5 ms·

Finding a former Australian prime minister’s passport number on Instagram (2020)

132 points by masterjack 4y ago

throwntoday 4y ago
Maybe I'm becoming a curmudgeon but this type of writing is annoying. So much prose, so many attempts at humour, all to say you entered someones booking# and last name on the airlines website.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
Eldar_ 4y ago
Omg
lhoff 4y ago
Previous Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24488224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24488224 The blogpost itself is a really entertaining read.
- bogantech 4y ago
  > The blogpost itself is a really entertaining read. It could do without all the cringe, the irony of writing a "I'm so zany and wacky guys, you don't even know how wacky I am" blog post and calling other people cringe is next level.
- thread_id 4y ago
  Yes I remember reading this before.
- rurban 4y ago
  Ah, the last time it has an editorialized title. This time the correct title. Please don't change the title, or we cannot find the previous submissions.
suddenclarity 4y ago
That's a lot of words to say that someone posted their booking details online so you could log in and see their phone number.
- netsharc 4y ago
  Actually he found the phone number and more info by using the browser devtools, the phone number wasn't rendered on the webpage. But yeah, lots of text written in a way that's just a little too obnoxious for me.
- zinekeller 4y ago
  I'm pretty sure that a half-page executive summary would convey the information, but I still enjoy the post. It's not a CVE report, it's a personal account of someone who has done something that happens to involve a former PM. I'm sure that not everyone would like how it's written (some don't like this stlye of humour and everyone has a story out there that they wouldn't read again), but I personally don't mind it.
mishftw 4y ago
Pretty fun read. PNR / reservation / confirmation numbers are a pretty interesting method for allowing quick changes. Obviously sharing them is ill-advised. However, how is the general, non-technical layperson supposed to know any better?
- trustingtrust 4y ago
  Print right at the top in bold: Confidential information please do not share for privacy reasons.
- worthless-trash 4y ago
  Stop posting pictures to social networking. Seems easy.
- defrost 4y ago
  > However, how is the general, non-technical layperson supposed to know any better? Exactly the point made by the former Australian Prime Minister, Tony "speedos" Abbott when he rang the blog author directly to discuss the boarding pass issue and gave permission to post about this. Or, as Former PM T. Abbott put it: “You could drop me in the bush and I’d feel perfectly confident navigating my way out, looking at the sun and direction of rivers and figuring out where to go, but this! Hah!” ( Cut to Simpson's Bart gets the Boot in Australia episode scene where "Asking the PM" involves yelling out a window to a guy floating in a tyre in a dam )
  - mmerlin 4y ago
    Abbott the luddite, gave us copper internet and spent 400% more than promised to hobble the national broadband network purely for Murdoch's profits and favours. Abbott stopped the nationwide FttP rollout (that had just begun after years of preparing) at about 5% so his political opposition predecessors got no credit for a nation building project (and Murdoch profited maximally and his media loves Abbott and the Liberals ever since)
    - runsonrum 4y ago
victorbjorklund 4y ago
Great writing. Really enjoyed it. And it is crazy how much extra data some companies put in their HTML even if not even used (seen this before in other industries)
King-Aaron 4y ago
What a fantastic read. Thanks for posting this!
thepaulthomson 4y ago
No time was wasted in dedicating 30mins of my life to reading this. I bloody enjoyed that haha
mhoad 4y ago
When Alex did this post live at a conference once it was even better I thought https://youtu.be/somze2DW7vs https://youtu.be/somze2DW7vs
heywhatupboys 4y ago
> he since-deleted Instagram post showing the boarding pass and baggage receipt. The caption reads “coming back home from japan looking forward to seeing everyone! climate change isn’t real ok byeee” literally fake news article. what a world we are living in. The original instagram text is even visible. Author should be ashamed of himself
- neom 4y ago
  It's fairly obvious that he author adds elements of humor to his post that are quite easy to read through, for example... "This was possibly the most pure and powerful Australian energy a human can possess, and explains how we elected our strongest as our leader. The raw energy did in fact travel through the phone speaker and directly into my brain, killing me instantly." I don't think he's dead, do you?
- wasmitnetzen 4y ago
  It's not fake news, it's simply a joke.
skissane 4y ago
> For security reasons, we try to change our Prime Minister every six months, and to never use the same Prime Minister on multiple websites. Made me laugh.
- mfgs 4y ago
  This joke’s also a reference to the fast turnover Australia had around that time of prime ministers, due to them getting replaced by their own party.
  - penguin_booze 4y ago
    Since then, UK has claimed the global lead on this. Sorry Oz.
- grecy 4y ago
  While visiting from Africa l loudly said “Australia’s has more coups than the Congo” which nobody seemed to like
0898 4y ago
It's interesting how Tony Abbott, the former Australian prime minister, was genuinely interested in understanding the technology behind the hack. It reminded me of a nice anecdote from Chris Miller's book Chip War. When former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull was deciding whether to ban Huawei from the country's 5G network, he "bought himself a 474-page-book titled a Comprehensive Guide to 5G Security to study the topic so that he could ask better questions of his tech experts." Nice to see politicians getting into infosec, I guess?
- thinkingemote 4y ago
  Additionally (but not the main thing here) being interested in other people and their story is also a sign of manners and charisma often found in person in the leaders and bosses of the world which many find surprising when they meet them.
- bierjunge 4y ago
  Or hackers going into politics like Beto O'Rourke [0] aka Psychedelic Warlord, (former?) member of Cult of the Dead Cow [1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beto_O%27Rourke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beto_O%27Rourke [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_the_Dead_Cow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_the_Dead_Cow
  - ThePowerOfFuet 4y ago
    Wow. I had no idea!
esun 4y ago
You should click the top-right 'hard mode' checkbox.
kulu2002 4y ago
He was lucky to get Booking reference number from Baggage receipt which otherwise would have been impossible
Winsaucerer 4y ago
> Okay so I didn’t tell the spoon thing to Tony Abbott, but I did tell him what I always told my mum, which was: “Mum you just gotta press all the buttons, to find out what they do” > > He was like “Oh, you just learn by trial and error”. Exactly! This resonates with me. I've quite often heard people say something like "I think I broke it", when they've done nothing of the sort with their computer. There's a general fear or worry that some (a lot of?) people have that if they don't use their computer with care, they'll ruin something. Of course, you can ruin things, but that willingness to experiment is how I suspect many of us got good at these things. Trying, experimenting, breaking, and then fixing.
brk 4y ago
Not quite the same level as this, but I had a coworker a long time ago that used to leave sensitive travel information out in the open frequently. After a few times of changing their rental car reservation from a corporate-compliant small car over to a minivan or 12 person passenger van, they came to understand not to leak sensitive data.
helsinki 4y ago
It’s a good article, so far, but I mean, it’s a novella. Unfortunately, I don’t have 60-90 minutes to read through the entirety of it.
- ciabattabread 4y ago
  Yeah, that post could’ve been cut down by half but still retain the literary flourish the author desired. Entertaining and informative enough to power thru, though.
KyeRussell 4y ago
I’ve read this before. I’ve read other posts by this guy. I’ve seen this guy talk. I absolutely cannot stand the self-involved writing style. I love comedic, casual writing and speaking. This however is just trying too hard. You’ve gotta be really funny to put this much weight on the jokes, and this guy just doesn’t meet that high bar. It comes across as very cringey.
- mhoad 4y ago
  This sounds a lot like a “you” problem.
ChrisArchitect 4y ago
(2020) Lots of previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24488224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24488224

