I'm watching you right now through your computer! I see you......Really!
I can't make this clicky...can someone help me put this news story in here...
I actually knew this stuff already, but this is something we all should be aware of:
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/50580620/#50580620
North West Passage
Oh baby! Here...Catch these!
Quoting katy_kay08:*flashes NWP*
North West Passage
Three
Quoting loisl25:Haha! How many fingers am I holding up?! ;)
North West Passage
We have no camera on the computer, therefore we're exempt. I had no idea cameras on computers was such a prevalent thing.
BTW, this works both ways!
How I used a spy camera to snap burglar using my stolen laptop - and hand him to police
Reunited: Joshua Kaufman and his MacBook outside his office in San Francisco
A
designer who caught the man who stole his laptop by remotely
photographing him on the device has spoken after his story went across
the world.
Joshua Kaufman told how he had his laptop back within days after he posted the pictures of the thief on his blog.
He said: 'People who followed me on Twitter retweeted it. It got picked up by social media and the press. It went super viral.
'I know a stolen computer is small in the larger scheme but it would be nice to feel like you actually cared,' he tweeted three days after the break-in.
Police arrested
27-year-old cab driver, Muthanna Aldebashi on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Mr
Kaufman picked up his laptop from the police.
He
had just moved to a new apartment in Oakland, California, when a
burglar broke in, taking the laptop, a bag, an electronic book reader,
and a bottle of gin on March 21.
Mr
Kaufman activated theft-tracking software he had installed, which began
sending photos taken by the computer's built-in camera of the
unauthorized user three days later.
'I wasn't sure if it would work because I never tested it before,' he said.
Most of the images 'were honestly really boring photos - people staring into the screen. But some were definitely more humorous.'
Among them was a screenshot of
the man logging on to his Gmail account, which showed an email that
appeared to include the name of a business, Mr Kaufman said.
A quick Internet search revealed it was a cab company in nearby Berkeley, which Mr Kaufman assumed was the man's workplace.
Caught in the act: The hapless thief, who police later arrested, stares unwittingly into the camera of the stolen Macbook
None the wiser: The same man's mugshot is snapped as he uses the computer while sitting in bed
Mr Kaufman submitted the
information to police, but said they were unwilling to help and didn't
respond to numerous follow-up emails.
He turned to the internet because he became 'frustrated and thought I should try and get some attention from the media.'
He
posted some of the photos, including captions such as 'I really don't
want to know what this guy is doing with my MacBook' for the image of
the shirtless man in bed.
Mr
Kaufman said he received a call from Oakland police spokeswoman Holly
Joshi on the day he included a link to his blog. Joshi said she first
heard about the case after receiving calls from media outlets on
Tuesday.
'From that point on, they seemed to be on my side completely,' he said of the police.
'They were apologetic, and they continually told me that they would be doing something about it immediately.'
Joshi
blamed the large volume of theft reports Oakland police receive - about
2,400 a month for three theft investigators - and human oversight for
the department's failure to follow up on Mr Kaufman's leads.
Out and about: The thief was even captured using the stolen Apple computer while driving his car
Always watching: Another covert snap shows the thief sleeping on his sofa
HOW THE LAPTOP WAS ABLE TO TRACK THE THIEF
Joshua Kaufman was able to track down his stolen MacBook thanks to a security application called Hidden.
Hidden is a theft tracking application for the Mac operating system
After
installing the Hidden software, it lies dormant on the computer until
the user goes to the Hidden website to report it stolen, activating the
tracking software.
It can not only take pictures of the thief using the built-in webcam, but also send screenshots of the computer in use, internet history and the machine's location plotted on Google maps.
Hidden's makers boast that their software works worldwide, so whether the computer is stolen in London, New York or Buenos Aires, its owner can track it down and get it back.
To get the most out of hidden, the developers recommend setting up and enabling a separate password-free guest account.
This
runs contrary to the usual computer security advice, but it makes sense
with Hidden. The thief must actually be able to use the computer so the
software can gather the information it needs to track it.
With all the information captured, all that remains to be done is to call in the police.
'It was filed away,' Joshi said. 'It had leads, so it shouldn't have been filed away.'
Police arranged a cab ride from
Aldebashi and nabbed him when they recognised his face, according to
Mr Kaufman.
Aldebashi was being held in an Oakland jail on $20,000 bail,
according to the Alameda County sheriff's office.
The laptop's return was the culmination of a one-man crusade of online sleuthing, social networking and moments of voyeuristic creepiness aided by the software called Hidden.
The software - part LoJack, part nanny cam - is equipped with location positioning software.
Many portable electronics, including
some digital cameras, are now equipped with wireless Internet capability
and automatic geographic tagging on any photo taken - a helpful tool
when trying to see where a thief has been hanging out.
It's a step beyond the LoJack system invented two decades earlier that emitted a signal from a stolen vehicle.
Joshi said investigators did not know whether Aldebashi burgled Kaufman's apartment, noting that stolen merchandise often changes hands. Aldebashi was scheduled to be arraigned later today.
Evidence: The 'Hidden' software even takes screenshots once your laptop has been stolen showing the activity of the user
Holder to investigate....Holder
- NWP
on Jan. 24, 2013 at 9:08 PM