Data leaks and hacking

[Petzbreeder]

I've read many news reports on BBC News lately, and I honestly can't believe how paranoid people are about everything in their house being hacked to steal personal data.

It started when someone claimed that childrens toys, such as dolls, could be modified to monitor what children are doing when their parents aren't around. For that to happen, someone would have to physically enter the house and modify it in person with a wireless microphone, or whatever. Would anyone in their right mind allow a known paedophile into their house to do that?

Then, I read that it is possible to hack microwaves to steal your personal information. If that was true, then people would see the microphones inside it, the next time they used it.

Now I read today that your shoes can leak information. That is just plain ridiculous!

Next thing you know, people will start saying that a bowl of cornflakes can steal your e-mails!

Are people just scaremongering paranoid people for the kicks, or are people genuinely concerned?
Can anything be done about it?

[Lord Raven]

I've read many news reports on BBC News lately, and I honestly can't believe how paranoid people are about everything in their house being hacked to steal personal data.

You mean Trump?

And well, you can't believe it? Despite Snowden's leak 5 years ago that said that the Government is actually spying on everything?

It started when someone claimed that childrens toys, such as dolls, could be modified to monitor what children are doing when their parents aren't around. For that to happen, someone would have to physically enter the house and modify it in person with a wireless microphone, or whatever. Would anyone in their right mind allow a known paedophile into their house to do that?

Um...  what are you talking about?

Then, I read that it is possible to hack microwaves to steal your personal information. If that was true, then people would see the microphones inside it, the next time they used it.

Source: Kellyanne Conway. Known surrogate of the Trump administration, and a liar. Her word is meant to be taken with a grain of salt at best, because she's an idiot and the Trump administration is full of liars.

Now I read today that your shoes can leak information. That is just plain ridiculous!

Source?

Are people just scaremongering paranoid people for the kicks, or are people genuinely concerned?
Can anything be done about it?

No, because the government is actively spying on all of us (again; look up Edward Snowden and the information contained in his leaks). As for anything being done, mass protests that pretty much impede everything until the government gets rid of it.

[Petzbreeder]

Now I read today that your shoes can leak information. That is just plain ridiculous!

Source?

See for yourself. I'm not paranoid or anything, but they can't see my shoes as I use a wheelchair to get around. They can't get my information because all they'll see is my chair!

Edit: I've been googling to see if I could find the original BBC News articles about the hacked toys, even though I couldn't find it, I found it elsewhere. Hacked Vtech toys.

the Government is actually spying on everything

Maybe they are spying on us on this very forum thread right now! That is a bit of a scary thought.

[lets all go out for some frosty chocolate milkshakes]

for some reason i thought this was going to be about the Ethics of datamining pokemon demos and genning pokemon




i think what we may be talking about here is the Privacy Concerns stuff, there have been circumstantial cases where vizio tvs were recording viewers habits without their knowledge, or somewhat bizarrely when the Internet Of Things devices were being easily hacked due to the incredibly lax security and also due to the people using them not changing defauilt passwords (they were also used to co-ordinate DDoS attacks on websites). stuff like this maybe?


re: countermeasures, there are actually some things you can do, make sure your pc is up to date (yes, even your windows 7 one, it could be being used by some fat nerd as a bitcoin mining rig otherwise, dont install the telemetry updates if youre paranoid though. also if you're still running winxp i dont know what to say, enjoy your trojans) and change default passwords on everything. also consider using a password manager like KeepAss. antivirus scanners are kind of useless cos they rely on heuristics and a lot of malware is served through things like outdated versions of Flash or 0-day exploit favourite Java but dont be without MSE cos its the only one worth having now. 


miscellaneous: in Ultimate Knifecrime island we have this dreadful little thing called the snoopers charter (which was quietly passed by our current prime minister) which basically means for some reason all sorts of public bodies like the navy and the ambulance and the food standards agency etc etc. all have access to your internet habits w/o a warrant. people were Shocked about the NSA and all that but the uk is an Expert at espionage and Intelligence to the point where we were the ones who figured out how the ussr was eavesdropping on the white house at the end of the war and i guess we got drunk on being the survelliance capital of the world.

Maybe they are spying on us on this very forum thread right now! That is a bit of a scary thought.

maybe not here but in somewhat er uh Badder/Sadder parts of the internet which like to take advantage of the vunerable there will be people keeping an eye out but for the Right reasons as opposed to the Wrong reasons. if its any solace then p much everyone on here is too boring to be of any note to anyone other than weirdos from horrible doxxy websites i guess????????????

cos we're not exactly planning to do a Bad Attack on anyone or anything except the pokemon leeeeeeeeeague champioooon of sinohhhhh or w/e ingame events so

claficication edit: hello gchq in case youre reading this i am talking about pokemon the videogame and battles in the videogame in that last sentence, //gchq call off the search for some world leader or rich jerk with the surname sinohhhhhhhhh with a sign of releif//

[Lord Raven]

The government is literally spying on everything. Did anyone read the Snowden leaks?

See for yourself. I'm not paranoid or anything, but they can't see my shoes as I use a wheelchair to get around. They can't get my information because all they'll see is my chair!

http://mashable.com/2014/06/05/edward-snowden-revelations/

The answer to the headline seems like "no."

[Milsap]

Big Brother is always watching.

[SirBlaziken]

All I heard about the Snowden leaks is there was a huge rush to try and falsify him and then prosecute him, which made everyone with half a brain see that it was legitimate information.

And clearing your browsing history doesn't do anything this time.

[Laprabi]

It's already happening. Facebook uses your phone's build-in microphone to listen to your conversations all the time, then sells that information to advertising companies. Have you ever been talking about something you'd like to buy, then later see ads on Facebook advertising that exact product? Now you know why.

Yeah the government has been spying on everyone for years now. Under the guise of 'preventing terrorism' no doubt but who decides what is terrorism and what isn't?

people were Shocked about the NSA and all that but the uk is an Expert at espionage and Intelligence to the point where we were the ones who figured out how the ussr was eavesdropping on the white house at the end of the war and i guess we got drunk on being the survelliance capital of the world.

How else do you think the Soviets figured out how to build their nukes? Lord knows they couldn't figure it out themselves so they had their Manhattan Project spies deliver them the information.

Even so you'd think with all this surveillance you'd think there would be less crime and less terrorist attacks. I guess they've got their priorities mixed up, like the Germans who recently raided a load of homes in Berlin for literal Facebook posts that they disagree with.