132 points by masterjack 4y ago

Maybe I'm becoming a curmudgeon but this type of writing is annoying. So much prose, so many attempts at humour, all to say you entered someones booking# and last name on the airlines website.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

Eldar_ 4y ago

Omg

lhoff 4y ago

Previous Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24488224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24488224 The blogpost itself is a really entertaining read.

bogantech 4y ago
> The blogpost itself is a really entertaining read. It could do without all the cringe, the irony of writing a "I'm so zany and wacky guys, you don't even know how wacky I am" blog post and calling other people cringe is next level.
thread_id 4y ago
Yes I remember reading this before.
rurban 4y ago
Ah, the last time it has an editorialized title. This time the correct title. Please don't change the title, or we cannot find the previous submissions.

suddenclarity 4y ago

That's a lot of words to say that someone posted their booking details online so you could log in and see their phone number.

netsharc 4y ago
Actually he found the phone number and more info by using the browser devtools, the phone number wasn't rendered on the webpage. But yeah, lots of text written in a way that's just a little too obnoxious for me.
zinekeller 4y ago
I'm pretty sure that a half-page executive summary would convey the information, but I still enjoy the post. It's not a CVE report, it's a personal account of someone who has done something that happens to involve a former PM. I'm sure that not everyone would like how it's written (some don't like this stlye of humour and everyone has a story out there that they wouldn't read again), but I personally don't mind it.

mishftw 4y ago

Pretty fun read. PNR / reservation / confirmation numbers are a pretty interesting method for allowing quick changes. Obviously sharing them is ill-advised. However, how is the general, non-technical layperson supposed to know any better?

trustingtrust 4y ago
Print right at the top in bold: Confidential information please do not share for privacy reasons.
worthless-trash 4y ago
Stop posting pictures to social networking. Seems easy.
defrost 4y ago
> However, how is the general, non-technical layperson supposed to know any better? Exactly the point made by the former Australian Prime Minister, Tony "speedos" Abbott when he rang the blog author directly to discuss the boarding pass issue and gave permission to post about this. Or, as Former PM T. Abbott put it: “You could drop me in the bush and I’d feel perfectly confident navigating my way out, looking at the sun and direction of rivers and figuring out where to go, but this! Hah!” ( Cut to Simpson's Bart gets the Boot in Australia episode scene where "Asking the PM" involves yelling out a window to a guy floating in a tyre in a dam )
- mmerlin 4y ago
  Abbott the luddite, gave us copper internet and spent 400% more than promised to hobble the national broadband network purely for Murdoch's profits and favours. Abbott stopped the nationwide FttP rollout (that had just begun after years of preparing) at about 5% so his political opposition predecessors got no credit for a nation building project (and Murdoch profited maximally and his media loves Abbott and the Liberals ever since)
  - runsonrum 4y ago

victorbjorklund 4y ago

Great writing. Really enjoyed it. And it is crazy how much extra data some companies put in their HTML even if not even used (seen this before in other industries)

