Police Say Mac Tech Installed Spyware To Photo Women 235
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?
In Apple's defense (Score:5, Funny)
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.
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Note that the above policy does not extend to locations visited while using iOS.
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I hope you'll be here all week. By the way, how's the veal?
Even the summary sounds like he wasn't an Apple employee, just a Mac repairman for some not-Apple repair company.
Re:In Apple's defense (Score:4, Interesting)
An unordained repairman tried to fix a mac?
Re:In Apple's defense (Score:4, Informative)
An unordained repairman tried to fix a mac?
Not ordained, but he did attend a Christian university. FTFA:
Harwell was formerly a student at Biola University, a small Christian university in southern California. Many of the victims were Biola students and Harwell may have compromised university systems as well, police said.
Dunno about that (Score:2)
... 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.
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Why?
I mean, just about everyone likes to look at nekkid chicks....(not the fat ones).
Re:Dunno about that (Score:4)
Fat girls need love too :p
On a semi-serious note what's up with attractive equaling super skinny? I like my women to actually look like women and not kids.
Re:Dunno about that (Score:4, Interesting)
On a semi-serious note what's up with attractive equaling super skinny? I like my women to actually look like women and not kids.
The conventional explanation is that this is the standard in the fashion and advertising industries, and it's well known that those are dominated by gay men, who of course prefer women who look like boys. ;-)
On a more serious note, if you look at any of the "men's" magazines -- Playboy, Hustler, etc. -- you'll see that their standard of female beauty is pretty much the average-size woman, neither skinny nor fat. They don't even select for especially large breasts, just for "full" breasts.
And we can also go into the "scientific trivia" aspect: A number of studies have found that the most attractive image of either sex is very close to the average (in whatever society is polled). The most interesting is the surveys done by presenting a lot of photos of real people, mixed with computer-generated "average" images derived from N of the real-people photos, for varying values of N. The winners have been generally the images where N is large, i.e., a true "average" person among the set of photos.
So if you reject both skinny and fat women, and prefer an average-looking woman, you're just a normal guy. Similarly for women's choices of attractive men.
Has nothing to do with that (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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A non-initiate dares touch holy hardware?!? Dispatch the iAssassins.
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Re:In Apple's defense (Score:4, Interesting)
When I got my first Macbook I used to be pretty paranoid about this kind of thing. Moreso because I had Skype set up to receive calls from people, but I also thought stuff like this would be a possibility. I wonder if the little light next to the camera is hardwired to come on when the camera is in use, or whether it can be disabled in software..?
Re:In Apple's defense (Score:4, Funny)
No. The only fix is to wrap your entire Macbook in black electrical tape. You never know which holes, or indeed surfaces are spying on you.
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Actually I do remember a story about Apple developing a screen where the entire monitor worked as the camera. I've relegated the MBP to being a server now anyway, I'm sticking with more Linux friendly machines for now.
Re:In Apple's defense (Score:5, Informative)
OMFG it's even better than you (or I) thought. Not only can the screen be the camera [engadget.com], but you can also just stick a camera behind the screen. [arstechnica.com] I knew about the first patent but didn't catch Apple getting the second.
Cue breathy voice: View Apple patents and see why 2011 will be like 1984.
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IIRC, it's hardwired to come on.
Of course, it's a little light, and it only needs to come on for a moment to take a picture.
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He's not going to jail, The cops just don't want the software purchase showing up on the books. His next stop is likely the NSA.
Brb, Helicopters outside again...
- Dan.
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Considering some of the things the Japanese openly broadcast, I would hate to know what deviant perversions they do behind closed doors.
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A state "taskforce"/city might be interested. Rented as amazing new next gen first of its kind remote Mac surveillance software well off the radar of any Mac anti virus software
That's what I don't get either (Score:2)
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.
Yeah, but that's exactly the point (Score:3)
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 ot
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Who plans on getting caught? All criminals are tactical masterminds with ninja-like stealth and silver tongues.
hot photos (Score:2)
Harwell for Congress! (Score:2)
They can put him on the committees that supervise the NSA pen registers, RealID, biometric passports, FBI, etc.
Job skills (Score:5, Funny)
Apparently he is qualified to work for one of the school boards in Pennsylvania
Re:Job skills (Score:4, Insightful)
the funny thing is that this guy was arrested but the Lower Merion spokesman could react with a complete waste of the taxpayer's dollars [slashdot.org] after the district was sued...
