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Police Say Mac Tech Installed Spyware To Photo Women
CWmike writes "He was hired to fix their computers, but police say that Trevor Harwell instead installed spyware software that took candid photos of his clients in various states of undress. Harwell had been a Macintosh specialist with a Los Angeles-area home computer repair company called Rezitech. That's how he allegedly had the opportunity to install the spy software, called Camcapture, on computers. While working on repair assignments, the 20-year-old technician secretly set up a complex system that could notify him whenever it was ready to snap a shot using the computer's webcam, according to Sergeant Andrew Goodrich, a spokesman with the Fullerton Police Department in California. 'It would let his server know that the victim's machine was on. The server would then notify his smartphone... and then the images were recorded on his home computer,' he said. Police say they've found thousands of images on Harwell's computers and have identified dozens of victims, all of them women in Los Angeles and Orange County. Harwell was arrested Wednesday by Fullerton police." But was he a good repairman?
This guy was a rogue and clearly not following Apple policy. Apple states explicitly in their policy manual that spying on customers in any way--through their webcam, microphone, user accounts, etc.--is strictly prohibited for all Apple employees except Steve Jobs.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Insert inappropriate weiner joke
When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
Apparently he is qualified to work for one of the school boards in Pennsylvania
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
Pictures or it didn't happen.
Cheers,
Matt
Once he's convicted he should be sentenced to use Windows for the rest of his life. That should teach him.
Now that is creative. Had to be some mighty dumb women who fell for that.
This is not possible, Steve has said us that macs do not have spyware or any other problems.
Pic's or it didn't happen
-Ours is the wisdom of Solomon, the magic of Merlyn, the fall of Icaris.
I don't know if he was a good repairman, but he sure is a tool. Fixed himself but good.
Pics or it didn't happen!
They can put him on the committees that supervise the NSA pen registers, RealID, biometric passports, FBI, etc.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
The Lower Merion School District has heard of your excellent work and would like to offer you a position...
Don't these people know, that when the little green LED is on next to the camera there is something going on with the camera?
I do not know if there is any spyware that can disable that, but in my experience: whatever touches the camera, the led comes on.
I am surprised about all these secretly filmed students, thieves, women who have 1000s of pictures taken of them and never figured that GREEN LIGHT=CAMERA ON.....
Really, is there any software that can use the MAC cameras without turning the light on ?
He wouldn't have been arrested if he just registered himself as a school first. Then it's just a lawsuit.
Clearly they should have gone to a Genius for repairs. This would never have happened then. Life's scary outside the walls.
This guy seriously needs to get laid. Seriously.
Next on to Catch a web cam Predator.... the mac tech.
Another article posted on the same subject (spying using webcam) that conveniently mentions a Mac in the title when Apple is in no way responsible or involved. Shocking, I say!
hhmmmm, just how useful is this story without pics? We need to see and judge his crimes ourselves, and the only way to pass an impartial judgment is by closely examining all of the evidence.
You can't handle the truth.
I would love to see a follow up story on what happens to his employer. They say no press is bad press. But I am sure "they" did not consider this type of press. I also wonder if other people in the company knew about this behavior? You could reasonably expect that a victim called the company to ask about the warning? It seems hard to believe that no one else at the company knew what was going on.
I have been telling my clients for years as more and more laptops have gotten built in cameras or more clients have webcams hooked up to their desktops -> put a piece of tape or a post-it note over the lens when not in use. I may be paranoid but it definitely keeps that camera from doing that.
I never understand idiots like this, with all the free porn online now, why would anyone do this? Yes, I know they are sick but still.
Can photo be used as a verb? Not according to online sources.
Story is obviously a fake.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
As if it wasn't creepy enough.
Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don't know because we don't want to know. --Aldous Huxley
Malware checker should have picked this up.
When one the the ladies brought her MAC back in to be repaired he commented "we have that fixed for you in a jiffy, by the way i really like you new nipple piercings"
Pic's or it didn't happen
What gives you the right to see them?
Comments seem to be a lot of 'damage control' for ~either Mac or this guys defense..
Hi, I'm here to probe your ports. Let me wiggle this a bit. Wham-O! I just set up your back door!
Too bad he doesn't work for a PA school system. If he did he'd get out of jail free, even if the victims were minors.
Macs are mainly used by people who have no clue about computers.
Ie. Women.
