<p>"The system that Lower Merion school officials used to track lost and stolen laptops wound up secretly capturing thousands of images, including photographs of students in their homes, Web sites they visited, and excerpts of their online chats, says a new motion filed in a suit against the district."</p>
<p>Lawyer:</a> Laptops took thousands of images | Philadelphia Inquirer | 04/15/2010</p>
<p>…Wow. That’s insane. Talk about invasion of privacy. And just generally creepy…</p>
<p>"More than once, the motion asserts, the camera on Robbins’ school-issued laptop took photos of Robbins as he slept in his bed. Each time, it fired the images off to network servers at the school district.</p>
<p>Back at district offices, the Robbins motion says, employees with access to the images marveled at the tracking software. It was like a window into “a little LMSD soap opera,” a staffer is quoted as saying in an e-mail to Carol Cafiero, the administrator running the program.</p>
<p>“I know, I love it,” she is quoted as having replied."</p>
<p>Ick. Just ick. The picture of the Robbins kid sleeping in bed is also creepy. </p>
<p>This is going to continue to be an interesting story, and hopefully a cautionary one for other school districts.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to scare you guys, but I’ve heard that there are these things called “rats” that when binded with everyday executable files and ran, give hackers control to anything on your computer that you can imagine. They can view your desktop screen and control it - they can secretly execute a web URL to download more spyware onto your computer, they can view your webcam, listen to your microphone, and do even random things like open/close your DVD-ROM drive.</p>
<p>^I know, I love it.</p>
<p>In all seriousness, who keeps their laptop open at night?</p>
<p>On the flip side, who is so paranoid lately that they point their webcam/laptops in opposite directions while changing or smthg?</p>
<p>I don’t think they’re left open while sleeping, but I know many people who change BEFORE they go to bed and then check mail and stuff before they go to sleep. Most people don’t think to close laptops before changing.</p>
<p>SLightManifesto - I am old, and not a technically inclined. Where did you learn about this, are certain systems more vulnerable (PC vs. Mac etc.). This is a very, very scary thought as laptops now rountinely contain built in webcams and in college dorm rooms there is even greater potential for cyber peepers to gain images that invade privacy…</p>
<p>^You can Google it. Some hackers live to control other people’s computers so they can download stuff and send out mass viruses/spam.</p>
<p>My camera light routinely turns on and it’s really weird. I just taped it. haha</p>
<p>^^Bchan, well I do some internet marketing stuff, and one very “blackhat” way of making money online is by getting people to install software (and you get a commission for each person who does). I don’t do it, it is very immoral and in general just not something I want to do. I’m sure it’s both Windows/Mac, as long as both can open executable files.</p>
<p>It is extremely scary - if I have even a tiny reason to think I’ve got spyware, I go immediately into safe mood w/o internet and either try to fix it or reformat my computer.</p>
<p>I’d feel hesitant to use a computer from my school now, but if it’s in school, then whatever.</p>
<p>My school district is near LMSD and we have the same laptop program … and I’m on my school laptop at home, sitting in bed, right now. Am I worried the administration is potentially spying on me through the webcam? Definitely. Will I stop using the laptop at home? Nope. But in the beginning of the year, my teacher told me we had this tracking camera software installed for use if a laptop was reported stolen - though now the district’s denying it’s existence on our computers. I smell something fishy!</p>
<p>^Tape the camera.</p>
<p>I have a sparkly smiley face sticker on it right now.</p>
<p>hahah. Even better :]</p>
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</p>
<p>Not directed at me, but I’ll give it a shot. </p>
<p>RATs (Remote Administration Tools) are programs that, when run by the target computer, allow the client to access and manage one or more computers remotely. Many RATs are legal, and are used often in the tech world (if you’ve ever had your tech guy take control of your computer from wherever he’s stationed in order to fix something you broke, he’s using a legal RAT). RATs are often hidden in trojans (malicious software disguised as something helpful) and leave a back door (a form of easy access) back to your computer.</p>
<p>Sometimes, hackers use RATs to steal your files and documents. More likely, you don’t have anything important on there anyway, and they’ll use your computer as part of their botnet (a network of infected computers that connect to a single area from where they are controlled by a botnet admin) for spreading, DDoS attacks, or just data collection (bank PINs, etc.).</p>
<p>Windows machines are more vulnerable in that the VB and VB.NET frameworks (what Windows is powered on) are more well-known. Both platforms provide internal resiliency, but the inner-workings of the Mac are a bit more complicated to get into than that of Windows. </p>
<p>You should know that the average hacker is just some 14 year old kid with too much free time and a propensity for computers. Honestly, it doesn’t take much time to learn about how to protect yourself. The price of ignorance is equal to the difference in costs between Macs and PCs (or even better, Unix distros). Don’t buy Macs just because “they get less viruses.”</p>
<p>^Well put.</p>
<p>I find this case to be ridiculous. I hope the school officials involved in this illegal spying to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Yikes.</p>
<p>At our HS, kids are required to sign a form saying they understand the ethics of using the internet before they can use computers at school.</p>
<p>You’d think those administrators would have at least wondered if what they were doing was right.</p>
<p>I deliberately chose a laptop with no webcam. But did you know that Microsoft can legally access any files on your computer?</p>
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Really? I find that hard to believe. Do you have a source?</p>