Webcam used to spy on computer owners

[BoogyMan]

Watch who works on your hardware, this is disturbing.



Source: Link (http://www.groundreport.com/Media_and_Tech/Marisel-Garcia-Caught-in-Webcam-Spy-Hacker-Craig-F)

Marisel Garcia is one of eight or nine women in the Gainesville, Florida who is a victim of a Webcam Spy Hacker voyeurism scandal, orchestrated by Craig Feigin.

Craig Feigin, a computer programmer, worked on Marisel Garcia's computer to fix her laptop. When she got her machine back from Feigin, it had a slew of other problems so she brought it to another area repair man. One of the new problems was that the computer's built-in camera light came on every time she was near the machine.

When Marisel Garcia got her computer back, she learned that Craig Feigin had installed a program called Webcam Spy Hacker that was using her computer's camera to take pictures of her and send them to a Web server. Apparently Feigin had 20,000 photos of Garcia and her friends, in some of which Garcia was not fully clothed.

Craig Feigin was arrested and held on $20,000 bail after he admitted to rigging Marisel Garcia's computer, and other women's computers, with Webcam Spy Hacker. Under Florida law, he could be charged with a felony and face jail time.

[GhostintheMachine]

Creepy.

[Alonzo]

When I read these things I'm glad no technician touches my desktop. One day I looked at my computer and thought "I can either buy a new one or see if I can upgrade this myself for half the cost". I've done that ever since, and I've been upgrading and repairing the same pc for the last 8 years, and plan to do another upgrade soon.

Now my laptop, that's another story. I don't know the first thing about working with the hardware on them. Makes me want to learn though. The guy who worked on it last was a bit strange. His computer shop is open strange hours, for example it will be closed at 3p.m. but open at midnight. And on a repair he once called me 3 months later to apologize. He told me that my computer was ready but he's not sure where it is. I told him he gave it back to me months ago. :lmao:

I think he's just a pothead though.

[AnnEsthesia]

LOL Zo, that is funny. Yea, we do the odd repairs ourselves. We want to build a computer one of these days, but since we run a basic computer, it winds up being cheaper to just buy a new one when they crap out. But I dream of building a kick ass computer some day... when I find someone to help me figure out what components I would need, lol.

[Alonzo]

It's actually not that hard to do anne, there are plenty of step by step guides online. I've never built a high end one, but I did build one a year ago for a friend. It cost about 1200 to buy everything on newegg.com, though it depends on what you want, you can do one for a lot more or a lot less.

[AnnEsthesia]

Well, that is the thing. I can go get a Dell from their referbished store for $600 or buy all new parts for $1200. ;) Putting it together I could do. I would just worry that I forgot to get some small part!

[jafar00]

Use linux instead of windows and they can't install malicious software in the first place.

[BoogyMan]

Use linux instead of windows and they can't install malicious software in the first place.

That simply isn't the case Jafar00. It happens less often as there is not the blinding hatred amongst the script kiddies and true hackers for linux that there is for Microsoft, but it does happen.

This isn't a remote breakin and install, this happened when the system was being serviced.

[Interrested]

This man is a pervert.

[Truth_and_Power]

If you're going to build your own, I suggest buying a "bare bones" and installing the perhipherals. Putting the chip on the motherboard can be a little tricky, and hooking up all the stuff from the powersource to the motherboard is tedious and tricky as well.

[Osborn F. Enready]

My father has been into computers since the first personal computer went on sale....

Our first machine that I can remember is the TRS-80, from Radio Shack with a cassette tape data reader...... the first disk drive he bought for that machine cost more than our latest entire system, minus monitor.

We have built or assembled all of our computers at home, by hand, and I just recently built my father a new one using some of the latest technology parts and materials.


My personal advice? Pick up a reputable book on how to build a PC, and do it yourself or use a friend or business you CAN TRUST. If you don't know a friend or business you can trust, do it yourself....once you do it a couple times, it becomes second nature and its fairly easy NOT to screw up if you just learn, understand and follow the basics.

