Little Brother - School Authorities and Surveilance

[Martinus]

Let's assume for the moment the improbable of someone managing to hack your system and then specifically targeting and watching your webcam feed while you are at your computer (I assume you close your laptop when you are not using it).

How exactly is this a security risk warranting such a ridiculously over-careful response (other than a potential lawsuit from the hacker).

How exactly is buying a forgoing an intergrated webcam in favor of a cheaper clip-on a "ridiculously over-careful response"?

Most laptops have an integrated webcam these days (for example all MacBooks have one). So forgoing a whole line of products because they have an integrated webcam is ridiculous.

[Monoriu]

My laptop doesn't have a webcam. 

[Martinus]

My laptop doesn't have a webcam.

Don't need one when you have the entire flat wired by the Chicoms anyway.

[sbr]

Let's assume for the moment the improbable of someone managing to hack your system and then specifically targeting and watching your webcam feed while you are at your computer (I assume you close your laptop when you are not using it).

How exactly is this a security risk warranting such a ridiculously over-careful response (other than a potential lawsuit from the hacker).

How exactly is buying a forgoing an intergrated webcam in favor of a cheaper clip-on a "ridiculously over-careful response"?

Most laptops have an integrated webcam these days (for example all MacBooks have one). So forgoing a whole line of products because they have an integrated webcam is ridiculous.

I really wanted to respond to this but I am too drunk and tired.

*insert witty comment about apple products here*

[garbon]

Most laptops have an integrated webcam these days (for example all MacBooks have one). So forgoing a whole line of products because they have an integrated webcam is ridiculous.

There are many other reasons to forgo apple products.

[The Brain]

Many places don't allow cameras so not having one built in is a plus.

[jimmy olsen]

56,000! They're totally fucked.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100419/world/us_laptops_spying_on_students

US school district admits taking 56,000 secret webcam photos, screen shots of student laptops

By Maryclaire Dale, The Associated Press
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PHILADELPHIA - A suburban school district secretly captured at least 56,000 webcam photographs and screen shots from laptops issued to high school students, its lawyer acknowledged Monday.

"It's clear there were students who were likely captured in their homes," said lawyer Henry Hockeimer, who represents the Lower Merion School District.

None of the images, captured by a tracking program to find missing computers, appeared to be salacious or inappropriate, he said. The district said it remotely activated the tracking software to find 80 missing laptops in the past two years.

The Philadelphia Inquirer first reported Monday on the large number of images recovered from school servers by forensic computer experts, who were hired after student Blake Robbins filed suit over the tracking practice.

Robbins still doesn't know why the district deployed the software tracking program on his computer, as he had not reported it lost or stolen, his lawyer said.

The FBI has opened a criminal investigation into possible wiretap violations by the district, and U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, of Pennsylvania, has introduced a bill to include webcam surveillance under the federal wiretap statute.

The district photographed Robbins 400 times during a 15-day period last fall, sometimes as he slept in bed or was half-dressed, according to his lawyer, Mark Haltzman. Other times, the district captured screen shots of instant messages or video chats the Harriton High School sophomore had with friends, he said.

"Not only was Blake Robbins being spied upon, but every one of the people he was IM chatting with were spied upon," said Haltzman, whose lawsuit alleges wiretap and privacy violations. "They captured pictures of people that have nothing to do with Harriton. It could be his cousin from Connecticut."

About 38,000 of the images were taken over several months from six computers the school said were stolen from a locker room.

The tracking program took images every 15 minutes, usually capturing the webcam photo of the user and a screen shot at the same time. The program was sometimes turned on for weeks or months at a time, Hockeimer said.

"There were no written policies or procedures governing the circumstances surrounding activating the program and the circumstances regarding turning off the activations," Hockeimer said.

Robbins was one of about 20 students who had not paid the $55 insurance fee required to take the laptops home but was the only one tracked, Haltzman said.

The depositions taken to date have provided contradictory testimony about the reasons for tracking Robbins' laptop. One of the two people authorized to activate the program, technology co-ordinator Carol Cafiero, invoked her Fifth Amendment constitutional right to avoid self-incrimination and chose not to answer questions at the deposition, Haltzman said.

About 10 school officials had the right to request an activation, Hockeimer disclosed Monday.

The tracking program helped police identify a suspect not affiliated with the school in the locker room theft, Hockeimer said. The affluent Montgomery County district distributes the Macintosh notebook computers to all 2,300 students at its two high schools, Hockeimer said.

As part of the lawsuit, a federal judge this week is set to begin a confidential process of showing parents the images that were captured of their children.

The school district expects to release a written report on an internal investigation in the next few weeks, Hockeimer said. School board President David Ebby has pledged the report will contain "all the facts - good and bad."

[DGuller]

They're going to be even more totally fucked if someone on one of these 56,000 pics is getting fucked.

[jimmy olsen]

They're going to be even more totally fucked if someone on one of these 56,000 pics is getting fucked.

They say there was nothing "salacious" photographed, but that's hard to imagine given the amount of pictures taken. Plus they haven't exactly been forthcoming, they initially said there were only 42 pictures taken after all.

[DGuller]

They're going to be even more totally fucked if someone on one of these 56,000 pics is getting fucked.

They say there was nothing "salacious" photographed, but that's hard to imagine given the amount of pictures taken. Plus they haven't exactly been forthcoming, they initially said there were only 42 pictures taken after all.

Then again, who could be having sex in those pictures?  Do parents actually have sex?  As far as I know, my parents never did.

[jimmy olsen]

Lulz, fucking morons.

http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/201016/5526/School-district-says-56-000-photos-and-screenshots-taken-of-students

This information came from the motion to sanction Carol Cafiero, one of the two district employees with access to the security software, for refusing to turn her personal computer over for investigation. During her deposition to Robbins's lawyers, she invoked her Fifth Amendment rights and refused to answer questions as not to self-incriminate. One of the questions asked of her was whether she had downloaded "...pictures to her own computer, including pictures of students who were naked while in their home," the motion notes.

According to an email she sent to a co-worker, cited by Robbins' attorney, when told that the images and screenshots from the students' laptops were like a soap opera, Cafiero said, "I know. I love it!"