Talking smack about a doctor got him access to private medical files

PWNED Welcome back to PWNED, the weekly column where we focus on security own-goals so you can avoid them. This week’s topic involves serious problems in the healthcare sector, specifically the very human problem of compromised gatekeepers. Have a story about someone leaving a gaping hole in their network? Share it with us at …

[Korev]

What the hell does "Talking smack" mean?

I thought they were talking about drugs...

[Pascal Monett]

A simple Internet search responds to your question.

Note that I understand that your mother tounge is obviously not English, and idioms and bywords are a bit difficult to come by when you haven't spent a few years living in the UK or the US. That's how I learned (in these hallowed pages no less - before the US bought them out, that is), despite having spent the first eleven years of my life in the the USA, that acting "with anger" didn't mean what I immediately interpreted.

So I'm not blaming you for misunderstanding.

That said, you could have made a search to educate yourself before blurting out a question to which the answer wasn't really all that far away.

We're not talking about nuclear physics here, now are we ?

[that one in the corner]

> you could have made a search to educate yourself

And from the very next comment after yours (which mirrors my experience)

>> I was going to joke about looking it up on Google, but I just did, and it's a complete shitshow over there

Can we take it that the youngster Pascal did not bother trying the search before deriding someone else, possibly not a native speaker? A somebody who actually admitted their ignorance and posed a straightforward question about it?

Korev: good on you for asking. The most important phrase in English: "I do not know". Second most important being "Let's go find out" or, if you think there is a good chance somebody already knows, "Can you tell me ...?".

[KarMann]

Also, it saves the trouble for all the other people who didn't know it, some of whom might have looked it up, and others who would have just taken it in stride and continued in ignorance of the phrase. I always figure, whenever there's a question like this in the comments, there's probably at least a few dozen that were wondering the same thing, but either didn't bother to post a comment asking, or saw that there was already an answer, thanks to Korev et al.

[Richard Tobin]

"I understand that your mother tongue is obviously not English". I'm a native English speaker and have never heard the phrase before. Perhaps it's American.

[andy gibson]

"your mother tounge is obviously not English"

Englishman here, mid 50's

"talking smack" is a phrase I've never heard used in the UK.

[Excused Boots]

Re: "your mother tounge is obviously not English"

It’s not common, but I do think people could work out the meaning from the context.

[CrazyOldCatMan]

Re: "your mother tounge is obviously not English"

Englishman here, mid 50's

Yoof. Also English, early 60's

Definitely was used in my yoof in that there Lunnon. Might be a London thing, imported from the USA?

[PB90210]

Re: "your mother tounge is obviously not English"

Vintage Norf LDN here... neva 'erd ov it...

Rhyming slang possibly... talking smack > loaf of old kack?

[DartfordMan]

Well, my mother tongue is English, and I have to say I have never heard that phrase 'Talking smack'. I estimated what it probably meant, but it didn't really add to the story itself.

[Anonymous Coward]

"A simple Internet search responds to your question.

Note that I understand that your mother tounge is obviously not English, and idioms and bywords are a bit difficult to come by when you haven't spent a few years living in the UK or the US."

Yes, Pascal, and perhaps it would be well to spell check common words before you talk smack (disparage) someone else's honest inquiry. Talking smack is a phrase I have heard, in normal conversation, in the Midwest of the USA. I understand that it is terra incognita to many readers, but to engage in it, as I perceive you have twice in your post, is risible irony. The swipe at the Johnny Foreigner question, and the sneer at the publication being owned by (gasp) Americans.

[RichardBarrell]

Please stop replying to people saying they could have just googled something.

You are accidentally contributing to a problem where, over time, the google search results for many questions get filled up with forum posts admonishing people to try googling it, instead of answers to those questions. It gets progressively worse over time because the primary sources fall off the internet.

[Terry 6]

More to the point; simple inference.

There are times when one may need to get a precise definition of something, rather than just assume. But this is not one of those

I didn't know what it meant either. But I did know that this made sod-all difference to the story. And could guess what it meant FWIW anyway.

That said, it doesn't hurt to simply answer the question. Better to question than not. usually.no need to get hoity toity with the questioner.

[Anonymous Coward]

Basically trash talking, taking shit, taking the piss, slagging someone off.

I was going to joke about looking it up on Google, but I just did, and it's a complete shitshow over there.

I caught someone using that "I'm new here" bit. He'd "forgotten the door code" which was a huge red flag, so I asked who his manager was, and got the deer in the headlights look. He couldn't tell me, which was an even bigger red flag, so I escorted him to my manager, who called security, and sho' 'nuff, he was a red team intruder.

We got a quiet thanks from the head of security 2 levels up for making him look good.

[Anonymous Coward]

Haha, must have been a newbie on the red team. I was working late at a big IT company and noticed that despite all the rules about not tailgating etc etc; in the evening the cleaner propped the door from the lifts open for ease of access with the vacuum cleaner on its long lead. I raised it with security using the 'raise issues on this email addess'. Heard nothing, so no idea if they bothered to do anything. The subliminal message to me: don't bother again.