I would never use a "box-store" service department..... ever. The epitome of lack of accountability, and too many people could have access to your wares.

My last piece of advice.... NEVER, EVER< EVER sell your hard-drive. Destroy it, break the platters, or use a grinding wheel to permanently mar the surfaces.....no amount of money you may get for it will replace what can be found and done with the information you CANT get off of it.... even if the most damaging or personal info you have is family pictures.

[Shoey]

My last piece of advice.... NEVER, EVER< EVER sell your hard-drive. Destroy it, break the platters, or use a grinding wheel to permanently mar the surfaces.....no amount of money you may get for it will replace what can be found and done with the information you CANT get off of it.... even if the most damaging or personal info you have is family pictures.

Wizard of Ozzy, are you aware of the fact that you can format the HD which eliminates all data stored on the HD, right?

[Osborn F. Enready]

Shoey said:
Wizard of Ozzy, are you aware of the fact that you can format the HD which eliminates all data stored on the HD, right?

Been there, done that, and then watched someone pull information RIGHT FROM IT that used to be there....not easy, but easy for a hacker who knows what they are doing and have the equipment to do it.

You CAN NOT REMOVE INFORMATION that way from someone who knows how, has the ability and wants to look for it.

I am fully aware of the several kinds of format programs out there... my favorite being Western Digitals program.

[Alonzo]

It's not that hard to get information off a formatted disk. You can download free programs even that will get the majority of info back from a normal disk format.

[Buck Laser]

It's not that hard to get information off a formatted disk. You can download free programs even that will get the majority of info back from a normal disk format.
I have a friend who uses his old hard disks for long range rifle practice. A hard disk that's got a couple or more bullet holes through it isn't gonna yield much data. I wouldn't say it was totally impossible to retrieve some data, but it would be incredibly expensive. You'd have to remove the actual media from the drive and mount them in a new mechanism.

I think total incineration would probably assure destruction of the information. What do you say, Boog? Could you extract information from molten/vaporized metal?

[Osborn F. Enready]

Buck said:
I have a friend who uses his old hard disks for long range rifle practice. A hard disk that's got a couple or more bullet holes through it isn't gonna yield much data. I wouldn't say it was totally impossible to retrieve some data, but it would be incredibly expensive. You'd have to remove the actual media from the drive and mount them in a new mechanism.

I think total incineration would probably assure destruction of the information. What do you say, Boog? Could you extract information from molten/vaporized metal?

I agree Buck, that is one way to ensure that your data is safe. I have shot up a few hard-drives myself, but I reccommend using a big drop cloth to be enviro-safe. ;)

[BoogyMan]

I think total incineration would probably assure destruction of the information. What do you say, Boog? Could you extract information from molten/vaporized metal?

LOL, that would most likely put an immovable barrier between a thief and your data! :D

The less expensive method would be to use Dariks Boot and Nuke to do a proper secure disk wipe.

http://www.dban.org/

[william the wierd]

This may sound tech phobic but I am far from certain that computers should have secure information in them or non-essential hardware on them. The product lifecycle has not been repealed and I don't trust any political administration. To take an analogous situation the switch to digital TV next year makes it quite feasible to have upto 80 broadcast channels per market. Where is the market for cable modems if basic cable can be broadcast for free? Between DSL phonelines and free high def TV a high-tech shake out strikes me as highly possible in the coming year.

A lot of the stuff being mentioned on this thread sounds a lot like buying a 2K 8 track system just before cassettes hit and then turning around and buying a 2K cassette system just before CDs hit. Why not wait for the next bust and find out what is both cheap and lasting?

[Buck Laser]

This may sound tech phobic but I am far from certain that computers should have secure information in them or non-essential hardware on them. The product lifecycle has not been repealed and I don't trust any political administration. To take an analogous situation the switch to digital TV next year makes it quite feasible to have upto 80 broadcast channels per market. Where is the market for cable modems if basic cable can be broadcast for free? Between DSL phonelines and free high def TV a high-tech shake out strikes me as highly possible in the coming year.

