Topic awaiting preservation: DHS and Dell spying on us??? (Page 1 of 1)

You guys gott read this (if you haven't already...)

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~jdamery/archive/www.roflcaeks.biz/lol.html

That was posted on Hack a Day, so if it goes down, I downloaded a copy...

http://www.ensellitis.com/dhs_dell/

This totally makes me wonder... Thank god I build my own computers...

http://snopes.com/computer/internet/dellbug.asp



Scared me for a minute there.


Ramasax

Ah, ok... i was kinda worried there too. Those pics of the curcuit board did look a little professional =)

Lol.. Just because you 'see' it on the net, that does not make it TRUE.... and just because you see it rediculed on that same net as a hoax, does not make it NOT true...
This whole critereon for separating fact from fiction is in itself quite disturbing and hilarious...

QUOTATION: "If you're too open minded, your brains will fall out."



(Edited by Xpirex on 06-20-2005 06:41)

For sure Xpirex, and I have been skeptical of Snopes in the past, but in this case I think they are correct.

1) The images displaying the offending circuit-boards were 'borrowed' from another site.

2) The FOIA letter case number was that of another request regarding information on Jeff Gannon, the letter was copied/pasted/altered. You can clearly see that the body of the letter was typed in as it differs from the header and footer.

3) Do you really think DHS would be so overt in putting secret devices in our computers that any two-bit hacker could open it up and figure out what was going on?

4) The lack of any further references and/or evidence to support these claims. Find me another source where the person did not take images from another site AND falsify a FOIA letter and I might consider it, otherwise, this one goes to the trash bin for total lack of credibility.

In any case, what alternative rational criterion for distinguishing between fact and fiction would you recommend?

Ramasax

Well, still you are giving me partial possible deductive conclusions based on things youhave read on the net and are assuming may be factual and usable in supporting your view or perspective. Then you tear it apart with another bit of info your getting from that same net.

This is more like photo-Pong then finding ones' way to some fact or truth.

Maybe we shoukd just come clean and speak what we feel instead of this head flexing and getting nowhere.

So what if we are wrong and others come and try to slay us.

I want to know what you think not necassarily what you can attempt to prove.

That excludes about 76% of hecklers..

Go..

QUOTATION: "If you're too open minded, your brains will fall out."

quote:

---

Maybe we shoukd just come clean and speak what we feel

---

And....what we "feel" is supposed to somehow be true, regardless of those pesky little things like "facts" and the like?



Perhaps rather than simply stating obtuse and irrelevant "feelings" about the state of information on the net, you could give some sort of information regarding the point in question...? Maybe that would be a positive way to start rather than simply criticizing everything and basically saying "give it to me my way now".

Yes, it is silly to think that every conspiracy that pops up (on the net or elsewhere) is true. Yes it is silly to hold one source of information (on the net or elsewhere) as the end-all truth on such issues.

Now that we've established that, what would you like to add?

I am assuming nothing, and my view or perspective is irrelevent. Before even going to Snopes, I went to the site where the images came from, and I have looked at the purported FOIA document and consider it a high likelyhood of being fraudulent. The only thing further I could do in investigating this is if I had a Dell laptop of the same model and opened the sucker up.

I am uncertain whether you think this is real or if you are just trying to start a senseless semantic debate on perception, fact, and fiction. If you think this is real, then good for you, show me some evidence that will sway my perception. I was originally inclined to believe something like this, especially when I first read it, but after thinking and researching it rather tha following gut interpretation, I found it to be lacking any merit.

Ramasax

I was not actually trying to prove any point at all. I have watched this forum for over 2 years and seen the same questions surface again and again and show no signs of ever getting resolved. I am becomming less worried if you can prove you point (cos we don't really ever seem to be able to) and more concerned with what is actually is your point. The 'Your' being one's point not yours personally in this case..'

QUOTATION: "If you're too open minded, your brains will fall out."

Xpirex, WTF are you talking about?


Ramasax

I think I have been mderately successful in showing my "point", and soundly backing it up on most occasions.

I would hope that by now, most would know what my "point of view" of things is.

quote:

---

I have watched this forum for over 2 years and seen the same questions surface again and again and show no signs of ever getting resolved.

---

Heh.