[The Oncoming Scorn]

I'd half heard the parlance in typical US (Possibly UK as well) Yoff\NWA TV shows etc so I'd worked out smack = diss.

However my mind went here...

Lady: Oh, stewardess! I speak jive.

Stewardess: Oh, good.

Lady: He said that he's in great pain and he wants to know if you can help

[Pascal Monett]

"how to talk your way into"

It's called social engineering.

In these days of social media, being capable of convincing others is a manipulator's dream.

One that scum are much too aware of.

[chuckufarley]

This reminds me of the story...

...about the guy that got elected President just by pretending to actually give a shit about other people and what they wanted.

[Steve Foster]

Re: This reminds me of the story...

Even crazier, he managed it twice!

[DaveK23]

All it would have taken...

... just a quick phonecall to HR to figure out why the keycard wasn't working. Or security to verify his ID. These things are always so simple to fix, at least in theory...

[Bebu sa Ware]

Re: All it would have taken...

> These things are always so simple to fix, at least in theory...

Ultimately it is often the Dr Johnsons (of this story) being arseholes, blatently disregarding the organisation's mandated security processes that enables the same cavalier attitude amongst the troops.

Of course it would also help if those processes all made sense in the contexts they are to be applied. Often the policies and processes have been lifted from an entirely different context and applied without examination or adaptation. Security management can be as lazy and/or incompetent as any other manglement.

A very long time ago, I was present as a very young staff member in the computer facility one evening when the very new vice-chancellor walked in wanting access to the machine room to see the new Sun hardware of which the Uni had just take delivery.

No one present knew this blow·in from Adam and unwilling or unable to provide any ID he persisted in trying to enter by threatening those present with dire consequences. Fortunately one of the (electronics) techs was a big strong fellow with even stronger principles, offered (to the prick) to physically throw him out. A hasty departure followed.

Oddly enough nothing further was ever heard of this incident. Perhaps in those halcyon days even pricks owned their mistakes. … Perhaps not …

Sadly I think all present that evening have shuffled of the mortal.

[KarMann]

Re: All it would have taken...

I think you missed the point of the phrase, 'three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.'

[The Oncoming Scorn]

Re: All it would have taken...

No one present knew this blow·in from Adam, except that he was better dressed.

FTFY - However I really can't recall where I first read\heard that better dressed line, sometime a long way back about 50 years.

[Graybeard]

Hospital networks have improved at least a bit, I hope

Thirty-five years ago my wife was in labor. Well, she was SUPPOSED to be in labor--she was being induced--but not much was happening. She was on a monitor that would show her (tiny) contractions. Being a geek, I had to do some gerfingerpoken und mittengrabben, and quickly figured out that the monitors were networked. The next time she said, "Oh! There's a contraction!" I was able to say "Well, not really--see, here's YOUR contraction, and" <poke poke poke> "here's someone with a REAL contraction".

Perhaps unsurprisingly, she was less interested in the comparison than I was.

I imagine (hope!) that those machines would not be wide open like that today. Actually, 35 years ago, it was probably impressive that they were networked at all...

[The Oncoming Scorn]

Re: Hospital networks have improved at least a bit, I hope

It is funny how women lose even more of their sense of humour while in labour.

Icon - I'll get my coat, then dash out for a pint & a pie (I hadn't eaten in about 10 hours) while the ex Mrs Oncoming Scorn is having her C-Section, only to be told by less than amused nurse that it would only be about 10 - 15 minutes before Oncoming Scorn Jr would be dropped into my lap. It took another 3 or 4 hours before I was able to get a burger from Filthy Lil's burger van at 1.30am.

[Excused Boots]

Re: Hospital networks have improved at least a bit, I hope

I’m mildly surprised that you are still alive to tell the tale.

[The Oncoming Scorn]

Re: Hospital networks have improved at least a bit, I hope

The shouting & the outpouring of abuse & the fingernails digging into my arms due to her going from false alarm's\zero to full on labour meaning the epidural had to be skipped & was reliant on gas & air for pain management was worse, when it came to the second one.

Which was probably justified considering the fact it was her only natural birth out of the three, you can imagine why when the newly born Ms Oncoming Scorn was taken to be weighed, the midwifes* initial assessment of a good healthy 8 pounds there produced a exclamation of "F**king Hell - 9 pound 9!".

The accuracy of the initial assessment & the swearing by the midwife was a little surprising, as she had been doing this for years & had even trained a friend of ours as a midwife so you would expect her to be unfazed by this.

[Anonymous Coward]

NHS likely don't bother

NHS Tayside for example have a bunker mentality towards criticism and outside evaluation, where they think their shit doesn't stink and actively oppose anyone making valid criticism of their staff failings, particularly around PII....