Oxford Student newspaper doxes Twitter account by possible criminal unauthorised use of a comptuer system

[QuietContraryMary]

Heads up.

www.oxfordstudent.com/2018/10/26/transphobic-tweets-linked-to-oxford-sociology-professor/

"The Twitter account, named Henry Wimbush and still online at the time of publication, has been tweeting statements such as “transphobia is a word created by fascists, and used by cowards, to manipulate morons” since first Tweeting in January.

"it was found that the account in question could be linked to a partial phone number and Yahoo! email using freely available data and by making use of Twitter’s various functions. The Yahoo! email itself is also linked to a phone number ending in the same numbers as those previously identified, while also revealing that it is connected to the" [partially redacted email]

How this hack works:

go to twitter.com/login

click 'forgotten your password'

type in your username, or a third party's username

you will get a message something like this:

We found the following information associated with your account.
Text a code to my phone ending in 12.
Email a link to ab*********@a.**

Note that:

• the last digits of the phone number can be used to tie your account to any phone number, since there are obviously 100 different combinations, so if it matches a phone number known by the doxer, it essentially identifies you
• I'm not clear exactly how much information is given on email addresses in every case, but at a minimum you get the first two letters of the username (before the @), the first two letters of the domain name (the bit after the @), and the exact length of both parts of the address.

So for example, if you signed up, anonymously, to Twitter using the email address justine*@mumsnet.com, then it would show to any attacker ju******@mu.** if they tried to recover it in order to dox the owner.

The use of this feature in order to dox people most likely constitutes an offence under the Computer Misuse Act s1 as the use of this feature to dox people is clearly not authorised by Twitter, and I would encourage those affected to report the people involved to the police.

Hence I am not repeating the criminally obtained dox of the person, and I would encourage people NOT the repeat the name in this thread.

Note that this doxing follows quite soon from Aimee Challenor boasting of outing Miranda Yardley's Twitter account using the same means.

Whether there are more serious offences committed is hard to say, as the doxing itself is obviously a preparatory act to having people fired, harassed, threatened, family & children harassed, and so on, but the doing so is not necessarily planned by the original doxer so it would be hard to prove a more serious offence.

I would advise those who are on Twitter and are not using their real name to create a gmail/yahoo/other anonymous webmail account, matching the twitter username (so if you are @ARealRadFem on Twitter, make a yahoo mail account [email protected]). In terms of the phone verification that's a little trickier as the 1/100 last two digits is VERY outing if they have a suspicion who you are, but otherwise completely useless. I have had some luck in the past with adding an extra digit (so if you are 07812 456789, you can add an extra digit on like this 07812 4567890, and verification phone calls still work), but YMMV on that.

In answer to my earlier comment, Orange stated:

Wrong, arguing against their inclusion is transphobia. And thats not even the relevant part. He misgendered her, which is against University guidelines and is transphobia.

I'm glad Orange has finally found it in him to give a straight answer. It's an offensive answer, but kind of what I was expecting.

I think Hubbard is a man. I understand that Hubbard wishes to "identify" as a woman, and if that's where it stopped, that would be fair enough. But Hubbard competing in women's sport is cheating. And describing my opinion as "transphobia" simply reveals that Orange is a genuine bigot, in that he fits the definition of someone who is intolerant of other people's beliefs.

Make no mistake - if male bodied people can play women's sports, that is the end of women's sports. That is slightly over 50% of the population, 3.5 billion people worldwide, which Orange is prepared to say a massive "fuck you" to. Orange is a misogynist. Orange hates women.

I understand that Hubbard wishes to "identify" as a woman, and if that's where it stopped

To my knowledge, Hubbard has never claimed to a woman. Nor to be trans. Hubbard rarely gives interviews and is very careful in choosing words.

Laurel Hubbard:
"I am who I am. I'm not here to change the world. I just want to be me."
When the interviewer asks Laurel about becoming a woman (4:34), Laurel makes what looks to me like a nervous gesture touching hair.

Contrast cyclist Rachel McKinnon who stridently claims to be a woman and to be trans.

I have been doxxed in a way on Facebook.
I was using a variation of my name, that did fall under the rules of Facebook as I understood them because it was a name that people know me by.
Someone, the day after I liked 'this never happens' and 'fairplay for women' reported my 'known by' but not 'real' name to Facebook.
Facebook suspended my account.
My choice was to close it, losing all my photos, contacts and access to support groups.
Or give them proof of my full, unique name.
So now I'm on there as my full real unique name, that more than half of my contacts didn't know me by anyway.
Which means many more people could search my unique name to find out other information about me, and potentially fully dox me.
Yay.
Anyway this post is just for information.
Facebook don't like 'fake' names.
If you report someone's name they will have to give Facebook proof of their real name.
Legal documentation.

