not write about this in public (same for wanting to stab colleagues and punch people who speak in low-security public events).
Then again, most people are considered relatively normal. Conformist people and normative people isn't the same thing; you can be nonconformist and still not do dumb things (and say dumb things). Not every nonconformist person tries to serve monopolists for personal gain. The freedom/resistance fighter RMS is nonconformist; but he didn't break into machines, unlike Bill Gates. Instead, RMS wanted to emancipate computer users by protesting against passwords (where there was no pragmatic need for them).
Then they talk about breaking into scooters that are not theirs:
Well, my wife wrote about it in 2023. She was hardly impressed by that "talk". Women in Debian are similarly concerned.
This morning when we sat for several hours at the coffee shop (lots of Liverpool FC fans abound today because of the Premier League parade) we saw a lady that wore a short which said in very large prints: "I'm clearly insane". Not kidding, that's what it said. It's like she's boasting about it. She actually bought a shirt like this. What did her partner/spouse think?
And speaking of wives, it must be embarrassing when your spouse posts things like these to the whole public:
That's the spouse (or former spouse, as he keeps talking about a "girlfriend" this month).
"DO CRIMES" is a meme (relating to the Stonewall Riots)... but this person wears it in public and even boasts about wearing this apparel in social control media (Twitter):
By the way, that account was deleted not too long ago. Who knows why... clue here?
We'll try not to name anyone here; it's nothing personal. It's just the way some people think. Then they marry. A matrimony based on "Bad Boy" mentality.
Anyway, when you think you're just above the law (or somehow entitled to do anything you want) and then project that sentiment to other people perhaps it's time for a projection test. The above person pretty much vanished or went offline, presenting oneself as self-employed without any presence to suggest any gainful activity (except playing Zelda). We didn't name or show this person because the only relevance here is the spousal relationship and attitudinal inclinations: Jacob Appelbaum character assassination was pushed from the White House
When people say stuff like "ACAB" I am worried (being sceptical of police powers isn't the same as calling all cops "bastards", which is what many convicts like to do). Some self-professed anarchists take "the law" into their own hands and try using/leveraging social control media mobs (brigading) instead of simply filing a report with the police. That's when we deal with a sort of vigilante culture egging on people to assault (e.g. punch) other people. We don't want that. We want judges to deal with laws based on tact and due process, not platforms run by head-chopping radicals and people who literally do nazi salutes (maybe that appeals to the "Cancel Culture" crowd). Because they believe Hitler was right and want his mission to resume.
John Locke once said: “The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings capable of law, where there is no law, there is no freedom.”
People who encourage lawlessness and anarchism aren't proponents of freedom. They're typically promoting something else. Immanuel Kant said: “In law a man is guilty when he violates the rights of others. In ethics he is guilty if he only thinks of doing so.”
Like punching people you don't agree with? Or wanting to stab people you work with?
In my own experience (Manchester only [1, 2]) the police is too soft, not too tough. But to their credit, they sent out cops to collect evidence and testimonies. They also phoned us with followups and updates; we were in regular contact between 2023 and 2025.
In my personal life, based on my interactions with people, people who do not fancy law enforcement typically just dislike laws. Or break laws. It's probably very different outside Manchester (where the cops are considered a lot less violent than the Met down in London). █
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* No sign of any (public) development activity for over 6 months, not even a blog post for over 2 months already.