Question Scam Systems

[Mariiik]

Has anyone experienced getting a desktop/laptop/smart device that has hidden hardware or software meant to exploit the user?

I have experienced both scam computers and cell phones. These generally involve there being some sort of scanner built into the device that is not meant to be there. These aid criminals in finding people's location and scanners can further tell if somebody is asleep or awake and vulnerable or not for example. Really creepy stuff.

But, what I am looking for is:

Guides to cleanse these devices whether it is a hardware modification or OS/software change.

Any experiences or lists of certain brands or retailers dealing with these.

 

[MJS WARLORD]

The ESET anti virus that i use has a way of finding things in software that should not be their.
Webroot use to make something called spysweeper that worked out why one of my pc's was crawling , it found 5 keyloggers but i think you can only get that program now as part of an anti virus package.

With regards to " hidden things " , a few years ago in Australia some business men were at a conference discussing how money was disappearing from their accounts. One guy held out a flash drive and said he did not trust his staff so did all his finances from the drive but he was still loosing money. A few others noticed the make of the drive and they said they were also loosing money so alarm bells started ringing.

They got the flash drives examined and it turned out that their was hidden things in the firmware that was phoning home every time they were used. The drives were made in Australia and they sold 2 versions. One for general public and the other version to people who they knew were business people.

Over here in England the son of one of my friends went to enrol at a university and some guys conned their way onto the campus and sold a lot of cheap laptops. By the time users saw the message's on a black screen saying they had a bootleg copy of windows the guys had vanished.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

One reason that ANY time you get a computer or device from someone especially someone you don’t know, always wipe it and reinstall windows back to stock settings. Though some things can persist through firmware etc in that case better for new device.

 

[MJS WARLORD]

On my first pc , a packard bell back in 2003 their was a lot of pre installed software that just phoned home and i just let it happen. I open the browser and BEFORE i did anything a green box came up and said gator.com needs to update pre-installed items. As with other items i just let it happen so my pc was 20 minutes old and i got my first virus. Nothing worked so i had to do a full reboot after only 20 use.

The internet is now a minefield compared to 20+ years ago , i would hate to think i was buying my first pc today and knew nothing.