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Sure, what was done in Pennsylvania was a violation of privacy, but the school board wasn't after pictures of the victims undressing.
They say.
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Well, what one wonders is why this guy got caught? Did he actually have it upload pics to his own account? Did he fail to create a nightly launchd job that delayed an arbitrary number of days (from a month to six months) before enabling his background daemon? Did he brag about it on Facebook? Did he post the pictures somewhere? Where? No, wait.... I mean where did he hide the daemon? Or was it an application (obvious)?
Inquiring perverts^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hminds want to know.
Re:Job skills (Score:5, Informative)
Well, what one wonders is why this guy got caught?
He also had the laptop pop fake warning messages saying that the laptop was malfunctioning, and that putting it near hot steam might clear up the issue. This prompted many victims to take the computer into their washrooms while they showered.
Eventually someone brought their computer to a MacStore instead, and the tech there found the spyware.
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He also had the laptop pop fake warning messages saying that the laptop was malfunctioning, and that putting it near hot steam might clear up the issue. This prompted many victims to take the computer into their washrooms while they showered.
Eventually someone brought their computer to a MacStore instead, and the tech there found the spyware.
So, he's horny, criminal AND stupid. Never a good combination.
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My god, I thought you were joking.... then I read TFA. This man... this man is a genius.
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Think of the good the cams can do as more and more impressionable young people self radicalize in the privacy of their own homes.
The feds can passively get pics, video and sound as lone wolves transform into home-grown cells and connect up with more like minded people.
Meeting with their free networked laptop
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Someone shit in your cereal this morning? Nice ad hominem rant there
The two are different yes, but they both include secret software on the machine to take photos without the user's consent, and while the purpose of obtaining the photos may be different, the intent is the same - to get a picture of the user of the laptop without their knowledge or consent.
They should all be punished.
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You must have forgot your /. logic. If C is a member of A intersection B then A = B.
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You're right, it is different. One was intending to violate the privacy rights of adults, the other was intending to violate the privacy rights of children.
Read up on the story. The Lower Merion admins knew what they were doing and they knew it was wrong. The system took pictures automatically, but only AFTER the admins intentionally turned it on. I can't say whether their intent was to get nude pictures of children or just have a laugh or if they had some stupid notion that they were protecting the kids by
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Hot Steam (Score:5, Interesting)
Now that is creative. Had to be some mighty dumb women who fell for that.
Re:Hot Steam (Score:4, Funny)
Warning, excessive static buildup detected. Attempt to discharge through touching elbows behind back.
Re:Hot Steam (Score:5, Funny)
Some victims, tricked by the pop-up warning, did take their computers with them into the shower, Goodrich said.
That's pure genius. Evil genius, but genius nevertheless.
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Yeah, that's the detail that really made the story for me.
I mean, sure, this whole thing is creepy and wrong, but going beyond snapping pictures to trying to trick the women to taking their laptops into the shower? That's one for the ages.
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The fact that in (apparently) several cases it actually worked is what's really amazing.
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There used to be an awesome tool for Appletalk networks made up of Mac OS machines called Radiation. You installed the CDEV on your machine and the INIT on other machines. You used the CDEV to cause error messages to pop up on other machines. IIRC the default was "The radiation shield on your monitor has failed. Please step back five feet."
It puts the laptop near the shower (Score:2)
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I'm sorry to say that I don't get the creepy factor here. The number one fantasy of guys (that ALL straight guys have had) is to be invisible in a women's locker room. This is basically someone trying to achieve that fantasy through technology. Yes, it was wrong. But still, the amount of harm done here just isn't so great IMO. Sorry. As long has he wasn't spreading the photos around with names and information, blackmailing the participants, etc, then it's just some guy getting a thrill trying to peak
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They probably had seen those Microsoft commercials: To the cloud!
Re:Hot Steam (Score:4, Informative)
Many of the victims were Biola students
And students at a small Christian college in Southern California.
I'm so sorry but... (Score:2, Redundant)
The geek as voyeur (Score:2)
Pic's or it didn't happen
What gives you the right to see them?
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He's a grocer. He's allowed to have those extra apostrophe's.
good repairman? (Score:3)
I don't know if he was a good repairman, but he sure is a tool. Fixed himself but good.
