John Photography wrote:
At the point where it is manufactured. The malware is put into the firmware of the hard disk.  Thank you WD, Seagate, Hitachi, Maxtor, etc, and thank you NSA

What  kind of world are we creating?

I find this stuff frustrating and not good.

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSK … 6?irpc=932

http://www.techspot.com/news/59768-kasp … -hard.html

And the original paper by Kspersky
http://www.scribd.com/doc/255979726/Equ … nd-Answers

Oh dear god. Please don't say you are buying this stuff. Are you?

Lohkee wrote:

Oh dear god. Please don't say you are buying this stuff. Are you?

No not buying it yet........

But if it is proven then what would you suggest?

John Photography wrote:

No not buying it yet........

But if it is proven then what would you suggest?

Keeping the conversation on **one** site would sure be helpful.

Lohkee wrote:
Oh dear god. Please don't say you are buying this stuff. Are you?

I think it's pretty well established that this is commonplace.

The only unsettled question now is do you care or not?

NothingIsRealButTheGirl wrote:
The only unsettled question now is do you care or not?

Nope. If the government or, more likely, application vendors want to spy on me, then I cannot be held responsible for them falling asleep at their desks.

ETA: Just about every application, including your OS, "spys" on you in some fashion.

John Photography wrote:
More important.

Why are we creating a wold like this?

Spying, etc has been around for thousands of years. I'm not really sure we are creating anything new here.

Evan Hiltunen wrote:
... and my toaster is a valiant soldier in a ddos attack.

Toaster - schmoster! Wait 'till your fridge and oven join the party! Oh wait!!!! What about your AUTOMOBILE? Hmmmmmm?

Lohkee wrote:
Toaster - schmoster! Wait 'till your fridge and oven join the party! Oh wait!!!! What about your AUTOMOBILE? Hmmmmmm?

I think some folks would have missed the truth behind my comment.

Thinking about getting an icebox and riding the bicycle. lol

Oh, 1986 Chevy S10 ain't spying on anyone.

Evan Hiltunen wrote:
I think some folks would have missed the truth behind my comment.

Thinking about getting an icebox and riding the bicycle. lol

Oh, 1986 Chevy S10 ain't spying on anyone.

Didn't miss a thing. I just have a weird sense of humor. I mean, what happens when a woman's vibrator is connected to the net. Talk about a DOS attack! The ultimate botnet!

Evan Hiltunen wrote:
... and my toaster is a valiant soldier in a ddos attack.

Seems plausible.

MoRina wrote:
With all the naked pictures on my computer, it's no wonder my floppy disk is now a hard disk.

That was funny.     But even funnier that few here know what a floppy disk was.

Jay Dezelic wrote:
But even funnier that few here know what a floppy disk was.

or know why a spinning piece of plastic in a hard case is called a floppy.

On the original topic, though, unless the firmware has its own internet stack (or equivalent), traffic is trivially intercepted. And if it does, it's not that difficult to catch.

If you're worried, you probably know how to prevent the problem; if you don't know how, you probably don't care in the first place.

Kevin Connery wrote:

or know why a spinning piece of plastic in a hard case is called a floppy.

On the original topic, though, unless the firmware has its own internet stack (or equivalent), traffic is trivially intercepted. And if it does, it's not that difficult to catch.

If you're worried, you probably know how to prevent the problem; if you don't know how, you probably don't care in the first place.

No these infected drives do their stuff during bootup.......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EyROG4N3r4

Watch this from 28:56 onwards for more information.

MoRina wrote:
With all the naked pictures on my computer, it's no wonder my floppy disk is now a hard disk.

heehee

John Photography wrote:
So your hard disk is spying on you.

This is why electronic toilets have failed to catch on.

MoRina wrote:
With all the naked pictures on my computer, it's no wonder my floppy disk is now a hard disk.

you made my DISK hard as well Thank you

Lightcraft Studio wrote:

This is why electronic toilets have failed to catch on.

Fuck!

** Cleans up coffee from monitor, keyboard, and desk **

Evan Hiltunen wrote:
... and my toaster is a valiant soldier in a ddos attack.

We're getting there

NothingIsRealButTheGirl wrote:



We're getting there

Well, if you believe the media, we have already arrived.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/17/tech/gami … es-fridge/

John Photography wrote:
What  kind of world are we creating?

The kind of world that came from
Thousands of years of savage brutality and more efficient ways to kill increasing numbers of human beings
The Spanish Inquisition
The Slave Trade
WWI
The Holocaust
WWII
etc

John Photography wrote:
More important.

Why are we creating a wold like this?

For the lulz.

NothingIsRealButTheGirl wrote:
The thing that gets me is how people pass from the "my government would never do such a thing!" stage directly to "meh, whatever," without ever passing through the "okay! you were right! They are doing it! I was wrong and you were right! I'm an asshole and I apologize for all the shit I gave everyone when I denied all this for years!" stage.

The apologies, though well-deserved and long overdue, never come.

Chuckles. Ivan Pavlov was one  pretty smart dude, huh?

NothingIsRealButTheGirl wrote:
The thing that gets me is how people pass from the "my government would never do such a thing!" stage directly to "meh, whatever," without ever passing through the "okay! you were right! They are doing it! I was wrong and you were right! I'm an asshole and I apologize for all the shit I gave everyone when I denied all this for years!" stage.

The apologies, though well-deserved and long overdue, never come.

There's no need.

It's already been documented and forwarded to the proper authorities by everyone's hard drives.

MoRina wrote:
There's no need.

It's already been documented and forwarded to the proper authorities by everyone's hard drives.

I'm the proper authority, or one of them, anyway. And I'm due quite a few apologies.

The Grey Forest wrote:
my advice:  keep a piece of black tape across your webcams  ~  they can be accessed at any time, even when your comp is off.

Not unless they bypass the laws of physics....... No electrical power means no camera

John Photography wrote:
Not unless they bypass the laws of physics....... No electrical power means no camera

...you realize that there is a battery in your computer, right ?

NothingIsRealButTheGirl wrote:
The thing that gets me is how people pass from the "my government would never do such a thing!" stage directly to "meh, whatever," without ever passing through the "okay! you were right! They are doing it! I was wrong and you were right! I'm an asshole and I apologize for all the shit I gave everyone when I denied all this for years!" stage.

The apologies, though well-deserved and long overdue, never come.

I think we should establish the Hunter S Thompson Memorial "I Warned You But You Wouldn't Listen" Award for that very purpose.