Malicious computer hackers gained access to a Web server at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences on Sunday, snagging data about the site’s administrators. They posted the information on a popular file-trading Web site, along with a taunting statement about “the insecurity of Harvard’s server.”
Computing officials at the graduate school took the Web site offline while they investigated the incident, and the Web site remains out of operation today, three days later.
“Apparently they’re still working on the problem,” said Robert Mitchell, director of communications for the graduate school. He declined to give further details, adding that the only person authorized to talk about the incident, Noah S. Selsby, a client technology adviser, is not available today. Mr. Selsby told The Harvard Crimson that no personal information about students or professors was obtained by the digital intruders.
The intruders posted a zip file that contains three files apparently obtained from Harvard. A post on TorrentFreak, a blog that tracks file-trading issues, says the files contain a directory structure for the site as well as the logins and passwords for some of the system’s administrators. -Jeffrey R. Young
9 Responses to Digital Intruders Hack Into a Harvard Web Site and Publish Private Information
chroniclejap - October 6, 2011 at 4:43 pm
You’re right – RIP, Steve, and thank you. I miss him terrifically and I didn’t know him personally.
But he has had some terrific obituary-related summaries of his accomplishments; may our lists of
life accomplishments be a fraction as impressive as his! RIP, Steve, and thank you! Our world’s different and better because you were in it!
juris_prudence - October 6, 2011 at 5:17 pm
Yes, Jobs was brilliant, and he had an amazing impact on the way we use computers. But “the Da Vinci of our time”? That’s ridiculous hyperbole now, and it always will be.
For all of his accomplishments, Jobs isn’t even the Thomas Edison of our time. The fact that Apple’s technology is widespread (among some people in some countries) doesn’t mean that it’s truly, profoundly, important.
I can quite easily imagine my life without the influence of Steve Jobs. When I attended college as an undergrad from 1978 to 1982, there were no personal computers and no cell phones. I listened to music on vinyl records, and used an electric typewriter to write papers.
My life today is different — I’m typing this on a Macbook pro, connected to Airport Express, and have an iPod touch in the other room. But nothing that Jobs accomplished has made my life truly, *profoundly* different — or profoundly “better” — than it was in 1982. Anyone who thinks the differences are “profound” should think more carefully about the meaning of that word.
Forget Da Vinci … even Thomas Edison was in a different league from Steve Jobs. Imagine your life without electric lights. That alone is a bigger shift than anything Jobs accomplished, but Edison did so much more than Jobs in a much wider range of fields, from the phonograph and telegraph to movies and the delivery of electrical power.
It’s not my intention to denigrate Steve Jobs in any way. My beef, instead, is with people like Mr. Talbert who seem to lack any real sense of perspective, and who want to turn Jobs into some kind of demigod. We can give the man his very considerable due without engaging in absurd hyperbole.
One final point … when we praise Jobs and his work, we should pause for a moment to remember that this of us who use Apple products are part of a very privileged elite, and that Jobs had little or no real impact on the lives of most people living today. In that sense, too, Edison and his electric lights had a much greater influence.
pamelajohnson - October 6, 2011 at 5:35 pm
What! No iPad?
humandignity - October 6, 2011 at 9:08 pm
I am not 100% certain you are right when you suggest that Jobs impact was only on a privileged elite whereas Edison had a much greater influence.That observation is comparing Apples and Oranges (pun intended). Electric lights for a significant amount of time were likewise available only to a privileged elite.
In any case, the question of the influence of any person cannot be determined immediately after their death but can only be understood over the span of time. The release of the Aakash (a cheap tablet computer aimed toward distribution throughout rural India) suggests that the changes that Jobs has brought may have ripple effects that are yet to be fully understood.
I’m not saying that Jobs is equivalent to Da Vinci or Edison I’m simply saying our children and their children will be in a much better position to understand where Jobs fits in the role call of history.
As to your suggestion that the hyperbole “the Da Vinci of our time” is ridiculous now and always will be I would strongly urge you to take a step back and seriously consider the absolute nature of your statement. It is not my intention to denigrate Da Vinci but to suggest that no one can be the “Da Vinci of our time” is to turn Da Vinci into some kind of demigod. We can give the Da Vinci his considerable due without engaging in …. anyway you get the idea.
The point of the article was to recognize and honor the significant contributions of a man who has in many ways revolutionized our world in ways we cannot yet understand and to allow him his moment in time.
