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FBI Investigating Mystery Laptops Sent To US Governors
itwbennett writes "The FBI is trying to find out who is sending laptops to state governors across the US, including the governors of Wyoming and West Virginia. The West Virginia laptops were delivered to the governor's office on August 5, according to the Charleston Gazette, which first reported the story. Kyle Schafer, West Virginia's chief technology officer, says he doesn't know what's on the laptops, but he handed them over to the authorities. 'Our expectation is that this is not a gesture of good will,' he said. 'People don't just send you five laptops for no good reason.'"
If the governors don't want them, I'll have them.
I'll take them.
Seriously, they don't have one good tech guy who could wipe the drives/check the internals for rogue hardware?
Its obviously the one laptop per Governor project.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
"People don't just send you five laptops for no good reason."
Are you kidding me? I've received hundreds of free laptops from total strangers. In fact, I trust them so much that I do all my banking on them. After all, this nice downtrodden Nigerian prince has personally guaranteed the security and stability of all these laptops. Now, let me go check my bank balance....OMGWTFBBQ^*#^$@))*#$!!!!!
NO CARRIER
SSC
...at least give every incoming laptop to a nearby school. I mean, spying on students happens already anyway.
Support Eachother, Copy Dutch Property!
You get the laptops delivered to a big enough organisation, whoever signs for them assumes *somebody* ordered them for a reason, but can't find out who. So they stash them somewhere. Fast forwards to when someone new joins the organisation and needs a laptop, somebody mentions there are a couple lying around in boxes and bingo, you've got malware in through the front door without touching an Internet connection.
Makes me wonder, how often this has been done successfully to less vigilant offices, worked, and we haven't heard about it.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
Sounds like the opening chapter of a John Grisham novel. Encryption hits the newspaper stands before the library shelves, it seems!
What if whoever's sending them isn't just a small-time crook but a foreign intelligence agency with the resources to custom-make chips with built-in back doors. (Such back doors have been demonstrated to be plausible; someone has built a CPU with a circuit which switches off memory protection when it finds a specific sequence on a memory bus, which means that it doesn't matter how secure the software running on it is.)
Why would they target state governors' offices? Well, they'd presumably be easier to pwn than, say, the Department of Defence or the CIA, and a good starting point for setting up pieces.
Next week on CNN: Pen & Paper sent to US Governors in hopes that they'd do more work. FBI called in to investigate.
"A what? Whatever, put it in the yard next to the giant wooden horse."
Of course they don't.That's ridiculous
But if they sent three laptops, then it would be another story...
The good, the evil and the vacuum tubes.
fedex sleeping laptop
wake at delivery time
run superduper wi-fi haxor proggy
phone home
Since the origin of the computers is unknown, the hardware cannot be trusted. The computers might be hacked and backdoored on the BIOS level. Modern BIOSes are quite sophisticated with a rich functionality, that can be misused invisibly from the OS' point of view.
I wonder if the others are dems? Perhaps it is time to check the keys themselves and see what is on them
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
This just in... It seems the governor's office was right to be wary. The FBI have confirmed that all the laptops are infected with Windows Vista Basic. Truly nasty.
Next question?
some company order systems with there image per loaded or some are so big that some think like can happen they are just sitting there ready to go (not knowing that IT did not even get to them) or they are in Small Branch Office with little to no on site IT.
Real bad guys would plant a Governor or a President, not some brainless laptops...
i'd just give it to my mistress as a gift. makes me look like a swell guy and doesn't cost me a dime.
If I wanted to be a good samaritan, it would not be with a governor who had, by 2007, an average salary of 124 398$. It would be with a poor family, a child, anyone who can't afford it. Not a governor...
A likely explanation is that somebody either stole a credit card or cards or somehow ordered them fraudulently and is using this as a smokescreen. Send 10 laptops to 10 governors. Send 10 to random people including yourself. Profit! Or else an employee at one of the offices is in on it and wanted to cover themselves by sending them out to other offices.
Go for the obvious. Someone is trying to get revenge on corporation "x" by purchasing a bunch of computers and having them drop shipped. By the time accounting catches up with the paperwork, the computers will be in the hands of the FBI for a month. If the scam is done right, it is done by an ex-employee or someone with just enough access to know who the preferred suppliers are. You make a couple of phone calls, send the right paperwork, and next thing your computer vendor is drop shipping a bunch of computers somewhere.
