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Thread ID: 108977 2010-04-19 04:48:00 This is ridiculous ... Spying on children by school SP8's (9836) PC World Chat
Post ID Timestamp Content User
877980 2010-04-19 04:48:00 nz.yahoo.com

I was left speechless when I viewed this. My wife & I have had overseas students staying with us at various times and one particular student always kept her laptop camera covered .... We thought she was being paranoid !

I don't want details, but can anyone explain how easy it is to hack into someone's lappy and get access to their camera.

Yes ... we have a daughter !!
SP8's (9836)
877981 2010-04-19 05:04:00 The school probably own the computers, and probably installed some kind of monitoring software. Unless the school your daughter goes to stole your laptop or computer, and installed something on it, I doubt anything would happen. Or the school gave it to her (like the link). And unless you were hit by a trojan or something when can be used to do anything Speedy Gonzales (78)
877982 2010-04-19 05:29:00 nz.yahoo.com

I was left speechless when I viewed this. My wife & I have had overseas students staying with us at various times and one particular student always kept her laptop camera covered .... We thought she was being paranoid !

I don't want details, but can anyone explain how easy it is to hack into someone's lappy and get access to their camera.

Yes ... we have a daughter !!

I have no seen the link, I am at work and we block flash video.

but...

I assume this is related to the case in USA of a school spying on a student using the webcam in the laptops?

in that case, the school owned the laptops and provided them to students.
the school had installed a specical application to "spy" on the user.
this was done to help recover the laptop should it get stolen.

the problem came about when the school used the system to spy on student when the laptop had not been reported as stolen.

it would be possable to have a virus/trojen that did much the same thing.
I would strongly recomend covering the webcam if not in use.

BTW the school is getting the ass sued off it.
robsonde (120)
877983 2010-04-19 06:27:00 Don't Apple laptops allow remote triggering of the webcam for if it gets stolen? I'm sure I have seen a news item where somebody did log into their Apple laptop once it was stolen gary67 (56)
877984 2010-04-19 06:49:00 The whole idea of the software now owned by Absolute Manage (http://www.lanrev.com/) is so if a laptop gets stolen you can remotely activate the web cam to see the person or even where it may be, and maybe able to recover it.


Absolute Software is the leader in tracking, managing and protecting computers and mobile devices. The Company's Computrace, Absolute Manage and LoJack® for Laptops solutions provide theft recovery, data protection and IT asset management capabilities to organizations and consumers.

Obviously while meant to used as a security feature, it can in the "wrong" hands be used to spy. More about the software (www.tuaw.com)
wainuitech (129)
877985 2010-04-19 07:22:00 I realise that the school owned the computers and had "tracking" software for the computers - whether it was GPS or webcam I'm unsure. What concerns me is that they the computer was not stolen and it would seem that this case was not an isolated incident. The school has apparently "deleted' many of the pictures which indicates that some teachers were abusing the whole system.

Personally, I hope they find out which teachers were involved and dispense with them accordingly .... in the most painful way possible !
SP8's (9836)
877986 2010-04-19 07:46:00 Two IT Employees now on leave (www.philly.com) Naughty :nerd::nerd: s


Michael Perbix, a network technician, and Carol Cafiero, information systems coordinator Guilty till proven Innocent ??
wainuitech (129)
877987 2010-04-19 08:00:00 There are better hardware tracking systems out there than using a webcam and taking a pic every 15 minutes... johcar (6283)
877988 2010-04-19 08:27:00 George Orwell wrote about it Sixty Years ago.

How prophetical. ;)
B.M. (505)
877989 2010-04-19 14:26:00 Two IT Employees now on leave (www.philly.com) Naughty :nerd::nerd: s

Guilty till proven Innocent ??

Oh no, they're guilty alright. School administrators have already outlined the role of those two and IIRC, charges have been filed or should be soon. They will implicate someone higher than them though, the person who gave them permission to do all this~
beeswax34 (63)
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