King-Aaron 4y ago

What a fantastic read. Thanks for posting this!

thepaulthomson 4y ago

No time was wasted in dedicating 30mins of my life to reading this. I bloody enjoyed that haha

mhoad 4y ago

When Alex did this post live at a conference once it was even better I thought https://youtu.be/somze2DW7vs https://youtu.be/somze2DW7vs

heywhatupboys 4y ago

> he since-deleted Instagram post showing the boarding pass and baggage receipt. The caption reads “coming back home from japan looking forward to seeing everyone! climate change isn’t real ok byeee” literally fake news article. what a world we are living in. The original instagram text is even visible. Author should be ashamed of himself

neom 4y ago
It's fairly obvious that he author adds elements of humor to his post that are quite easy to read through, for example... "This was possibly the most pure and powerful Australian energy a human can possess, and explains how we elected our strongest as our leader. The raw energy did in fact travel through the phone speaker and directly into my brain, killing me instantly." I don't think he's dead, do you?
wasmitnetzen 4y ago
It's not fake news, it's simply a joke.

skissane 4y ago

> For security reasons, we try to change our Prime Minister every six months, and to never use the same Prime Minister on multiple websites. Made me laugh.

mfgs 4y ago
This joke’s also a reference to the fast turnover Australia had around that time of prime ministers, due to them getting replaced by their own party.
- penguin_booze 4y ago
  Since then, UK has claimed the global lead on this. Sorry Oz.
grecy 4y ago
While visiting from Africa l loudly said “Australia’s has more coups than the Congo” which nobody seemed to like

0898 4y ago

It's interesting how Tony Abbott, the former Australian prime minister, was genuinely interested in understanding the technology behind the hack. It reminded me of a nice anecdote from Chris Miller's book Chip War. When former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull was deciding whether to ban Huawei from the country's 5G network, he "bought himself a 474-page-book titled a Comprehensive Guide to 5G Security to study the topic so that he could ask better questions of his tech experts." Nice to see politicians getting into infosec, I guess?

thinkingemote 4y ago
Additionally (but not the main thing here) being interested in other people and their story is also a sign of manners and charisma often found in person in the leaders and bosses of the world which many find surprising when they meet them.
bierjunge 4y ago
Or hackers going into politics like Beto O'Rourke [0] aka Psychedelic Warlord, (former?) member of Cult of the Dead Cow [1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beto_O%27Rourke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beto_O%27Rourke [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_the_Dead_Cow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_the_Dead_Cow
- ThePowerOfFuet 4y ago
  Wow. I had no idea!

esun 4y ago

You should click the top-right 'hard mode' checkbox.

kulu2002 4y ago

He was lucky to get Booking reference number from Baggage receipt which otherwise would have been impossible

Winsaucerer 4y ago

> Okay so I didn’t tell the spoon thing to Tony Abbott, but I did tell him what I always told my mum, which was: “Mum you just gotta press all the buttons, to find out what they do” > > He was like “Oh, you just learn by trial and error”. Exactly! This resonates with me. I've quite often heard people say something like "I think I broke it", when they've done nothing of the sort with their computer. There's a general fear or worry that some (a lot of?) people have that if they don't use their computer with care, they'll ruin something. Of course, you can ruin things, but that willingness to experiment is how I suspect many of us got good at these things. Trying, experimenting, breaking, and then fixing.

brk 4y ago

Not quite the same level as this, but I had a coworker a long time ago that used to leave sensitive travel information out in the open frequently. After a few times of changing their rental car reservation from a corporate-compliant small car over to a minivan or 12 person passenger van, they came to understand not to leak sensitive data.

helsinki 4y ago

It’s a good article, so far, but I mean, it’s a novella. Unfortunately, I don’t have 60-90 minutes to read through the entirety of it.

ciabattabread 4y ago
Yeah, that post could’ve been cut down by half but still retain the literary flourish the author desired. Entertaining and informative enough to power thru, though.

KyeRussell 4y ago

I’ve read this before. I’ve read other posts by this guy. I’ve seen this guy talk. I absolutely cannot stand the self-involved writing style. I love comedic, casual writing and speaking. This however is just trying too hard. You’ve gotta be really funny to put this much weight on the jokes, and this guy just doesn’t meet that high bar. It comes across as very cringey.

mhoad 4y ago
This sounds a lot like a “you” problem.

ChrisArchitect 4y ago

(2020) Lots of previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24488224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24488224