I reviewed Rezitech's blog and ran across this wonderful piece:
SOURCE: https://www.rezitech.com/blog/2010/03/25/blogging-for-business/, "Always Be Pimping: I have no idea where I first heard this (maybe from Chris Rue, but I’m sure he heard it from someone else like Erick Simpson or even Karl), but it’s pretty straight forward. The idea is to promote your products and services every chance you get (did you know that Rezitech can save money from your phone bill? I’m just saying pimping), and this includes in your blog. Whenever the opportunity arises (Rezitech can also provide your entire IT infrastructure with zero up-front investment!) you should mention how your company can help others. "
Sorry, under no circumstance is it okay to compare your sales strategy to prostitution in a public forum. Especially when your firm is caught in the middle of a scandal of this proportion! I have to wonder if Resitech knew about his actions.
Story is obviously a fake.
The geek spends too much time in grandma's basement.
I've never understood the demand for this choppy grainy voyeur stuff with the current...... economic availability of porn on the internet.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Would little snitch have caught the offending program phoning home? Although he probably looked to see if the users had this installed.
then ugly PC girls.
So why don't built-in webcams have a sliding cover? It seems like the equivalent of a 'WiFi Disable' switch for the camera would stop these things dead. Of course it could just be a switch on the power supply line, but that wouldn't encourage the same sort of consumer confidence as an actual sliding cover.
While working as a BOFH for a large university, I had a number of directors that had no end of computer issues. When it was time to refresh the hardware, I replaced all of their nightmare windows machines with iMacs. My workload dropped considerably as their machines were not constantly needing attention. But the machines still needed administered, updates, upgrades and software installs. Since I loath to actually interact personally with my clients, I did nearly all the administration remotely, and my directors were aware of this. I made it clear to them that they needed to LOG OUT of their machines when they left the office for the day so that I would know, remotely, that they weren't logged in working on something. Can't teach a new dog old tricks... there were a few that just never understood why I needed them logged out, and rarely did so. Rather than just forcing a log out remotely, I installed a cli program that snapped a web cam image so I could see if the user was still at the console, or merely forgot to log out. This worked quite well. If the user was working late, I would immediately know, and I would come back to that machine later. If they just forgot to log out, the office would be dark, and I could safely log them out remotely without fear of them losing their work. It never occurred to me to set up a web cam pic harvesting operation. I had to work on their computers... the last thing I wanted to was to see their faces.
Maybe he could work for the schoolboard now?
The blue LED on my laptop is blindingly bright...You sure as hell know when it is on.
Just saying, where's the proof? :o)
That's what I don't get either when such a story comes up. Forget even strip clubs, it's not like there isn't an abundance of higher res images on the Internet if he wants to see naked women on his computer. So exactly what is it that makes yet another idiot break the law?
I'm guessing it gives the idiot some kind of feeling of power or something.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
... but I'm hoping soon he'll see "Inbred Cell-Mate Called Bubba Gone Horny And Wild". Since he likes shower scenes, I hope it'll involve picking the soap.
Yes, I know it's not a nice thing to wish someone, but, WTH, the whole point is that I'm not wishing him a nice time.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Some I'm just going to come out and say it:
rapidshare??
But was he a good repairman?
This right here is why many geeks will remain dateless. Good job, samzenpus.
Unless someone is trying to spoof him, someone with the same name claiming to be from Fullerton, CA had a website at http://trevorharwell.com. Alas, the site seems to be down/unresolvable for some reason (har!), but according to the Google Cache the pages included "Games", "Files", "Photos", "Blog", and "Software". Hmmm... I wonder what kind of photos?
Of their own stupidity and ignorance, maybe.
Except for the woman who finally blew the whistle. At least she was suspicious enough to get a second opinion rather than doing any fool thing the computer asked her to do without question. That the guy was able to obtain "thousands" of photos (which implies that this was likely going on for some time), and that some of the women took the computer into the bathroom while they showered makes me fear for the future of the human race just a little more than I did a few minutes ago.
It has nothing to do with liking to see naked chicks. Sure, I like to see naked chicks too. I don't go install spyware on people's computers for that.
Similarly we all like money, but most of us don't go empty someone's bank account with a keylogger or phishing site. And most of us like sex, but we don't give someone some *ahem* surprise sex. And most of us would like something bad to happen to that guy who was the school bully or to some cruel ex or idiot boss or whatever, but we don't go set their house on fire. Etc.
Reducing it to liking or wanting something is ridiculously simplistic. The question isn't what he wanted, but how he went about that.
And frankly, few things piss me off than the kind of person who's only kept from being a bully or a crook by not having the balls to do it IRL, but who turns into a bully or a crook as soon as there's a couple of routers between him and the victim. I don't have much respect for the former category to start with, but the kind who thinks he's so L33T for hiding behind the screen to do it, ranks even lower for me.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
He was not behind the required 7 proxies...
