Update [2005-10-20 13:37:26 by shirlstars]: Thanks to those in the know, we find out this is a hoax. But there are some good comments in the comment section that you might want to read anyway.]
I came across this article from a newsletter that I subscribe to. This is generally a very reliable source of information.
I am not a techie by any stretch of the imagination. But those of you who are may be able to asses this information and let us know if it is a probable or likely situation we should all be aware of.
Frankly, I am so suspicious and skeptical of this administration that I have no reservations in believing it is true.
Keystroke Loggers Installed In New Laptops!!!
Elizabeth Carr-Allen carrallen@adelphia.net
===========GOVERNMENT AND COMPUTER MANUFACTURERS CAUGHT INSTALLING HARD-WIRED KEYSTROKE LOGGERS INTO ALL NEW LAPTOP COMPUTERS!
More below the fold
Devices capture everything you ever type, then can send it via your ethernet card to the Dept. of Homeland Security without your knowledge, consent or a search warrant each time you log onto the internet!
Freedom Of Information Act Requests For Explanation From DHS, refused.
I was opening up my almost brand new laptop, to replace a broken PCMCIA slot riser on the motherboard. As soon as I got the keyboard off, I noticed a small cable running from the keyboard connection underneath a piece of metal protecting the motherboard.
I figured “No Big Deal,” and continued with the dissasembly. But when I got the metal panels off, I saw a small white heatshrink-wrapped package. Being ever-curious, I sliced the heatshrink open. I found a little circuit board inside.
I apologize for copying the entire article here, but I have no link to offer you. It continues:
Being an EE by trade, this piqued my curiosity considerably. On one side of the board, one Atmel http://www.atmel.com/ AT45D041A http://www.atmel.com/atmel/postscript/first_page/doc1496a.gif four megabit Flash memory chip.
On the other side, one Microchip Technology http://www.microchip.com/ PIC16F876 http://www.microchip.com/10/Lit/PICmicro/16F87X/30292/index1.htm
Programmable Interrupt Controller, along with a little Fairchild Semiconductor http://www.fairchildsemi.com/ CD4066BCM
http://www.fairchildsemi.com/pf/CD/CD4066BC.html quad bilateral switch.Looking further, I saw that the other end of the cable was connected to the integrated ethernet board.
What could this mean? I called the manufacturer’s tech support about it, and they said, and I quote, “The intregrated service tag identifier is there for assisting customers in the event of lost or misplaced personal information.” He then hung up.
A little more research, and I found that that board spliced in between the keyboard and the ethernet chip is little more than a Keyghost http://www.keyghost.com/ hardware keylogger.
The reasons a computer manufacturer would put this in their laptops can only be left up to your imagination. It would be very impractical to hand-anylze the logs, and very CPU-intensive to do so on a computer for every person that purchased a laptop. Why are these keyloggers here? I recently almost found out.
It continues:
I called the police, as having a keylogger unknown to me in my laptop is a serious offense. They told me to call the Department of Homeland Security. At this point, I am in disbelief. Why would the DHS have a keylogger in my laptop? It was surreal.
So I called them, and they told me to submit a Freedom of Information Act request. This is what I got back:
Under the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) the only items exempt from public disclosure are items relating to “law enforcement tools and techniques” and “items relating to national security.”
The real life implications of this are plain: Computer manufacturers appear to be cooperating with the Department of Homeland Security to make every person who buys a new computer subject to immediate, unrestricted government recording of everything they do on those computers! EVERYTHING!
This information can be sent to DHS, online, without your knowledge or consent, without a search warrant or even probable cause! That’s why this device is hard-wired directly into the ethernet card, which communicates over the internet!
I am not certain how long this information will be permitted to remain online for all the world to see before the government takes some type of action to attempt to have it removed from public view. I URGE you to take copy of this page immediately and spread this information to everyone you know immediately! The more people who find out about this, the more can protect themselves and raise a HUGE outcry to force government and computer manufacturers to immediately CEASE installing these devices in new computers!
WILL SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME GET THESE CRIMINALS OUT OF OFFICE!!!!! NOW!!!!
Okay, my rant is over now. . .I feel a little better. I will be glad to hear from all you techie and brilliant tribbers as to what you think of this. Everyone is invited to join in. Tell me I’m crazy or share in my continuing outrage at these type of things.
Have I been Hoaxed, or is this real?
Uh Oh!
It sounds a little bit too much, but not outside the realm of possibility. I wrote a diary entry back in May – one of the quotes in the entry:
Great, so the next time someone’s neighbor gets mad, they can join the nonprofit group and submit that person’s name for scrutiny and red-flagging. Or maybe the anti-choice folks can step up from just running the license plates of clinic workers and harassing them at home to having them declared an enemy of the state and sent to Guantanamo.
Skeletor (Chertoff) is such a creep. And you know the Religious Reich would be right there running that nonprofit.
They have several of these groups already. One is called CPS.
Don’t like a mom who is fighting your school’s special education system. Call CPS on them. Even when the parents are investigated and the report is found to be FALSE and due to RETALIATION of parents advocacy…. The asshole remains nameless and the reports STAYS on record.
The IRS. That’s another golden op for nosy neighbors who don’t like your Kerry lawn signs.
The Sheriff can be called because someone saw you outside the house of a man who advocates the use of medicinal marijuana. You were there because he also ensures that families here without much get help. Like the small child who had cancer and we drove over with slightly used books to give him so he could pass them along to this now passed on child. A school worker drove by and frowned at all of us.
