Hardware keylog factory installed in Dell laptop

Hello fellow posters and seekers,

I've been lurking in the shadows here for a few months, just getting a feel for the place. Pretty cool establishment you all have here. This is my first post, hopefully I've put it in the right place.

I ran across this page tonight

LINK

The gist is that this guy was replacing a PCMCIA slot riser on his newish Dell laptop, and discovered a factory installed, hardware, keylogger!
Not only is it a keylog, it's hooked up to his ethernet card. Hmmmm.

It gets better.

He calls Dell. Tech support hastily blows him off and hangs up.

He calls the cops, they direct him to The Department of Homeboy Security

DHS says he needs to file a FOIA request and........wait for it........

He's declined.

We are living in the New World Order.

How many of our ubiquitous electronic toys and tools are monitored by our keepers? To what end?

I look forward to your erudite comments and observations.

Gramafaloon

reply to post by Gramafaloon


Now that my friend is a smoking gun

Star and flagged.

Cheers

Mungo

I remember reading about this here some time ago.
It really bothered me.

ahh, here is what I remember seeing in the old thread.

keylogger hoax

[edit on 4/4/08 by shadow watcher]

I think that has been proven a hoax. Think about this, why would Dell risk losing many customer's because of a conspiracy like this. They would lose a lot of money if they would be exposed. I know if I was the owner I would reject the offer. Here is something to read:

>Just in case you've seen that web page floating around implicating Dell in some wacked out government conspiracy by suggesting they fit a 4mb keylogger between the keyboard end of some guy's 600m and the Ethernet adapter, we'd like to point out a few key bits, having been inside a Dell laptop or forty.

>Dell laptop keyboards plug directly into the motherboard with a ribbon cable


>He was inside to replace a broken PCMCIA slot riser on the motherboard? Uh, that's a guaranteed next-day mobo replacement on a "almost brand new Dell 600m"—not that you could, but why bother even if you knew how and had spare laptop motherboard parts?

>We've never seen a zip-tied circuit board in professionally assembled machine

>That device is far too massive to fit under the mobo of a Dell laptop

>Awful blurry picture of where it's at in the machine!

Also the person took the images from here:

KeyGhost

reply to post by shadow watcher


Hi SW,

I'm not off to a good start. I Googled after posting (note to self: Google before posting!). Must loosen the strap on the tinfoil hat.

G

reply to post by Gramafaloon


Maybe I should have googled before opening my trap too

Oh well... ya gotta love conspiracy..

Cheers

Mungo

And if I remember right, the service ID is actually burned into the bios along with the unique serial number. It's called through the SMBios interface in windows with a utility from them.

No hack solder job needed to get that job done.

Nifty idea though!

Nahhh, Keeping one's trap shut prevents the flow of information.
Post away, if it has been done before on ATS, there will be more than a few willing to remind you.

welcome to the best forum out there.

just to be on the safe side...i still build my won systems.

At one point i got paranoid about smoke alarms having a bugger, recently in australia the federal goverment had it compulsory to install a smoke alarm into every home. The smoke alarms were installed by a government person who came around to your house and installs it for you, it was then i told them that i would get my own smoke alarm installed instead of having theres installed. I also told them that they were welcome to come and check to see if it was installed. I wouldn't trust the governments devices to be installed in my house, call me paranoid but hey rather do it my own way.

reply to post by gtirlad2


Seems reasonable mate, thats what I would have done.

On the topic of this keylogger issue: How do we know that the "hoax" declaration isnt disinfo?

reply to post by 44soulslayer


Here's some more data, for ya.

Guess what Dell is up to- ATS thread from '06.

www.snopes.com...

Cheers mate, that clears it up. Definite hoax (thankfully).

Thought it wouldnt be beyond Dell to now do exactly that. They have the cover of a previous hoax at hand.

reply to post by Gramafaloon


Hi Gramafaloon I remember this key logger pictures from 5years ago the word was that the author had mad it him self.
cheers

reply to post by Equinox99


Maybe for the same reason the Chinese government was willing to risk loss of exports so that they could distribute viruses worldwide, giving them access to machines all over Taiwan, America and Europe.

Chinese Government Virus

So what your saying is a private owned company is going to risk going bankrupt to spy on 1 computer? Well, I can see you have not been a business person. The whole key to a business is people being happy with your product. No one wants a telephone that records your conversation and send it to a private company. If this guy was for real and knew what he was talking about he would have taken the company to court. He would have won...now why did he not take them to court? Maybe because it is a hoax.