There is no difference; a violation of privacy is still a violation of privacy. The difference is in one case it was a single pervert; in the other case it was a criminal conspiracy and all the perps should be jailed just like bunch of mobsters.
Yeah, but that's exactly the point. You can just search google and get more than enough photos of chicks fitting any body ideal or fantasy one may have. "Amateur", skinny, fat, big boobs, small boobs, redhead, blonde, brunette, cheerleaders, goths, whatever you can imagine really.
So exactly what makes a certain category of idiot prefer to be a crook or a bully to get the same?
I mean, it's like having a public drinking fountain on one side of a road, and seeing someone shoplifting a bottle of water on the other side of the road. The question that comes to mind is: why?
I can't say I know the answer, but it looks to me like the forbidden fruit was basically the illegal act, rather than the pics he got.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
What are you talking about? Women using Mac are usually the hot and artsy/designer ones.
The ones using Windows are the fat moms, and the ones using Linux are almost certainly the fat geeks.
that's why I like to be a man, nobody wants to see me naked
It was a christian university.
The original tubular Apple iSight camera had a three-piece mechanical iris lens cover made of white plastic that would open and close when the front bezel was twisted, in addition to the LED on top of the device. It was behind a glass cover, so there was absolutely no functional value to this "door" other than to let the user know that the camera could not possibly be looking at them when the device was switched off. I'm sure it must have added greatly to the cost of the camera, but Jobs and Co. must have thought inspiring a feeling of privacy and security in the user important enough to justify the cost. Once cameras got small and cheap enough to build into every machine, this method of visual feedback was dispensed with, at least on machines built by Apple. I have explained to countless Mac clients over the years that the light is indeed hard-wired to the camera and cannot be disabled, that after I get done configuring their machine it will be safe from any and all malware (assuming they do not change certain settings), yet if they still feel the least bit uneasy, a piece of tape or post-it note over the camera is nothing to be embarrassed about. After all, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you...
I'm sorry ... but If you're dumb enough to believe that you should subject your computer to steam AND dumb enough to believe that doing it naked in the shower is your only option -- as opposed to hitting your computer with a blast of steam from that button on your iron, or holding your computer next to your pot of brewing tea -- then you deserve what you got.
This is certainly not flamebait, although it's nice to know you have friends who will abuse moderation on your behalf.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Doesn't he know there are MUCH easier ways to look at naked women using a computer?
I doubt he could fix a pc.
Some Mac women were actually born as men, otherwise you are correct.
This is important.
Yeah - pics or it didn't happen
Time to face the music here now and answer a simple question http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2225174&cid=36390518
Normal Mac users?
/. fanboys forget that the average Mac user bought a Mac because they swallowed the marketing and believed they would never have to think about what their computer is doing.
No.
You and a lot of other
This is why I cringe whenever a clueless user brings a Mac in, they expect that everything will magically work when Mac's don't get along with Windows domains or shares at all.
At least when someone brings me a Linux machine, they normally understand that there's going to be some work involved on their part.
You've never done tech support for Mac users before. Oh hell, why just pick on Mac users, most users are that clueless.
When the average Mac user when they see a green light on is "Awww, that's cute" . Nowhere in their mind is that actually linked to a function. Few users actually get the connection between the light that comes on when you press the power button, let alone the HDD activity LED.
These are people who have no, nor want any knowledge on the internal workings of their machine.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
What are you talking about? Women using Mac are usually the mentally unstable, clingy ones.
there, fixed that for you.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Why would a male who works with mac want to look at women? To be catty about her outfit that day?
Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2225174&cid=36390518 Because it shows you for who & what you REALLY are, Linux troll?? Absolutely. Caught red-handed, with your pants down troll, lol!
Avoid this SIMPLE question then, troll? http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2225174&cid=36390518 Because it shows you for who & what you REALLY are, Linux troll?? Absolutely. Caught red-handed, with your pants down troll, lol!
Maybe he had a fetish for women/men caught on hidden camera? There must be a fetish for that.
They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock
The real surprise was that someone who is proficient enough with Macs to repair them would want to look at women.
Obviously, it's an exception if the person doing the looking is a woman....
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
You guys are a bunch of jerks, including the CWmike who posted the story, who asks "but was he a good repairman?"
Beyond making fun of the "repairman" and alerting other readers to the fact that he could have been doing the same while working for a schoolboard, the rest of your comments are misogynistic if not worse. Keep them for the locker-room or the bar. Slashdot is cool and smart and fun in general. On this occasion it was crap from the very first post. Don't let CWike publish again please, I don't want his idiocy in my mailbox in the morning.
disclosure: I am male and as such very capable of satiric, shocking, revolting and otherwise base retorts. I share those with my real-life friends.