Having worked for distributors, I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often. Having stuff go missing for weeks on end inside factories, fairly routine ... This wouldn't be hard to do. Just ship a bunch of computers somewhere else.
It is even difficult to get charged for doing something like this. FAXing the paperwork leaves no fingerprints. To the accounting department, the transaction looks like typical incompetence. The corporation won't request charges laid, because then they would have to admit they were incompetent too, and this stuff happens all the time. The police have a tough time charging you, because you didn't steal anything. If done right, you didn't even touch anything so there is no physical evidence. No evidence means no crime, and your revenge makes the national newspapers. Perfect revenge scheme.
Sending a computer by mail seems to me like a very stupid method to deliver a trojan horse. I have a hard time imaging someone that stupid, especially at espionage level.
I can imagene pentest like theese but not used by a smart hacker.
HTTP/1.1 400
One Laptop Per *CHILD*.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
...must be of the exploding kind.
Nigeria actually has a bank called "Bank PHB" with the slogan "Be you, be free, be brilliant". I can't help but think of the PHB from Dilbert;
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
And they 'clicked here'
Figures that they would find the ONE legit free gift out of all the scam.. But then again, if you are scam to the core, you can see one a mile away.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
That's funny, corporations are constantly giving politicians much larger amounts of money for no good reason - since surely honest politicians would not let a few thousand dollars sway their administration of hundreds of millions of dollars away from the Common Good.
Rip out the hard drive, install a new one, perfectly good laptop for the price of a hard drive.
If you're cheap, wipe the hard drive and reinstall (preferably some Linux distri).
WTF is your problem, gubernator?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
You'll use the laptop to finally divorce your wife, right?
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Tech: Mr Governor, sir, have you seen those HP laptops that you asked me to order? FedEx says your secretary signed for them.
Gov: Laptops, you say?
From Israel, with love.
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
Comment removed based on user account deletion
All it probably just plays Rick Astley "Never Gonna Give You Up" in a loop.
Make me remember that movie (was there?) when a ticking box was delivered, Drebbin announced that was a bomb and washed/hammered/destroyed it. Then resulted that was the clock gift for retirement or something like that. That it looks like a wooden horse don't always means that is er... "Made in Troy".
In other news MS attempts to bribe government officials with state of the art laptop computers by sending the gifts directly to their offices. The move prompted some pundits to suggest that such "guerrilla marketing" was a new direction for Microsoft, who traditionally had used bribes of cash or AOL disks.
"We wanted to strike out into new ground with this campaign" said Micheal Hunt, lead marketer for the campaign, "We thought 'what would be more unexpected or be more exciting than an electronic device in a brown box being anonymously delivered to your home or office?' and the answer was 'nothing'. We expect an explosion of these types of packages when we start to target other agencies such as the ATF and Homeland Security."
What do the states whose governors received these laptops have in common? The referenced article didn't mention the complete list but West Virginia and Wyoming might have something commercial in common. Mining or energy for example. Wouldn't a lobbyist with some powerful clients in the mining/energy industry just love to have access to some state computer systems where they could snoop through internal emails discussing potential legislation restricting mining activities? West Virginia's had problems with mountaintop removal for years. There's been talk of stopping that for some time. Wyoming has their share of mining companies abusing the environment as well.
On the other hand, perhaps a bunch of environmentalists shipped the laptops in the hope of getting access to state information so they could blow the whistle on state govt./industry shenanigans (bribes and the like).
Anyone know where there's a complete list of the states where these laptops were shipped?
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
> Send a laptop to 10 people or you will have bad luck for 7 years. If you do send laptops to 10 people you will get your greatest wish!!
>
> A woman in Canada didn't send the laptops and now she is in prison for cheating on her taxes.
>
> A man in Kansas sent the 10 laptops and now has a new laptop!
>
> This is not a hoax or scam!! YOu HVAE TO SEND THIS!! 10 Laptops or something horrible will happens. Send it to all your friends!!!
> >
> > It's TRUE!! I got cancer when I didn't send the laptops, but then I sent them and now I have a million dollars!!!11
> >
> > Don't think this is a trick!! Just do it !1 Wjhat do you have to lose??
> >
> > Jack in Fredricksburgton
> >
> >
> > > I can't count the number of times I've sent out these kinds of Laptops and gotton NOTHIONG. But this is the real deal.
> > > You can't go wrong with this one. Think about it, you already got the laptop. You already have it...
