Posts Tagged ‘remote access’
Piracy Gets an Antivirus
Most people on the Internet have heard of LimeWire…which is a free file sharing software that allows users to share any file. The majority of the LimeWire network is pirated works of music, pictures and movies. There is a small percent of information that is legal, but most users are not looking for that information. There are a lot of issues with sharing information over the internet because a lot of people out there share information with malware or viruses attached. The end user downloads a movie and also gets a backdoor to their system open and allows for a lot of compromise within their system. Their computer can now be used as a botnet or spamming computer.
LimeWire announced that for it’s paid subscribers they will be offering a built in AVG virus scanner upon completion of downloads.
By integrating AVG’s antivirus SDK engine, all files that LimeWire Pro users download will now be scanned before they run. A pop-up will appear letting users know when a file has been scanned or blocked.
So, this is a great idea for LimeWire to put to work. Many users do not download their files before running an obscure executable or opening a ZIP folder. Congrats to LimeWire for adding this feature, but they still need to control their network more and take away all copyrighted material. I know that won’t happen, but piracy is not the right way to get free stuff. Think about it…$30 for a movie or 15 years in jail. You do the math and rethink if you use LimeWire or another file sharing site.
Original Post: CNET
School Webcam Spying Continues
Two IT employees at Pennsylvania’s Lower Merion School District have been put on administrative leave, and pictures taken from Webcams on school-issued computers have been turned over to the local police department, according to the attorney of one of the employees now on leave.
I have posted numerous times on the school spying incident, and if you are not clued in, check these posts out:
http://www.tylersmiller.com/fbi-webcam-spying-continued/
http://www.tylersmiller.com/school-webcams-fbi-involved/
http://www.tylersmiller.com/school-spying/
Alright, after doing that and getting caught up, lets move on to the new information released.
The IT Staff said that it was their job to turn on the webcam and monitor who had the laptop. They said that every fifteen minutes the laptop would snap a picture of who had it…to track where it was and if it was in the wrong hands.
Every time a tracking device was activated, it was activated at the request of an administrator or another IT person. The district has admitted activating the Webcam tracking system 42 times.
The school has stopped using the software and has removed the ability all together to remotely activate the webcam. So, good move on their end…too bad its a little too late.
I plan to keep my readers up to date with more information on this. My school district is adopting the 1:1 Laptop program, and I am interested in this completely. Your thoughts on webcam spying and 1:1 Laptops in school…
Original Post: CNET
Tracking a Stolen Laptop
Most of us have laptops and we carry a lot of valuable data on them. If we lost the laptop or even had it stolen, a lot of things could go wrong. 1) We would be without a laptop. 2) All our data is available to anyone who has the laptop. 3) We don’t know where it is.
There are plenty of software makers that have developed software to assist you in recovering a stolen or lost laptop. I hope that never happens to you, but it is always better to be prepared.
The software I am going to be talking about is totally free. So, I recommend installing one of these two products.
The first one is The Laptop Lock. This was my first program I used to install on laptops and it is very easy and simple to use. You make an account, download software and link the two. Within the program on your computer, you can specify any files you want to be deleted or even encrypted if you report the laptop as missing. Speaking of that, to report a laptop as missing, you log into the website and tell it that it was stolen or lost. And whenever the computer connects to the Internet, a signal is sent and the computer starts doing what it’s told…encryption or deleting of files.
The other software is called Project Prey. I currently use this program because it offers many other options than that of The Laptop Lock. This program also has a back end to program how you want the software portion to work. Looking at that, you can see which files were modified, trace where the computer is, get a screenshot of the screen and even take a picture from the built in webcam when you activate if the laptop is stolen. Far more options in this program. Especially if you can see what and who has the laptop.
Check out these programs, and if you have any more questions on either of these, comment and let me know.
Have you used these programs or ever had a laptop stolen? Comment below.
As a reminder, we are planning on having The Way It Should Be podcast Episode 2 released tomorrow. If you have not listened to the first one, go here and check it out. News, politics and technology.
Microsoft Defeats Botnets
Microsoft has taken a stand and won a court approval to bring down 277 domains that operate botnets. These 277 domains are said to be able to control over 90,000 computers over the Internet. What is botnet? This diagram was written in the BBC News article, and explains it very well.
Credit: BBC News
Basically your computer has been compromised by some type of malware you installed or downloaded without knowing it. The hacker on the other end can group together many computers and start spamming other people through your computer and Internet connection. There are over 90,000 computers infected…which means one of them could be yours. I recommend reinstalling your operating system, or running an anti-virus program and making sure your system is clean. If your machine has been compromised…change all passwords to everything including Facebook, online banking, email, etc.
It’s good Microsoft is taking a stand on this and trying to combat the spammers and hackers in the world. And its good that the courts are backing them on this operation and hopefully something even better will come of this.