A lot of the stuff being mentioned on this thread sounds a lot like buying a 2K 8 track system just before cassettes hit and then turning around and buying a 2K cassette system just before CDs hit. Why not wait for the next bust and find out what is both cheap and lasting?
I don't really think so, William. I've worked with word processing systems since about 1968, and personal computers since 1981. I don't even know how many computers I've owned by now. But I've never gone out and bought the latest and greatest just to be the first kid on the block to have one. The last computer I bought, in Feb. 2007 still serves well. I will buy a new one when some application I have requires more power or speed than I now have, or when some component quits working reliably. I buy the peripherals I need, but those needs seem to grow. I'm running an optical character recognition program so I can import hundreds of pages of family history written by one of my great grandfathers. Additional peripherals don't really increase the level of risk to a computer.

Today's computers are actually highly reliable compared to just ten years ago. Then, integrating a new piece of hardware into a network could be a nightmare. Now, it really is plug and play in most instances.

As to high speed internet, it's worth every penny. A cable modem is the next thing to a T1 line, the normal standard for high speed connections. I've been on cable since 2000, and I don't know how I could go back to a phone modem or even a DSL line.

The trouble with computers today, for me at least is that they don't really involve much of a technical challenge any more. You go to the store, you buy the components, and you put 'em together. You're usually up and running in a few hours. Even transferring the data from one machine to another is easy.

I've been a good shade tree mechanic all my life on all kinds of things, but I see the day coming when computers, like cars, will no longer be user serviceable. In a way, I dread that day.

[Alonzo]

I've been a good shade tree mechanic all my life on all kinds of things, but I see the day coming when computers, like cars, will no longer be user serviceable. In a way, I dread that day.

I think it's going in the opposite direction. I know nothing about cars and I can fix minor things in my civic and other cars have similar setups. Cars a few years older though I'm completely unable to do anything with.

For example, I purchased a car radio with ipod/usb hookup for my civic and installed it myself, without having the first clue as to what I was doing. Then, thinking it was easy, I bought one as a gift for a friend who drove one from 98. Big mistake. The whole dash had to be taken apart, and the how to guides I looked at said it wasn't something a novice should do. That compared to my 03 civic where all I had to do was push my fingers right above the dash and it popped out. I ended up paying an additional 75 to have someone install it for him.

Same thing with a pc. I have a pc I originally bought in 2000 and I added a hard drive, dvd player and sound card without any idea of what I was doing prior to that. A few years later I then completely upgraded a pc with just a quick how to guide. Went flawlessly. At the same time trying to do simple things such as even removing the hard drive out of a pc made in 97 or 98 seems impossible.

[Buck Laser]

I think it's going in the opposite direction. I know nothing about cars and I can fix minor things in my civic and other cars have similar setups. Cars a few years older though I'm completely unable to do anything with.
You're certainly right in a way, Zo. But even a complete idiot can learn how to rebuild and repair the original VW Beetle if he's interested. But cars today are pretty much a closed system. I haven't had a car in years that I could change the spark plugs on. I can and do check the tire pressure, change wiper blades, and follow the maintenance schedule. That's about it.

Yes, you can add a component to newer cars--mostly through USB ports and such. But my newest car, a 2006, doesn't have USB ports.

When it comes to computers, I'm really thinking about stuff like I-phones, blackberries, even laptops, not desk tops. I can and do put new hard drives and peripherals on our laptop and both desktops. But the sheer miniaturization of a blackberry would scare me away.

They times, they are a'changing, and it's prolly gonna be real different even in the relatively few years before I die. What pleases me is that it doesn't scare me. It just frustrates me sometimes.

[jafar00]

This man is a pervert.

A shining on topic post amongst the noise :D