Good idea to lock down your FB security settings completely. Everything. Likes, friend lists, etc. should not be exposed

I see Harrop is calling for Biggs to be sacked. But only half-heartedly as he's not a woman.

Interesting that Hubbard has never claimed to be a woman. Don't you have to declare your sex when you are entering international sports competitions? Wouldn't your entry be an acceptance of the conditions thus an implicit declaration of being female?

Info can be harvested from a logged in FB app, I read, via Twitter. One should log out of FB when not using. Always.

'the person who did it would have had to type henrywimbush's ID into the forgotten password page
so this is not information they accidentally stumbled upon, they had to actively seek it out'

That's an excellent point.
They were fraudulently posing as someone else to gain the information.

This isn't how ethical journalists operate and if the Oxford student paper is doing this it will be bringing the university into disrepute.

Far more than, um, mentioning that a man is male.

There is a box on twitter which says "require personal information to reset your password"

It's under settings. Click that box. Click that box yesterday.

It clears out the field showing a partial email / phone when requesting a reset.

I agree with the anon email, only I wouldn't use my twitname. I use something like my twitname, and the account indicates the fake name I use on twitter, but it's just different enough that people can't guess my email service provider and harass me on google or yahoo.

Hello OrangeStudent

I'm not an Oxford student any more – matriculated at Oxford 2003, took my BA 2007 – in a real subject like maths, but I think you might be a little confused. Let’s go through it.

More importantly, the whole point of free speech and living in a free society is that people (especially the press lol) get to criticise you for your views.

Yeah, great. You get to criticise views you disagree with. We all agree with that. You don’t get to expose the person behind those views, or subject them to a campaign to try and get them sacked, if you disagree with them. That is the antithesis of free debate because you hold behind you the idea of making someone suffer if they disagrew.

The idea that it is wrong for an Oxford student newspaper to criticise a university professor for his conduct and views is absurd

Yes, it is absurd. No one is arguing against that. What we are arguing against is your attempt to get that professor sacked.

Nobody is silencing him, nobody i silencing you.

Yes, if you try to get him sacked for his views, you are silencing him. You are using the threat of dismissal from work as an attempt to silence him. Absolutely you are silencing.

If you are needing to use burner phones to protect your identity from the things you are saying, perhaps you need to reevaluate your views and conduct on twitter.

No, perhaps we might instead reevaluate the views of vile people like you who try to get anyone who disagrees with your agenda sacked.

Knowing some oxford students I doubt he will be able to last long, Oxford students are very inclusive and won't put up with this guys bullshit.

Knowing that my own college put up with the fascism of Ntokozo Qwabe for so long, I know Oxford is full of snowflakes like you; Oxford students are not something special because "Oxford". Oxford students can still be vile idiots regardless of "Oxford". Rather than getting rid of this professor, how about Oxford getting rid of snowflakes like you?

“Free speech includes the social consequences for your actions, individuals are entitled to argue against you and society is entitled to give you consequences for your actions. You aren't entitled to keep your job as an Oxford Professor if you hold views which are fundamentally contrary and incompatable with the values of the University.”

First, free speech should indeed involve consequences. Free speech involves the consequence of people arguing against you, rebutting your arguments, debating you and maybe even defeating you in debate. Free speech never involves you being sacked for giving your opinions. Because that's fucking censorship, you moron.

Second, having studied at Oxford for three years and read the University Statutes, I know “disagreeing with transgender bollocks” do not constitute views “fundamentally contrary and incompatible (sic) with the values of the University”. You are a liar.

I do however think it is justified, but based on freedom of the press and that he should be exposed to journalistic criticism by the student paper for his didgusting conduct on twitter.

But his conduct is not disgusting. I'm a grown adult and I'm not disgusted. That is simply your opinion, and it's an opinion which is wrong. People should not be “exposed for disgusting behaviour” when 80% of the population believe this is reasonable behaviour that a person should not be sacked for.

OrangeStudent has posted the challenge “I'm not just going to post my personal information on here, but if someone worked out who I was I would have absolutely no issue what so ever with it.”