> > > but dont' just accept the gift and not pass it on or your in for big troubles.
> > > >
> > > > Here is a free laptop. Pass this on to 10 friends and enjoy!
> > > >
> > > > Richard R.
You aren't a poetry fan, are you?
I hate to feed the trolls, but think of it this way: You only have to write it once, but it can be read by many. If you take 3 seconds to clean up your writing making it easier to parse, the rest of the world will save the hours wasted trying to understand your gibberish.
coffee | nose > keyboard
I think we have enough for a beowulf cluster of state governors... All we need to do is get them to run Linux and drive around in a bad car analogy.
I wonder... Perhaps these are just vehicle purchase incentive laptops. Like the toaster you get for opening a bank account. Buy a car, get a laptop.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Sorry.
When they turn 'em on, does it show some distorted video of a guy telling them to play nice, and to enjoy the new laptop?
I keep telling FedEx, and HP, I ordered these notebooks. I just wasn't home to receive them.
dammit.
Maybe there's some upcoming movie in which this is part of the plot? In that case, getting national press coverage for this kind of event might be a marketing stunt.
You fail at comprehension.
Shouldn't that be You fail to comprehend or even You don't understand?
You underestimate my stunning ability to be modded down.
B) Eliminate all the stupid users. This is frowned upon by society.
Have each recipient use the laptop like normal, but replace any sensetive information with bogus information, then wait. If the laptops are bugged, one of two things will happen. If whoever bugged them tries to benefit overtly from using the bogus information, it'll identify them. If whoever bugged them tries to benefit covertly, they'll be using bogus information that's no good to them anyway. Either way (assuming it's actually malicious and not just an ordering snafu or prank) whoever's behind this won't get anything out of it, and they might even get caught.
This sig is false.
I am a proud owner of a brand new laptop, and its a PC !
This sounds like a start to a die hard movie the Fed might have to call in John McClane
If the laptops have some Linux OS installed, then I would say it is a good will gesture. If the laptops have MS-Windows installed, basically someone is handing them a laptop full of virus-infested software. MS-Windows has been detected as one big virus itself. Stuff that in your USB port.
Since when is Israel our enemy? They are likely our only real ally and friend in the Middle East.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Since when is Israel our enemy? They are likely our only real ally and friend in the Middle East.
Just because they're an ally, don't assume that they aren't trying to spy on us:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/05/AR2005100501608.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Pollard
Since when is Israel our enemy? They are likely our only real ally and friend in the Middle East.
That doesn't mean their intelligence agency ignores the US:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/08/27/eveningnews/main639143.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben-Ami_Kadish
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Pollard
Here I sit, all broken hearted.
Came to poop, but only farted.
"We received one package, opened it and realized that it was an error since no one in our office had ordered them," she said. "The next day we received another package. At this point we realized that they needed to be turned over to law enforcement."
So you receive something you know you didnt order, and instead of refusing shipment you call the cops? What?
The article also makes it seem like the shipments came from HP, not from somebody who had some sinister intent. It sounds like someone was ordering a bunch of stuff to cover tracks or maybe it was from Ben Bernanke's credit card. LOL
A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over. -Benjamin Franklin
'"You see, I do something real good for three people. And then when they ask how they can pay it back, I say they have to Pay It Forward. To three more people. Each. So nine people get helped. Then those people have to do twenty-seven." He turned on the calculator, punched in a few numbers. "Then it sort of spreads out, see. To eighty-one. Then two hundred forty-three. Then seven hundred twenty-nine. Then two thousand, one hundred eighty-seven. See how big it gets?"'
Why do people automatically assume that noone would be that nice?
The other two contained less moral fiber and thus failed to report theirs.
In fact, I think the Dark Lord sent out twelve rings, and five turned theirs in because they got the heebie-jeebies. (Tolkien left that part out because he wasn't Roald Dahl.)
-FL
Oh, about 1948, or so.
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
I've met people from West Virginia. I refuse to believe that any of you are capable of using a computer. Fess up: you're actually a clever macro/script running on a computer in Hungary, aren't you?
When accounts payable gives the WTF call to the receiving dept and the receiving dept confirms delivery, many companies will assume the bill is legit and pay it.
No, accounts payable don't care that the goods have been delivered even if the supplier can show a valid PO. All they want to know is who authorised the PO so that someone with sufficient authority in that department can authorise the invoice for payment.