Big brother watching? - United Bimmer Community

**jackjohnson** · 10-13-2005, 05:50 AM

found this on another forum. thoughts?

Quote:

GOVERNMENT AND COMPUTER MANUFACTURERS CAUGHT INSTALLING HARD-WIRED KEYSTROKE LOGGERS INTO ALL NEW LAPTOP COMPUTERS!
Devices capture everything you ever type, then can send it via your ethernet card to the Dept. of Homeland Security without your knowledge, consent or a search warrant each time you log onto the internet!
Freedom Of Information Act Requests For Explanation From DHS, refused.

I was opening up my almost brand new laptop, to replace a broken PCMCIA slot riser on the motherboard. As soon as I got the keyboard off, I noticed a small cable running from the keyboard connection underneath a piece of metal protecting the motherboard.

I figured "No Big Deal", and continued with the dissasembly. But when I got the metal panels off, I saw a small white heatshink-wrapped package. Being ever-curious, I sliced the heatshrink open. I found a little circuit board inside.

Being an EE by trade, this piqued my curiosity considerably. On one side of the board, one Atmel AT45D041A four megabit Flash memory chip.

On the other side, one Microchip Technology PIC16F876 Programmable Interrupt Controller, along with a little Fairchild Semiconductor CD4066BCM quad bilateral switch.

Looking further, I saw that the other end of the cable was connected to the integrated ethernet board.

What could this mean? I called the manufacturer's tech support about it, and they said, and I quote, "The intregrated service tag identifier is there for assisting customers in the event of lost or misplaced personal information." He then hung up.

A little more research, and I found that that board spliced in between the keyboard and the ethernet chip is little more than a Keyghost hardware keylogger.

The reasons a computer manufacturer would put this in their laptops can only be left up to your imagination. It would be very impractical to hand-anylze the logs, and very CPU-intensive to do so on a computer for every person that purchased a laptop. Why are these keyloggers here? I recently almost found out.

I called the police, as having a keylogger unknown to me in my laptop is a serious offense. They told me to call the Department of Homeland Security. At this point, I am in disbelief. Why would the DHS have a keylogger in my laptop? It was surreal.

So I called them, and they told me to submit a Freedom of Information Act request. This is what I got back: .

Under the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) the only items exempt from public disclosure are items relating to "law enforcement tools and techniques" and "items relating to national security."

The real life implications of this are plain: Computer manufacturers appear to be cooperating with the Department of Homeland Security to make every person who buys a new computer subject to immediate, unrestricted government recording of everything they do on those computers! EVERYTHING!

This information can be sent to DHS, online, without your knowledge or consent, without a search warrant or even probable cause! That's why this device is hard-wired directly into the ethernet card, which communicates over the internet!

I am not certain how long this information will be permitted to remain online for all the world to see before the government takes some type of action to attempt to have it removed from public view. I URGE you to take copy of this page immediately and spread this information to everyone you know immediately! The more people who find out about this, the more can protect themselves and raise a HUGE outcry to force government and computer manufacturers to immediately CEASE installing these devices in new computers!

**jackjohnson** · 10-13-2005, 06:20 AM

i thought it was fake then i saw this
http://www.fcw.com:8443/article74870

**Dudesky** · 10-13-2005, 06:35 AM

Wow, that is all.

Wonder how long ago they started doing this? I'm taking my laptop apart tonight

**EnvyM3** · 10-13-2005, 07:58 AM

Thats kinda crazy. It's prolly set up to pick up certain keywords like Bomb, terrorism, etc....

Oops, now I'm gonna be interrogated

**c1apton** · 10-13-2005, 08:07 AM

It's Homeland Securities' private version of GOOGLE - as if they don't waste enough time & money. Now they get to spend time watching what others are "surfing"

**komodo** · 10-13-2005, 12:21 PM

Notice in that article the date is "Sept. 7, 2001".

If this was true, in 4 years it would have exploded.

**projal147** · 10-13-2005, 12:34 PM

BOMB! BOMB!! BOMB!!!
BOMB! BOMB!! BOMB!!!

(meet the parents?...) :lamo

craig · 10-13-2005, 12:39 PM

well im not getting a laptop now.........

i guess ill just haul around my desktop... lol

**Hoppy** · 10-13-2005, 12:41 PM

thats not the only thing. the governments putting microchips inplace to moniter the methane gas out put... OF MY ASS!

seriously people.

**bmwcrazy** · 10-13-2005, 12:51 PM

craig · 10-13-2005, 12:55 PM

once, on our old computer, we got a message saying "the FBI is monitoring your computer"

**xsperf** · 10-13-2005, 12:59 PM

yea thats bs, how they hell are they gonna install chips into other peoples computers? call up dell and tell them excuse me can we put this chip in your computer that is just there for nothing? what the hell? and if you get some pretty nice programs for firewalls(the ones you just install) it tells you every single thing thats happening, including who is requesting information, or sending info, or whatever

**RealBmw 02** · 10-13-2005, 01:01 PM

Well even if it is true, I have nothing to hide from them

Or do I??¿¿??!!11!!!

**xsperf** · 10-13-2005, 01:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shpuz

once, on our old computer, we got a message saying "the FBI is monitoring your computer"

yeah, that would be a hacker or a virus, are you KIDDING me? if they were watching your computer, you really think they would come out so blatently and say it?

craig · 10-13-2005, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xsperf

yeah, that would be a hacker or a virus, are you KIDDING me? if they were watching your computer, you really think they would come out so blatently and say it?

lol. i know i know