Maybe because some of the questions you are referring to are those that are as ancient as Mankind itself, and still haven't been "resolved" as a whole. And maybe...just maybe...you are missing the point of most of the discussions - it is namely not to "resolve it once and for all", but to expose one another to differing points of view, and learning from some, and refuting others!

DL, nice post. I agree 100%.

(Edited by WebShaman on 06-21-2005 12:35)

I was not actually trying to prove any point at all. I have watched this forum for over 2 years and seen the same questions surface again and again and show no signs of ever getting resolved. I am becomming less worried if you can prove you point (cos we don't really ever seem to be able to) and more concerned with what is actually is your point. The 'Your' being one's point not yours personally in this case..'

(on second glance I think I might be in the wrong thread..)

QUOTATION: "If you're too open minded, your brains will fall out."

Is there an echo in here?



I found a hidden camera in my PC once. God knows why I put it there when I built it.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzz.....

Btw the answer is
42



------------------------------
Support Justice for Pat Richard

quote:

---

Ensellitis said:

You guys gott read this (if you haven't already...)

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~jdamery/archive/www.roflcaeks.biz/lol.html

That was posted on Hack a Day, so if it goes down, I downloaded a copy...

http://www.ensellitis.com/dhs_dell/

This totally makes me wonder... Thank god I build my own computers...

---

The url kind of killed the conspiracy thing: "www.roflcaeks.biz/lol.html"

__________________________________


Sexy Demoness cel

We sourced a couple of svelte new Sony Vaios for (VIP) clients a while back. It wasn't long before one of them was returned with schizoid tendencies.

As the machines were provided fairly stock, they had nowt but the standard Windows XP and Office installations, plus the usual packaged junk. This included Norton's suite, but with a limited subscription that hadn't been maintained. It seems that the user may eventually have removed Norton from their start-up ( ) to avoid the nags, but the installation had been corrupted (yup, read 'infected') anyway, so it made little difference either way. There was nothing in the way of anti-spyware installed.

I did a little poking around, uprooted a few infections and bog-standard browser hijacks, and was in the process of scanning and backing-up the user's files (prior to re-imaging) when I discovered something more alarming right in front of my eyes.

Without the user's knowledge, key-logging software had been overtly installed. Only the most cursory effort had been made to hide it and even the option to uninstall it was plainly available under 'Add/Remove'. It was fairly innocuous-looking though, and I had disabled it from startup with loads of other junk to reduce the ridiculous bootup time.

However, it had been functioning for at least a month on a laptop used in a major global financial corporation whose employees constantly rely on RDP over VPN, and who have access to sensitive information (their own bank accounts, credit card details, corporate data, personal and internal mail, etc).

Spy conspiracies and Big Brother theories aside, it is fairly easy to dupe an un-savvy user or infect an random, unprotected machine - let alone an unguarded one right in front of you. It doesn't require any techno-gadgetry or specialist knowledge - just freely-available software and the audacity to do it.

What's more scary is that so many people (inc. those in a high-profile or influential position) don't take these things seriously enough. Best-case scenario, they lose productivity to down-time as they keep returning the equipment. Worst-case, they could lose a lot more than their credibility.

Just 'cause you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get you!
____________________

Needless to say, I returned it with a fresh, fully-fortified build. Now I'm being blamed for a dent that wasn't there when it left me, so I'm wondering if I'll get around to mentioning anything to them about what I found in the log file. Teehee. :wickedly_grinning_and_tapping_nose_slimie:

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzz.....

(Edited by White Hawk to correct an erroneous slimie)

(Edited by White Hawk on 06-22-2005 01:56)

Yeh, sorry about that echo.. and I got my threads mixed up..

QUOTATION: "If you're too open minded, your brains will fall out."

[Edit by Skaarjj] This is the warning which should have been. if you click the link below it will open an extremely large number of popups, causing a runaway memory leak in firefox that will consume an ever-increasing amount of system resources until you either terminate firefox's base process or your computer crashes. Click through at your own risk.[/edit]

Is this real, is this a hoax...

If you modify the right end of the URL

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~jdamery/archive/www.roflcaeks.biz/lol.html

to this:

www.roflcaeks.biz/lol/

You can see what the real intention of this is,
except the guy obviously was unable to pull it off
with the javascripting he was attempting to use.

Don't click this at work or anywhere other people are around you.



(Edited by RealJeanYas on 07-04-2005 03:04)

(Edited by Skaarjj on 07-04-2005 06:18)