Hackers targeting the Deaf

[Monty]

Not like anyone needs an extra reason to hate hackers*, but this is, as the article says, pretty base.

A Utah company whose video conferencing technology is used by tens of thousands of deaf people to communicate is trying to figure out who would be base enough to hack into their system and flood tens of thousands of deaf customers with fake conference calls.
Officials with Sorenson Communications say since October they have dealt with a plague of prank calls to its point-to-point video calling service. The company provides video conferencing calls to the deaf free of charge to allow deaf people to communicate via sign language to others.

I hope this part

The flood of fake calls has gotten to the point that Sorenson has filed a federal lawsuit against a list of unknown “John Does” in hopes of getting a judge to allow them to subpoena information from a computer server their people have tracked the attacks to. The company claims the unknown group has violated the Federal Computer Abuse and Fraud Act and wants an injunction to put a stop to the fake calls and is also seeking damages.

gets some good results.

*Yes, it’s a perfectly valid use of the word.

[Jackmannii]

@Monty

*Yes, it’s a perfectly valid use of the word.

“Vandals” is more accurate and just as concise.

[Justin_Bailey]

@Jackmannii

“Vandals” is more accurate and just as concise.

Let’s see…

Not like anyone needs an extra reason to hate vandals, but this is, as the article says, pretty base.

Nope, sorry, usage has decreed that “hacker” equals “someone who fucks with the software on a computer/network”. “Vandal” would mean someone spraypainted all over the deaf people’s screens so they couldn’t see what the person on the other end was saying.

[Baldwin]

And “vandal” has always been a slur on the Vandals, who were actually more peaceful and less destructive than most of the peoples in Europe at the time.

Hackers tend to demonstrate that one can be very clever and a moron at the same time.

[Sailboat]

@Baldwin

And “vandal” has always been a slur on the Vandals, who were actually more peaceful and less destructive than most of the peoples in Europe at the time.

Heh, I was about to look up the Vandals to see if I could make that claim. Actually, I added Terry Jones’ Barbarians to my Netflix queue…I’ll go see how close it’s migrated to the top.

Sailboat

[Mosier]

@Baldwin

And “vandal” has always been a slur on the Vandals, who were actually more peaceful and less destructive than most of the peoples in Europe at the time.

Hackers tend to demonstrate that one can be very clever and a moron at the same time.

Wasn’t it the Vandals that sacked half of Spain, most of North Africa, and Rome?

[Miller]

@Mosier

Wasn’t it the Vandals that sacked half of Spain, most of North Africa, and Rome?

Yes, but compared to the rest of Europe, they were practically pacifists.