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Mercedes hunts for Wikipedia vandal
autosport.com, UK -40 minutes ago
By Biranit Goren and Jonathan Noble Mercedes-Benz has begun a search for one of its employees in Spain, who vandalised the Wikipedia entry on Lewis Hamilton ...


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Fascinating. One would quickly assume that somebody working for Daimler doesn't care too much about his job.

Either that, or what about this... is it possible to edit Wikipedia and have the Mediawiki software think you're editing from an IP address which is not really yours? If so, this would be a way to effortlessly cripple the Global 2000, and in turn would probably lead to major changes at Wikipedia.

Imagine, logging in while pretending to be an IP at Microsoft, then make libelous edits about Apple or IBM. I can't fathom the amount of time, resources, and PR damage control that Daimler is now spending because of this ONE set of IP edits. Imagine if you multiplied that by a few hundred, or a couple thousand? Business would be paralyzed and/or Wikipedia's reputation would be ruined.

I need a geek to tell me if you can spoof an IP on Wikipedia. If so, look out.

Greg

James "Hot or Not" Hong (friend of Jimbo) posted on a board a couple of years ago challenging anyone to successfully do it, and no-one managed it; while that's not proof, in the uber-geek circles that board was aimed at, I'd have thought someone would have managed it if possible. Whatever you may think of Wikipedia, the MediaWiki software is pretty damn good at its job.

I've done some reading, and it appears that the MediaWiki software is not to credit for the difficulty in impersonating an IP address. It's just an extremely difficult thing to do, if not illegal in some states.

Greg

I think the banned user MARMOT was able to do this. Apparently they fixed that security hole.