Comments on: New Mac trojan hints at ties to high-priced commercial hacking toolkit

By: Greg L

Greg L — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 19:01:51 +0000

@ Piccio

If you are basing your opinion on the premiss that US trade with China is a “level playing field,” you are mistaken. Take just one example of this vaunted “IP” that we will sell them in return for their crap: Hollywood movies. China restricts the number of foreign movies allowed to be shown in the country. They do this with all sorts of industries.

By: Greg L

Greg L — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 18:53:38 +0000

That is very good to know. Thanks.

By: kingmel

kingmel — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 18:46:00 +0000

This was hashed out years ago. Apple hard wired the LED into the camera power circuit. If the camera is on, then the LED is on unless someone opens up your Mac and physically bypasses the LED.

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 15:09:06 +0000

I understand that part. What puzzles me is what they mean by “specific indevidual’s”. Like, what group of people or what oranizations are the targets of this Trojan and why?

By: Piccio

Piccio — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 10:29:18 +0000

dont tell me you guys are starting to veer towards business/trade regulation as a remedy

By: Snoop dogg

Snoop dogg — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 10:21:15 +0000

Covering the microphone would give protection from being listened too 😏

By: Greg L

Greg L — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 05:16:53 +0000

You are dead-on correct. It is precisely all that sort of stuff. Western engineers spent decades doing primary metallurgical experiments—much of the good stuff in the 1950s—that was slowly distilled into paint-by-the-numbers know how. And then, just because everyone wants cheaper labor, we had American manufacturers just give it all away.

By: Hardy Har Har

Hardy Har Har — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 03:28:44 +0000

There are some things that should have been better thought out. Giving them the technology to make new “Cabbage Patch” dolls is one thing, the technology to make precision ball bearings, for example, another.

By: Really

Really — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 03:14:27 +0000

Yes sadly you are dead right and I agree.

By: Greg L

Greg L — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 02:55:37 +0000

The “giving” it to them part no-doubt accounts for many trillions of dollars of I.P. That is in addition to all the robbing the Chinese have been doing. As I wrote, a 4-star general recently testified before Congress that outright theft accounts for one trillion dollars-worth of I.P. stolen—much of it by China.

By: Hardy Har Har

Hardy Har Har — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 02:32:58 +0000

They haven’t been robbing us. We were stupid enough to give it all to them.

By: really

really — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 01:49:11 +0000

the Chinese have been trying to break into multiple US aerospace and defense companies on a monthly basis.

they have written malware and spyware specifically targeting the networks of more than one of these companies.

Why the hell we manufacture all of our crap there and consider the country an ally is beyond me. They’ve been robbing the US of technology for years now.

By: Ubermac

Ubermac — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 01:44:59 +0000

That means they design an email targeting a specific person, making it look like it is coming from a friend or other trusted source. Then the target user clicks on an attachment gets infected, potentially then opening up the entire network that user is connected to.

This is how companies get infiltrated.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 23:22:07 +0000

Hmmm! Quite interesting. Though I am puzzled by what they mean by “being used to target specific indevidual’s”. Who would these individuals be? When they mentioned the ittalian Firm selling these toolkits, my first guess was kind of crazy—That toolkit probably has something to do with the malware. And the Firm is selling that toolkit to governments to spy on other groups and/or nations that
One a threat. So, in this picture, those groups and nations would be the specific indevidual’s. But, then again, maybe not…..that’s sounds kind of insane.

…still not certain who those specific indeviduals are though.

By: Rorschach

Rorschach — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 23:17:43 +0000

Ha! The one thing I don’t have to bother with is a silly bit of cardboard over my Mac’s camera.

By: Greg L

Greg L — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 23:10:02 +0000

Microphone. Indeed. The best overall anti-cyberspying strategy is what I have installed and swear by: Little Snitch (Little Snitch homepage). It flags all outgoing traffic. You train it for a few weeks until it recognizes various programs that “phone home” to check for upgrades and what not. I forget what Mac spyware that recently made the press, but the spyware was designed to not install on any Macs that had either Xcode or Little Snitch installed; they cyber-douches didn’t want their program to be discovered by savy programmer-types.

By: perryfjellman

perryfjellman — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 22:30:48 +0000

I’m pretty sure the LED is hard wired to the lense electronics. That was the point, as an on indicator and security measure so folks couldn’t be spied on by malicious software.

By: dialtone

dialtone — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 22:20:55 +0000

Remember, there’s a sensitive mic in there too, not just a camera.

By: skylark

skylark — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 22:19:00 +0000

Why use cardboard? … just stick a little bit of “Bluetack” over the lens.

By: Greg L

Greg L — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 21:57:29 +0000

Are you positive about this, perryfjellman? The key to the answer is whether the LED is being driven by an independent, dumb circuit that illuminates the LED whenever the camera is activated, or whether the camera is merely accessed by the software and a microprocessor-controlled output turns on the LED. I would pretty much expect it to be the latter. But I would appreciate it if someone who knows for certain about how that LED is activated would weigh in here.

By: Greg L

Greg L — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 21:54:01 +0000

BTW, G4Dualie, if and when we get through an upcoming European clinical trial on a new medical implant we’re working on, then I will pay even more attention to cyber-security. A 4-star general recently testified to Congress that the one trillion dollars-worth of intellectual property is being lost due to cyber-espionage each year. How much of that is attributable to the Chinese was classified and wasn’t disclosed in open testimony. I’m quite sure the Chinese have little interest in whatever faces you might be making in front of your monitor. But every U.S. company that makes anything remotely high-tech should take computer security very seriously.

By: perryfjellman

perryfjellman — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 21:49:47 +0000

The camera cannot be accessed to capture video without the green light turning on. It’s impossible not to notice if someone is spying on you.

By: Greg L

Greg L — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 21:44:38 +0000

No. Which is why I haven’t bothered. Whenever I read about spyware, I’ve noticed that camera up there and realized that a piece of cardboard would defeat all smartest software on the planet. You seem to be a bit anxious to come across as one of those “big picture” sorta guys. I wouldn’t “work it” so hard if I were you.

By: G4Dualie

G4Dualie — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 21:33:52 +0000

What’s the hold up? Over thinking it?

Do you know anyone who wants video footage of you making faces at the screen all day?

By: Greg L

Greg L — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 21:22:37 +0000

I’ve been thinking about putting an L-shaped piece of folded cardboard draping down in front of my iMac’s built-in camera…