Police set to step up hacking of home PCs

reply to post by freeradical

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I dont mean do a windows disk format but use a goverment wipe program.Reseting the 0's and 1's.

reply to post by freeradical

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If you zero all the bytes (I use the word bytes due to my chronic lack of understanding) on your HD truly remove all the data permanently, or can it then even be recovered with the correct tools and knowledge?

reply to post by freeradical

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that is true, this is why it is good to use a DiskWipe program. This overrite the deleted data (up to 10 times in the Paranoid mode)

here is my fav. progam (freeware):

www.cezeo.com...

reply to post by MrAnonUK

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no it cannot be recovered with any known method. There is one guy that once claimed to be able to recover the data, but he could never actually prove his statement

reply to post by MrAnonUK

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No need for backdoors when there is more then enough security vulnerabilities to be exploited remotely. Backdoors and Trojans are used by kids who think they are hackers.

Look up the defininition of zero day. There is plenty of security threats that are purposely not released to the public, that would be like throwing away a master key to every door you've ever wanted to open. Eventually, our zero days get found, so we release the exploit, and just find new holes, in new software - or old holes in old software that vendors fail to patch. Either way, there is more then enough ways to get into a system. Actually, if you were in possesion of some of the zero days I have come across, you would need no technical knowledge at all, and yet still have complete control over any system you wanted. Correct term would be script kiddie, and there is more then enough of them around.

The real hackers are the ones that write the code, that debug the flow of executable code through the stack or heap, depending on static or dynamically allocated memory, and put it all together. The ones who are breaking into most systems are the kids who get their hands on a decent peice of code and want to make a name for themselves.

Yeah, they do, but hacker does not equal crackers, take for instance, right now there are several hackers who can enter into a system because they know of some exploit windows has, but that's because the current code has a bug or is bad coded, but, that information is not really available for anyone with less knowledge, and what happens if they actually build a simple way to enter into a system, what happens is that not all cops will be able to understand how the back-door works, but surely they will be set with some application that activates the back-door, it is just a matter of someone getting a copy of this software and some reverse engineering and someone will start distributing this software everywhere, so anyone who get a hold of that application will be able to hack any windows PC.

Once the software is out, nothing can stop the wave, that's for sure.

Surely there couldnt be any way of recovering information after a drive had been re written.There is nothing to recover in that situation.

reply to post by sty

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Thank god pedo's are as dumb as me then. Regardless of any potential risk posed to my security in the future (heck I haven't got a great amount to steal anyway in all honesty) I feel the advantages of such a measure outweigh the disadvantages to the law abiding citizen.

I can't believe how easy mcinnon got into the systems he did.Has anyone been trying since.Or has the 60 year jail sntance worked.

reply to post by MrAnonUK

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well, to be onest I was allways wondering why the government implements more and more population control when its about the NET and the computers, yet leaves those websites available for everyone. Then I realised - the pedos do not pose an economical threat with their actions while a poor woman downloading 10 mp3s produces loss on the media corporations. So in the end its all about money.. am I right?

reply to post by humanaqurian

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He was hardly a hacker. He logged into systems that had default passwords, or sometimes no password at all. He recieves far too much credit for something anyone could have done.

reply to post by MrAnonUK

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I agree on the pedo issue but I think the blatent intrusion isn't justified.

Well if you overwright the data numerous times you stand a greater chance of not being able to recover the original information for sure, nothing is 100% gauranteed in the world of computers though apart from the divine law that if it has the potential to go wrong it will go wrong

Its been suggested by some people on the Internetz that you could use thermite to smelt your disk, (the stuff they used to pull down the WTC hehe), I wouldn't condone such behavour of course!

Probably the most secure method would be to overwright the hard disk mutliple times, shred it, smelt it, and then launch it into outer space.

reply to post by deadline527

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i agree with you , also i believe that the punishment is disproportionate too as the main issue was the poor security of the US institution. I expected heads to fall in the US not in the UK!!

Well if it is widely distributed to common folk like myself, we'll then be made aware of this ourself and then quickly unplug our connection. In turn bringing the demise of the Microsoft monopoly due to people moving to safer operating systems.

You have a very valid point though, if lower ranked officer/un-specialised officers are given the ability to use such a back-door it'll have to be a 'user-friendly' method. Instantly enabling novice computer users like myself the ability to access various systems. My first port of call would be the Bank of Scotland.

To your knowledge, would they be able to create such a method that will be able to be active whilst not giving any signs of incoming or outgoing packets?

Edit: I typed "saver" instead of "safer", doh.

[edit on 4-1-2009 by MrAnonUK]

reply to post by deadline527

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thats not my point.Its the fact that such sensetive material was so easily accessed.I know he said himself he is not a hacker.

I do not care if someone break into my computer.Why?. Because I do not store any information on my HD what my be of interest of any institution.
I have internet connection via USB plug in device and when I am done with internet - simply unplug. All other information are stored on my external USB HD . That HD it is scramble and protected by a password. Small batch file are executed in case of someone attempt to break into where the HD being fill by 0 and 1. 10 years ago I played with turbo pascal and wrote some small programs just for a fun. One of them was a fake hd erase. It did scare some people.Now that program protect me from "prying eyes". If you store some sensitive material on your hd and are connected trough a LAN to internet - then you are asking for a trouble. If you use a Windows then partition your hd. On C: store just windows and the another drive make as a "ghost' and scramble.
Every windows program( and most of the other OS programs) have a "backdoor" and the programmer have to relies the access to a authority unless it is for a private use. If I visit a porn web site and the info it is in my cookies - so what. I am adult person. I prefer a Linux, but some software what I am using are not available for Linux(co-pilot).
The firewall programs have a "backdoor" too and the police can access your computer at will.Be safe and be smart.

well, nothing to hide here. Yet. However, I am concerned that at a point in the future, accessig ATS could be classified as hatery or terrorism, is it? just reading a different point of view on politics can be a form of rebelion for the wrong government.. I hope that the day will never come but the tools are there..

[edit on 4-1-2009 by sty]

reply to post by sty

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I believe in some conspiracies yes, but I do not believe even our leaders would ignore the potential to capture pedo's over such minor crimes. I also realise it'll by and large reduce the ability to download copyrighted material without worry, but to me that isn't a great concern as I'd rather see small producers receive moneys rightfully deserved.

I understand it is an invasion of privacy, but still I don't see any reason for the law abiding citizen to be concerned other the potential easy back-door methods introduced. I'll gladly admit I'm wrong, but at the moment I cannot see anything to concern me other than the threat (easy back-door access in the public domain) I mention.

[edit on 4-1-2009 by MrAnonUK]

Yeah, having the source makes all the difference, windows drivers works in a stack, so drivers which are up on the stack won't know about drivers which are on lower levels, it could be something like, you can place a driver on the 0 place on the stack, but the backdoor is at -1, sound rather dumb to say it like this, and it really isn't like that, but you get the idea, but anyway, there are a lot more ways to handle that, although you can label "back-door" almost anything these days, for example they can insert a bug on purpose just so that they can use it to enter the system or they can add code so that if you send certain specific byte string to the network stack it gives you access to the system, these are just ideas but since they could have access to the source code for windows, that could happen, and here we must think, will Microsoft really would dare to allow that?