December 1, 2008
Revenge of the Nerds: Hackers Give Victoria's Secret Campaign a Virtual Wedgie
It could be a scene out of “Revenge of the Nerds: The Next Next Generation.”
Computer geeks at universities around the country compete to sabotage a Victoria’s Secret contest that is being promoted—on some of the campuses—by sorority members via Facebook.
At Drexel University and a handful of other colleges, students created computer scripts to sway the contest—an online vote to nominate a university to receive its own clothing line—in their campuses’ favor.
Tim Plunkett, a junior at Drexel, created a script that could cast 1,500 votes per second, according to The Daily Pennsylvanian, the University of Pennsylvania’s independent student newspaper. Mr. Plunkett wrote the script in about three minutes and ran it on 30 different computers over 12 hours. The voting bot lifted the private university, with an undergraduate enrollment of more than 13,000 students, into first place with 5.2 million votes.
Thirty-one universities have their own PINK Collegiate Collection clothing lines, which hit stores in July and feature college logos on Victoria’s Secret T-shirts, sweatshirts, and underwear.
“We thought it was amusing to see the reaction of the people in the group [on Facebook], which were primarily sorority girls,” Mr. Plunkett told The Triangle, the student newspaper at Drexel.
Students at the contest’s other top four colleges—Texas Tech University (second), George Mason University (third), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (fourth)—all created similar scripts.
Officials from Victoria’s Secret could not be reached on Monday but the company’s Web site offers this warning:
“Tech schools, we’re watching your votes. And we’re on to you. Don’t be surprised if PINK shows up at your school.” —David DeBolt
Posted on Monday December 1, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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anything to undermine female students, and to encourage them to undermine themselves by focusing attention on what they wear, and more specifically on lingerie. this isn’t about being prudish, it’s about sexism.
— Cecilia Dec 2, 08:49 AM #
Double standard? Hacking is bad. Right? Of course right. We read stories of hackers doing many and various reprehensible things all the time. E.g., DDS. Some going to jail for it, paying big fines, etc. In this piece, it seems to be considered something of a joke, something amusing, something good for a good cause. But the same knowledge and practices can just as well be used for something utterly nefarious and illegal. We shouldn’t be surprised, or so quick to convict, unless there is a strong universal approach and attitude to hacking. If not, then hacking such as reported above is simply a good laboratory in which to practice and hone one’s knowledge and creative skills.
— DDVA Dec 2, 09:30 AM #
awesome
— C Dec 2, 11:20 AM #
You could have maybe included some pictures of the PINK undies, or at least a link to them. That would have made my day, aided VC, and further exploited those rootie-tootie-snooty fem-bot sorority sisters.
— Dr. Who Dec 2, 11:35 AM #
When we stop celebrating female allure, the priests will have won.
— Dee Dee Dec 2, 11:45 AM #
Well, DDVA, we now know that in your private lexicon “hacking” is marked as evil.
I am not sure, however, that it is appropriate to call writing a script that casts votes faster than anyone expected “hacking.” What Mr. Plunkett did might be more appropriately called “gaming the system.” He didn’t break into anything, he just took advantage of the rules and of computational power to gain the upper hand.
As for the larger issue, hackers indeed practice and hone their knowledge and creative skills in computing. You perhaps need to read up a little on the “white hat”/“black hat” distinction.
— dionysos Dec 2, 02:06 PM #
Dionysos is right, this isn’t really “hacking” at all, and hacking itself doesn’t entail anything illegal or immoral.
“this isn’t about being prudish, it’s about sexism.”
Sexism would be the belief that one sex or gender is inferior or less valuable than the other, often resulting in hartred, mistrust, or stereotypes. This is not the case here. This is corporations exploiting existing stereotypes of, and insecurities belonging to, specific populations within society, for the purpose of maximizing profit. That is capitalism, not sexism.
— DVDA Dec 2, 05:42 PM #
I think that anyone who votes more than a normal non-nerd number of times should be required to wear a pink VC thong with feathers and a push up bra, and walk back and forth across a room in 4” heels. And the picture should be published here. (That makes my feminist-self AND my nerd-self smile… and might actually turn on some of those computer geeks… hmmm.)
— HIED doc Dec 2, 05:59 PM #
Dr. Who-
Remember, the Pink Undies link is just a google search away: http://www.vspink.com
Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish….
Enjoy-Dr. C.
— clc Dec 2, 07:00 PM #
If you actually knew what the contest was about you’d know it isn’t just underwear they are “pushing” on girls. It’s mainly sweatpants and sweatshirts, similar to the clothes they sell in the bookstore.. So feminists do some research before you comment.
— Kid Dec 5, 01:36 PM #
You’re only a feminists because you are ugly
— -polo Dec 11, 11:49 AM #
DDVA – what these students did WAS NOT hacking. They did not steal any information, nor enter someone elses computer using illegal means. They simply created a program that, in essence, simply repeatedly voted for them in the poll without having to manually do it themselves. There is absolutely NOTHING illegal or wrong about doing this if the contest did not specify or set up safeguards to keep such things from being able to happen. It’s no different than an individual photocopying a bunch of entries to a contest and mailing them in. If the rules don’t state that its unnacceptable, then who isn’t going to do it?
— Joe Dec 13, 11:30 PM #