FBI Webcam Spying Continued
Original post: http://hothardware.com/News/FBI-Investigating-High-Schools-Alleged-Webcam-Spying/
Last November, Lower Merion School District student Blake J. Robbins was called to task by Vice Principal Lindy Matsko principal’s office for allegedly engaging in improper behavior. The bombshell is that Robbins wasn’t accused of doing anything on school grounds or even during the school day, but had done his naughty needs in his own home. As evidence, Matsko cited a photo taken by Robbin’s webcam without his knowledge or consent. Blake’s parents contacted the Vice Principal, who confirmed that the school district had installed remote monitoring software that allowed it to activate the webcam of any of the Macbooks it provided to its 1800 students. Neither parents nor students were ever notified that this feature existed, nor were they provided with information on the school’s remote monitoring policy.
In the wake of the incident, both the FBI and the DA of Montgomery County have announced they’ll investigate to determine if privacy laws or federal regulations on remote wiretapping were violated through the school’s actions. According to district spokesperson Doug Young, the school is vaguely aware it made a booboo. “”There was no specific notification given that described the security feature,” Young said. “That… was a significant mistake.”
As for the improper behavior itself, the family’s attorney has stated that Blake was eating Mike and Ike’s candy while using the computer.
I really wonder what is going to come of this case. I am guessing the school will be at fault and either have to uninstall the remote software or do away with laptops all together. Obviously there will be new policies in place, and I hope new access control to determine who can view and operate computers remotely. If the school continues to allow remote software, then the remote software should only be employed while the student is in school and deactivated while outside of the building. This is privacy invasion and it should not be tolerated.
School Webcams – FBI Involved
Here is an updated story from CNET on the case involving the school district that had been accused of using remote webcam technology to spy on students at home. CNET Article.
Quotes from the article:
The district said in a statement that the “security feature was installed to help locate a laptop in the event it was reported lost, missing or stolen so that the laptop could be returned to the student.” The district further explained that “upon a report of a suspected lost, stolen or missing laptop, the feature was activated by the district’s security and technology departments. The tracking-security feature was limited to taking a still image of the operator and the operator’s screen.” The district claims it has “not used the tracking feature or Webcam for any other purpose or in any other manner whatsoever.”
Subsequently, district Superintendent of Schools Christopher W. McGinley sent a letter to parents saying that the security tracking feature is being disabled and that there will be “a thorough review of the existing policies for student laptop use” and a “review of security procedures to help safeguard the protection of privacy, including a review of the instances in which the security software was activated.”
In the mean time, the Associated Press is reporting that the FBI is investigating the district and “will explore whether Lower Merion School District officials broke any federal wiretap or computer-intrusion laws,” according to an unnamed official who spoke to the AP.
Your continued thoughts on this?
Should software this powerful be installed on students laptops?
Passwords
The Internet is crawling with people trying to steal your identity and one line of defense is creating secure passwords. A recent post on www.eu.com shows how insecure the average persons password really is. Here is the diagram:
The best way to have very secure passwords is to randomly generate them. I use PCTool’s free service, located here: http://www.pctools.com/guides/password/
The most common used passwords are: 1. 123456, 2. 12345, 3. 123456789, 4. Password, 5. iloveyou, 6. princess, 7. rockyou, 8. 1234567, 9. 12345678, 10. abc123
These passwords are horrible and the first thing tried when trying to break an account of any type. Random passwords are the best option, as shown above. You really need a mix of characters, numbers and symbols. Most people resort to their pet names, SSN, house address, phone number, license place number, and the list goes on and on. That is not the best practice for security!
Also, you should have different passwords for every site you use. If you have the same password on your Gmail, Facebook, Blog, Twitter and MySpace, then if someone guesses that one password, they have access to all of your online life. Creating a different password for every site is most secure. To make things easy to remember, create a “master password” and add the site name to the end of it. For example, my master password may be “Tyl3r5m1LL3r.C0m” and if I wanted to use that same password on Facebook, I would add the following: “Tyl3r5m1LL3r.C0mFacebook”. That is a very secure password.
Give these practices a try, and let me know if you have trouble creating passwords. I have a lot of password experience in both creating and securing them.
Is your password secure? You might want to check!
Remote Access
In this post, I want to talk about remote computer access. There are a lot of options out there, and LogMeIn is the number one option that I use. LogMeIn is not only free, it is easy to use, easy to install and offers a great community that is very helpful and responsive.
Basically, lets say that you have a desktop computer and while on a business trip, you forget a PowerPoint presentation on the desktop computer. If you have LogMeIn installed on the desktop, you can use any computer with Internet access to securely access your desktop at home. Log into the LogMeIn control panel, and you are presented with all your online computers, click on one of them and you are off. LogMeIn is 256 AES encrypted and essentially requires two usernames and passwords to access a computer. Your original LogMeIn account login details should be different from your home desktop username and password, so it is very secure.
When you connect to a remote computer, you can do anything you would be able to do while sitting in front of the machine. You can type a Word document, design a PowerPoint, answer email or even use it as a VPN to surf securely if you are at an Internet cafe.
LogMeIn is a great free service and I recommend it for anyone needing to get to a computer while out and about and anyone who needs to provide free remote support to clients. I have LogMeIn installed on all my home machines, church machines and all my laptops. Every machine of mine is available to me at a moments notice. LogMeIn is amazing, and have I said free? Give it a try today!
Already use LogMeIn?! Let me know how you like their service!