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Microsoft hires accused site hacker

K

King Cobra

macrumors 603
Original poster
Mar 2, 2002
5,403
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Alleged hacker is Microsoft employee

Full article

A man accused of hacking into search engine company AltaVista's computer systems about two years ago now works at Microsoft Corp., the company said Friday.

Laurent Chavet, 29, was arrested by FBI agents a week ago in Redmond, Washington, acting on a warrant issued in San Francisco. The U.S. attorney's office for the Northern District of California alleges that Chavet hacked into AltaVista's computer system to obtain software blueprints called source code and recklessly caused damage to AltaVista's computers.


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My input: That jerk screwed around with Altavista. Also, a big fat "lol" at Microsoft. :D
 
This incident alone prove$ that M$ is total and complete crap. They will hire anybody.

If you can't tru$t Micro$oft, who can you tru$t???
 
hang on....unless i missed something, this isnt necessarily ms' fault so much as just something embarassing for them. it seems they didnt catch him until two years later, so unless he walked into his interview with "i can hack altavista" on his resume they wouldnt have known....?
-carly
 
question fear said:
hang on....unless i missed something, this isnt necessarily ms' fault so much as just something embarassing for them. it seems they didnt catch him until two years later, so unless he walked into his interview with "i can hack altavista" on his resume they wouldnt have known....?
-carly
Click to expand...


When all else fails, blame it on Microsoft. ;)
 
question fear said:
hang on....unless i missed something, this isnt necessarily ms' fault so much as just something embarassing for them.
Click to expand...

shhh, you're making the mac community look petty.

I wonder if Apple would get coverage if they hired a really malicious hacker.. probably not, as they're not the world's largest software company

It's cold here outside the box, I want back in!
 
if you people hadn't noticed, microsoft's SECURITY SUCKS. hackers are known for...being able to bypass security and manipulate flaws. thus it makes perfect sense for microsoft to hire a hacker, especially a "certified" one. call them what you will, but just because they give a "felon" a job, doesn't make them despicable garbage, you all just like to bash microsoft at every opportunity presented.
 
Sorry to be pedantic but isn't a felon someone who has been convicted of a crime - not just accused . Or doesn't the idea of 'innocent until proven guilty' apply any more? :rolleyes:
 
2 years?

Why did it take so long before he was arrested in the first place? I mean how hard could it have been to track him down. Did the FBI really need two years for that.

And I agree with caveman that someone can only be called a felon after the conviction and not just after the accusation.
 
caveman_uk said:
Sorry to be pedantic but isn't a felon someone who has been convicted of a crime - not just accused
Click to expand...
Fine. Would a mod simply change the blue text color of the title for the thread over to "Microsoft employee is a software criminal"?
 
What a bombastic title for the news story and this thread!

If he was working at any other company there would be no news and no thread.
On top of that, what about 'innocent until proven guilty' and second, he is accused of causing around 5000 $ damage. Hardly a big time criminal by any standard.
 
King Cobra said:
Fine. Would a mod simply change the blue text color of the title for the thread over to "Microsoft employee is a software criminal"?
Click to expand...

Not much better. You aren't a criminal unless you've been convicted of a crime. ;)


Lethal
 
I think it's good.
Having someone able to hack commercial sites will know how to secure products better, which is just what Microsoft needs.

AppleMatt
 
AppleMatt said:
I think it's good.
Having someone able to hack commercial sites will know how to secure products better, which is just what Microsoft needs.

AppleMatt
Click to expand...

uh... maybe ex felons should be judges and police officers too then?
 
gwuMACaddict said:
uh... maybe ex felons should be judges and police officers too then?
Click to expand...

Not entirely sure how you made that logical (ahem) jump...where did I imply they should be put in positions of power and authority? Never mind that they wouldn't be qualified...:confused:

It's not uncommon, many internet and network security companies are started by and employ "ex hackers" and many businesses, in IT or not, hire these people to secure their systems.

Like I said, I don't understand the jump you made earlier, but have you seen "Catch Me If You Can"? That's based on a true story. Car security companies hire convicted theives to help make their immobilisers/wheel locks etc better. It extends to pretty much every industry, you learn from your mistakes I suppose, and the best people to expose those mistakes are the ones who defeated the system.

AppleMatt

edit: I can guarantee that if the headline had been "Apple hires suspected hacker", the response would have been a lot more positive.
 
but the key is 'ex' thieves... it sounds like this guy was still out on the loose?

(i do know what you mean... it just seems like hypocricy sometimes to reward that kind of behavior)
 
gwuMACaddict said:
but the key is 'ex' thieves... it sounds like this guy was still out on the loose?

(i do know what you mean... it just seems like hypocricy sometimes to reward that kind of behavior)
Click to expand...

I agree, there's many cases where crime pays!
As for out on the loose, I suppose. My guess is he was a security expert with too much time on his hands so hacked for fun and "respect", then got employed by Microsoft (who didn't know about his crime(s)) because of his skill, then either said too much or left a trace etc, which caught up with him.

AppleMatt
 
It seems like a very smart idea to me. The person that has been able to hack into your system, would be just the person to hire. Who else would be able to detect & fix the flaws in your system.
 
wdlove said:
Who else would be able to detect & fix the flaws in your system.
Click to expand...
Anyone that handles their hacking skills responsibly.
new_shocked.gif
 
Well the article says he's an expert on "search" technology. But hacking into Altavista, a search engine, for source code probably means that he needed a bit of Altavista's help to further develop the search technology for MS because the team couldn't do it better.

Its not MS's fault, but it goes to show how uncapable they are of doing it themselves.
 
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