It’s, “Burn the witch” all over again.
Guilty!
I can’t believe this great country isn’t back to stringing up single women and taking their property because they must be immoral and in league with Lucifer.
Scary times.
Believe me, I think single women are coming up on the target list…and the dems will be happy to help them along.
Yes, sadly, they are targeting single moms and single women.
I’m amazed they haven’t come after hockey families. I mean, obviously we condone violence. Those anarchists who make sure homework and dinner is ready before a game so that all can watch it together.
Instead, we should all be reading the Bush approved Bible together by the light of an oil lamp. ACK!!! LOL
CabinGirl, I’ve got yer back. You’ve got mine. 🙂
Bush approved bibles, eh? I guess that cuts the 10 commandments down quite a bit…thou shalt not kill and thou shalt not steal are obviously out the window…
And those seven deadly sins: lets see, greed has been raised to an art form, sloth would describe Goerge’s whole life, lust would only be a sin as it applies to sex, not military power…
Any more suggestions?
Vanity – George and Laura both wear more make up than a 10 dollar whore.
As well as they 40 MILLION Dollar party.
See the photos of his daughters, dancing with tall glasses of booze. Can’t even set their drinks down while some guy slobbers on their neck while they dance in a gown that would cost more than most of us make in a year.
Fuck them. Fuck them all. (I’m a bit grrrr-ouchy today LOL)
Me: mascara, SPF moisturizer and I’m out the door.
We lost our privacy years ago in so many ways. I have been concerned about RFID tags etc for awhile.
The question is who needs this kind of control? And why?
I think it is the corporations and it all comes down to money. Greed and Power and Control.
The only things the little guy can do is be informed, be aware and stop buying stuff we do not need.
An open mind is our only protection.
These guys are incompetent. Aside from being jaw-droppingly mean and nasty, I can’t think of anything they’ve done with the secrecy, finess and focus that this would require. Think about the closest analogy-
They are backlogged month in translating arabic tapes, have fired translators for being gay- and can’t even fake a good Zarqawi letter.
So my advice? Sit back, have a good glass of wine and buy a MAC.
.
Just recently found reference to U.S. Institute of Peace, established by Congress as a bi-partisan non-profit organization, was soon hijacked by right-wing conservatives. Just check list of prominent members and grants for research on a multi-million dollar annual budget.
I am looking at another organiztion CPD Committee on the Present Danger, which may have created Able Danger. This organiztion also was used to spy on citizens through MATRIX analysis of public files. As soon as they found complot by Al Qaeda thru Mohammed Atta, the group was disbanded, as U.S. CIA and the Israeli Mossad were tracking the group in Europe and within the U.S. – Mossad – as CIA cannot by law operate on U.S. territory.
This leads to my conclusion, the U.S. government, complicit with the Likud party of Sharon and Bibi Netanyahu, let 911 happen, not knowing beforehand the utter devastation and great loss of life. They were waiting – hair on fire – and did nothing to prevent the attacks when they came upon New York City, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon in Washington D.C.
In the eighties, U.S. sold IBM mainframe computers to the European Union in Brussels with a Trojan horse planted in its software. Just a few years ago, the EU offices were found to be bugged and Annan’s office at UN HQ in New York, as was revealed by former British minister Clare Short.
Daniel Pipes
▼▼▼ READ MY DIARY
http://www.snopes.com/computer/internet/dellbug.asp
It’s only 1983.
Aha! Snoped! 🙂 Thanks Dblhelix
Snopes was how I got rid of an aunt who discovered email and then began mass emailing everyone that rapists were hiding under our cars and that cars flashing their lights at us were really gnagsters…
What really did me in was I didn’t vote for King Bush so now I’m off her Christmas card list and definitely off her “Email Alert” list LOL
Thanks so much dblhelix. I know that these “The world is coming to an End” emails are usually a hoax. . .and I knew that someone here would know about it.
That being said. . .I refuse to live in fear, so it wouldn’t have changed any of my ‘puter habits anyway. But I do like to know how much outrage I should have. . .like there isn’t enough already with these criminals.
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Under Stalinist Soviet regime, the East Germans referred to this spying and snitching by the name of Stasi.
The East Germans fought their way into democracy of the BRD, when will the U.S. use shock rounds for security at the borders to keep its citizens from escaping to freedom in Canada and Mexico?
U.S. Experiment in Fallujah
The Bush Administration aims to recruit millions of United States citizens as domestic informants in a program likely to alarm civil liberties groups.
The Terrorism Information and Prevention System, or TIPS, means the US will have a higher percentage of citizen informants than the former East Germany through the infamous Stasi secret police. The program would use a minimum of 4 per cent of Americans to report “suspicious activity”.
At state and local levels the TIPS program will be co-ordinated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which was given sweeping new powers, including internment, as part of the Reagan Administration’s national security initiatives. Many key figures of the Reagan era are part of the Bush Administration.
The creation of a US “shadow government”, operating in secret, was another Reagan national security initiative.
Homeland Security has hired former Stasi head, the ‘Silver Fox’ Markus Wolf?
DHS and FEMA were distracted by untimely Katrina and Rita calamities. Their time and assets are spend on setting up a domestic informant agency, that is why some uninformed members of Congress were complaining of black covert expenses by FEMA.
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Could you diary about the US experiment in Fallujah? I went to that link and I’m still crying.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9010.htm
http://www.crisispapers.org/essays-p/normality.htm – this alone could be another diary.