Shifty Shell Prompts

[Ben Scott]

On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 8:48 AM, Kenny Lussier <klussier at gmail.com> wrote:
> So, using shell commands is now a sign of illegal activity...
> http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/04/boston-college-prompt-commands-are-suspicious

  According to the always-reliable Slashdot comments </irony>, EFF is
taking the warrant statements rather out-of-context.  Reading it[1], I
would agree.  The reason the guy was arrested is that the police
allege there is evidence he is fencing stolen goods, hacking into
university grading systems, and posting libelous statements about his
roommate.  The roommate prolly just doesn't know Linux even is.  It's
also worth pointing out that even Windows has a command prompt; I
spent a lot of time at %DAYJOB% at that prompt.  If it wasn't for the
university computer records that the suspect runs Linux or Unix, I'd
say it would just as easily be that.

[1] http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/inresearchBC/EXHIBIT-A.pdf

  The EFF does good work, but the nature of their work means they're
sometimes rather overzealous.

-- Ben