Steve Jobs (_R.I.P._)
mnprivate - October 7, 2011 at 9:41 am
The media has been demonstrating its usual lack of insight, historical inaccuracy, and technical incompetence in the reporting on Jobs’ accomplishments. Apple and Jobs were not the first or the best or the most innovative to any party; from the personal computer to the iPad. The company has been incredibly successful at convincing the Apple Kool-Aid fans to drink their version of each of these toys, but that is a marketing success, not an engineering feat.
As much as I dislike the corporate MSM, I find myself embarrassed for them as they expose their ignorance and foolish misconceptions of invention, manufacturing, and product development. There is not a single Apple product that would be missing from public consumption if that company had never existed. Apple does not invent, but the company does polish other company’s ideas and claim them as their own. It helps to have Scientology-like fanboys who will dip into the trust fund or credit card every time Apple releases an iToy for the iTools.
One of the byproducts of Jobs’ concentration of fashion over form is that Apple products look incredibly dated a few months after they are replaced by the next generation of disposable product. Less fashion-driven products are not so prone to that characteristic of planned obsolescence.
Jobs was a known ruthless manager who used and abused his employees and discarded them when he felt the need to remove any corporate history that might damage his claim to invention. Apple is one of the many corporations that trashed American manufacturing to improve the corporate bottom line. From a music lover’s perspective, the idea that dramatically lowering the quality of the recordings we listen to has increased the public’s love of music is obviously dis-proven by the depressed state of the music business. Jobs has repeatedly proved that “perception is everything.” If a little design work can convince the media that changing the shape of a product is the same as inventing it, that tells us a lot about who we are.
Robert Talbert - October 7, 2011 at 1:44 pm
I’m an associate prof with 3 kids. Still saving up for one.
Robert Talbert - October 7, 2011 at 2:53 pm
It’s probably fair to call me out on hyperbole — I tend to go overboard on the things I enjoy the most. But let’s not underestimate, either, the effects that Jobs and his companies have had. I frankly have a hard time believing that your life has not changed profoundly since 1982. The fact that total strangers are spending valuable time debating the meaning of the word “profound” in a comment thread on the world wide web, using computers that are either Apple products or strongly influenced by Apple products, signifies that our lives have changed since 1982 in some profound way. “Profound” means “very great”, right?
Robert Talbert - October 7, 2011 at 3:10 pm
I honestly don’t care if Apple products are *original*. My opinion, as a person who (as you see in the post) tried a lot of computers out before settling on Apple stuff, is that they are better for the purposes to which I put them than other similar devices. And that is all that matters for me.
Take the Altair 8800 for example. This was the first truly personal computer out there — it only cost a few hundred bucks and could be purchased by mail order. But: They were clunky. They had to be assembled (!). They could only be programmed by flipping switches. They had no displays (in the beginning). And the company that manufactured them was incompetently run. Could it be said that Jobs and Wozniak “stole” the idea for the personal computer from Altair? Possibly. The Homebrew Computer Club of which those men were a part certainly had some of those machines in their possession and The Steves probably knew that machine literally inside and out. But: They made a similar device that was better designed, from both an electronics and a user-interface perspective. They marketed them intelligently. And they ran their business competently.
As a result, we have good computers today, quite often multiple machines per household, and not just the next iteration of the same dinosaurs made by the same company. If we are going to say that it’s wrong to take others’ ideas and improve upon them and call the improvements “our own”, the we need to be prepared to imagine life filled with Altair 8800′s in our homes and workplaces. This is just how technological innovation *works*.
Finally as to planned obsolescence, this is hardly an Apple-specific complaint. Anybody wh engages with technology — from computers to cars to food processors — needs to learn how to deal with obsolescence. And on the contrary, I recently gave away the Mac mini that I mentioned in the blog post to a friend who refurbished the hard drive and is now using it as a media server at his house. It’s hardly an obsolete device and I can also say it doesn’t look “incredibly dated”.
davidfalcone - October 10, 2011 at 4:16 pm
Sigmund Freud “… looking at how much his vision has affected my life and work, and the
life of my family — to say nothing of his impact on how (he)
pervades and shapes all of our live.” Steve Jobs -The complexity of what he has created will be judged in time. For now, we mourn his loss. History will help us know how to understand and express a “thank you”.