Mac cam : LED on (Score:4, Insightful)
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 ?
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No. At lest not in my 1st gen MBP. The camera's LED is hardwired to the power supply. If the camera is on, the LED is on. "Light Test" functionality can be had simply by turning on photo booth.
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That depends, on a laptop? Not trivial - you need to take out the logic board to get the screen off on many of them, and then you need to disassemble the screen. Unless he was the only guy working, and he had a lot of excess time, it would not be trivial to do - it would add at least a couple of hours to each job which is not a huge amount of time, but it's not a 5 minute thing either.
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I don't have my macbook handy, but I wonder if a dot with a felt tip marker would be a simpler solution.
That LED is really small and on a dark background IIRC.
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you know another way to do it quickly
if your looking to disable the LED - burn it out - use a high powered green laser pointer (the ones that can set things on fire).. pointblank for a few seconds should heat the LED to the point that the substrate fails.. effectively burning it out - no need to dissemble.
(no i have not tried this but i see no reason why it wouldn't work)
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It seems to me that in your test, the driver could be responsible for activating the LED.
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Without a hardware mod, if the camera's image sensor has power, the LED is on. When the camera is not in use, it receives no power, thus LED is off. So, no, the driver cannot play with the LED, it can only activate and deactivate the camera, and the LED will duly indicate that.
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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?
No. Other than being close to the camera, it gives no indication that the camera is on. Regular users see so many lights on devices now, that it might have lost its intended effect (device being on/off). Maybe they think it's the light for the computer and it means the laptop is charging. There are plenty of reasons not to think it means the camera is on.
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The two LEDs on my MBP are the one on the mag safe connector and the one by the camera. Apple designs don't follow the "you won't need any other lighting in the room" strategy that most other cases do.
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Also of note, this fella got caught because this software was actually also popping up strange error messages designed to
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Also of note, this fella got caught because this software was actually also popping up strange error messages designed to look like OS X system-launched messages that directed users to "use hot steam to clear a sensor" on their laptop. So maybe he was trying to keep himself in business hoping hapless users damaged their own computers heeding these warnings, so they'd call him back for return business?
He wants them to take the laptop with them when they shower, although you're right that it's probably bad for the laptop to boot...
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Doesn't sound like an optimal operating environment.
Well, it's optimal if you are surreptitiously snapping pictures of people with the camera of said laptop.
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Blame the victim. That's bullshit.
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I was thinking the same thing. It would be interesting if anyone in the know could comment on the light going on for a quick picture, as opposed to video mode.
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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?
Small and green does not raise an alarm when you live surrunded by LED indicators and displays. There are at least five active in my own living room. The instantaneous flash of a snapshot isn't likely to be noticed or questioned even on the rare occasion when you are looking directly at the lamp.
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Not really dependant on any make, year, OS X version.
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He could've gotten away with it. (Score:2, Insightful)
He wouldn't have been arrested if he just registered himself as a school first. Then it's just a lawsuit.
Just get laid already (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Just get laid already (Score:5, Funny)
just a small piece of tape or post-it note (Score:2)
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Or buy a laptop with a cover for the camera lens. my wife's Asus netbook has an "on-off" switch for the camera that actually slides a lens cover over the lens when in the "off" position. It's a nice touch that ensures that even if you can turn the camera on via software, you still can't see out of it.
Grammar Error? (Score:2)
Mac? Women? (Score:4, Insightful)
Story is obviously a fake.
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Story is obviously a fake.
The geek spends too much time in grandma's basement.
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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.
Well if he worked for a PA school system (Score:2)
Little Snitch? (Score:2)
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It would take a look in the allowed apps list if it even showed up as something new or different?
Physical access would allow the setting up/clearing of any security apps/logs.
If the user did have too much security, try the next user?
Why isn't there a disable switch? (Score:2)
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.
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My Asus netbook does have a sliding cover on the webcam. It's one of the design features that prompted me to buy it.
Job opportunity (Score:2)
Everyone's thinking this... (Score:2)
rapidshare??
are you kidding me? (Score:2)
But was he a good repairman?
This right here is why many geeks will remain dateless. Good job, samzenpus.
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Um... here you... go?
Win.
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Hey, he's not some tourist down in Gitmo. Oh the huge manatee!
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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.
I'm fairly certain that the tech wasn't really interested in the girl's faces either.