But if someone can find who it is, I will raise hell and earth to get this person sent down. They deserve nothing less. Oxford should be a place of open debate, not some 19-year-old know-it-all trying to get a professor sacked for disagreeing with their warped world-view.

If Oxford University - my alma mater - had any integrity “James Ashworth” and “Charlie Willis” (if those are real names) should be sent down and anyone who abetted them in this doxing crap should be sent down too.

"Knowing some oxford students I doubt he will be able to last long"

This is such a phenomenally self-centred understanding of how Oxford functions as a university, and a vast overestimate of the power you think students possess. For many, many academics, students are essentially an irritating addendum to the fundamental research functions of the university. I'm not saying that's right, but if you had any experience of the internal workings of a college, the idea that students hold any kind of ultimate power in who gets employed (or dismissed) is -luckily - a totally laughable concept.

If anyone has any idea who OrangeStudent is, please post. They approve of doxxing so presumably they don't mind their own details being splashed about. Oxford, thankfully, is not as "woke" as most universities; and some Oxford colleges are not as "woke" as others; the exposure of their smug charade might lead to them being sent down. They're probably some middle-class Jocasta from Oriel; from there, they're a drain on society from now til the grave. No doubt they'll get an internship on the Guardian; luckily their parents will be able to fund them living in London til they start earning; they'll never have any idea of the jobs they steal from the working class, but they'll always be on the side of St Jeremy and his woke bros, so it's OK, they're on "the right side of history".

Lord. what I'd do to take 'em out of our political sphere.

I also guarantee that if academics see a group of upstart 19-yo pipsqueaks attempting to get a professor sacked for thought crimes, they will close ranks faster and harder than you can ever begin to imagine.

Yes, I think I can safely say that Orange is entirely delusional if he thinks Biggs will be sacked, or even disciplined in any way. The students who wrote the article on the other hand... if what they did was in fact legally hacking, and the college judges them to have acted illegally in breaking into Biggs' twitter account, they'll be gone before their feet touch the ground.

(And should be counting themselves lucky they did it in the UK - that level of hacking in the US carries huge penalties. I seem to remember a MN-etter a few years back who had a young relative with Aspergers who was threatened with extradition to the US for hacking. A similar offence would have carried maybe a 1 year jail sentence here - over there he was looking at life.)

(Googles Qwabe)

Louise Richardson (Vice-Chancellor) was excellent when that whole 'Rhodes Must Fall thing was kicking off. I'd like to hear what she thinks about this.

“James Ashworth” and “Charlie Willis” (if those are real names)

Yes, they're real names. Charlie (Charlotte) Willis is reading Classics I think. James Ashworth is a 3rd year biologist and Treasurer of the Dr Who Society.

Fermats

I would not be so sure Biggs will not be disciplined or even sacked. I would like to think not but we can't be sure - Oxford can be capricious. Better to get OrangeStudent sent down for trying to stifle legitimate views.

James Ashworth is a 3rd year biologist and Treasurer of the Dr Who Society.

When I was at Oxford some people were childish but not quite so childish. There wasn't a Doctor Who Society (this was a dozen years ago). Oxford can do without people like that.

@ADropofReality

They even have silly titles.

Just £15 for life membership though.

users.ox.ac.uk/~whosoc/committee_new.html

There was a Doctor Who Society in the 90s. Nothing wrong with that.

Agree with what is said below about the academics closing ranks against students. This would be truer of Oxford than at many other universities, where they have to compete for students and thus are apt to consider them more as consumers.

"When I was at Oxford some people were childish but not quite so childish. There wasn't a Doctor Who Society (this was a dozen years ago). Oxford can do without people like that."

Yes there was! Heather Peto (then Warren Peto) was treasurer of the Dr. Who Society around 30 years ago.

Yes there was! Heather Peto (then Warren Peto) was treasurer of the Dr. Who Society around 30 years ago.

1989 according to this.

Tut tut, they are deadnaming poor Heather. Call the police and report them for hate crimes.

webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:wgeRbYzRpG4J:https:%2F%2Flouisedennis.livejournal.com%2F343907.html%20&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk

Does anyone know what Michael Biggs has posted? I assume that he’s deleted tweets but there are screenshots around the place which are likely in the hands of the relevant bodies at Oxford University? If so, I expect that none of us know the full story and that Oxford Uni will evaluate against their own guidelines?

Interesting how AWA make repeated claims that they are doxxed by the gender critical crowd, but it only seems to happen one way.