Smile for the camera, Dave.
Posted on 05/09/2008 7:33:46 PM PDT by rawhide
A tech-savvy White Plains woman whose apartment was burglarized solved the crime herself after she was able to log on to her stolen laptop, photograph one of the suspects with it and get photos of another, police said.
Edmon Shahikian, 23, of 13 Cobbling Rock Road, Katonah, and Ian Frias, 20, of 1609 E. 174th St., the Bronx, were picked up at their homes Wednesday night after the victim turned the pictures over to police. The police said they recovered most of the $5,000 worth of electronics stolen in the burglary.
On Tuesday, police said, one of the victims, who works at The Apple Store in The Westchester mall, received a call from a friend asking her if she was online.
The victim said no, and was told by the friend that his computer showed her as being logged onto the Internet.
At that point, police said, the victim signed onto another computer and used the "Back to My Mac" program to determine that her stolen MacIntosh laptop indeed was signed onto the Web and that someone was using it to shop online. She then activated the stolen computer's camera, allowing her to "see" what was in front of the laptop.
At first, police said, she saw only an empty chair. But a short time later, they said, she was able to photograph a man, Shahikian, sitting in front of her stolen laptop. The victim then was able to find photos of Frias using the computer after it had been stolen, police said.
The computer-savvy victim contacted police, gave them the tell-tale photos, and the arrests were made a short time later.
Shahikian and Frias are charged with second-degree burglary and fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, both felonies.
Yahoo!
You are the bee’s knees GIRL!
Ms. Victim no more.
Americans rock.
Orwell nailed it.
what’s “Bab K to my Mac?”
The headline led me to believe that a bunch of politicians had stolen a bunch of laptops (in addition to almost everything else).
So? Put some duct tape over the camera. That ought to fix things.
ROFL!
She didn’t hack. It was her own computer and she knew the passwords and hitched on remote from another computer. Thats not hacking.
It’s called signing on. :-)
Awesome
I don’t know if duct tape would work. I think tin foil might work better.
You're right. Duct tape fixes everything. But every Mac owner knows that life is really great big rainbow, so it doesn't matter anyway.
Very smart woman!
It would be neater if they got 10 years with no possibility of parole for the crime.
and the fuzz were on doughnuts
Good cop out, but i wouldn’t know how to turn on a mac, daddyo
Orwell? No...
Its just somebody controlling their own computer. Its just like “go to my pc” or such. Like any system its as secure as the user makes it.
Ooops, she owned the computer! That authorized enough?
I have been told Apple's current laptops,maybe all Apples, are banned from certain government locations due to security concerns.
Many desktop computers used to have the microphone built into the matching monitor and merely unplugging the microphone cable stopped the possibility of being web-bugged.Intel's own webcam actually had a sliding lens cover (of the same opaque white plastic as its case) probably to lessen image burn-in but certainly effective at stopping remote snooping.It is difficult to physically disable the built-n camera and microphone of newer laptops simply because the parts are so tiny,and integrated into system.
That happened with my wife's computer. I didn't bother deactivating it. They actually spent less than she did.
COOL STORY!!!
That is just the camera they tell you about. There are others, many, many others.....
Smile for the camera, Dave.
Yes. Very stupid criminals too. lol
Cool stuff
Regarding White Plains... Trajan88 was born there, but now lives in the Lone Star State ;-)
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
We had a thread discussing that. The reason that the Macs are banned from those government sites is because they won’t run some lame proprietary firewall/security software natively.
Interestingly, Linux boxes which also won’t run the software and are even less consistent or supported, are still permitted. There is some question of pressure from Microsoft.
Big Brother didn't wait for Winston Smith to install and set up the software.
The article is a little vague, possibly because of concerns like yours, but more likely because it would take too long to explain in a brief news article. Here's my best educated guess to what happened, in more technical detail:
"The victim ... was told by the friend that his computer showed her as being logged onto the Internet."
The victim (unnamed, which is a good idea) probably had her Mac set up to automatically log in to AIM on startup, and the friend saw "her" appear in his buddy list. He'd been told that her laptop had been stolen, so that piqued his curiosity.
At that point, police said, the victim signed onto another computer and used the "Back to My Mac" program to determine that her stolen MacIntosh laptop indeed was signed onto the Web and that someone was using it to shop online.
"Back to my Mac" is a feature built into Leopard, the latest version of Mac OS. It allows a user to connect to her Mac, or any Mac that's set up on her .Mac account. It's a "screen sharing" program that allows full access to the remote Mac, as if the user were sitting at it.
There is no such thing as "sign[ing] onto the Web," but that bit of ignorance is hardly unique to this writer. Using "the Internet" and "the Web" as synonyms is so common that I usually just shrug, sigh quietly, and let it go. You sign on to your Internet provider, and then can access the Web -- just like you can unlock a door, walk into the room and read the newspaper on the table. You didn't unlock the newspaper.
In order for this to work, the user had to locally enable B2MM. I'm still not using Leopard, so I'm not sure if it's on by default. She then had to subscribe to .Mac, to enable B2MM on it, to install her Mac as one of the machines registered to that account, and to set up her Mac to log into .Mac on startup, She then had to log in to her computer with a user name and password.
She then activated the stolen computer's camera, allowing her to "see" what was in front of the laptop.
Best guess: Once logged in, she launched Photo Booth or opened the video chat window in iChat. (I don't know why the writer put "see" in quotation marks -- she could see what was going on in front of the camera, just like you can see what's going on in front of a webcam or see the anchors during a live TV news show.)
This is all stuff a Mac owner could do with Remote Access before B2MM came along; it just took more knowledge and time to set up. You can do the same with Remote Desktop on Windows, or with VNC on Windows, Mac or Linux (and possibly other platforms), just with more steps and more knowledge required to set it up.
In fact, some Windows PCs come with remote desktop enabled by default, so tech support can log in remotely and fix problems or walk the user through the answer to a question. This is most common in corporate environments, but it's becoming increasingly common on home computers as a support option.
Basically, it's like Apple Remote Access, Microsoft Remote Desktop, or VNC, but integrated into the Finder, and using .Mac to find the remote machine. More details at #32 if you're interested.
Criminals continue to be tripped up because they tape their crimes on a stolen camcorder. Most criminals aren't too bright -- if they were, they'd find a way to make more money with less risk.
I haven't heard that, but it wouldn't surprise me. The issue -- or at least an issue -- is that there is a camera built in; it's not an issue of the security of the system against remote attacks, but the mere presence of the camera, even in the hands of the user himself.
Some government and even corporate locations bar cell phones with cameras, and the CIA bars workers from having a Furby on their desk, because it has a microphone and monitors sound (I don't think it has a recording and playback capacity, but that would be relatively easy to hack).
Laptops and iMacs have the built-in camera. The Mac Mini and Mac Pro do not, so that wouldn't be a reason to ban them. There might be some other security concerns, as there have been in the past -- not because the government knows of any vulnerabilities, but because they haven't (yet) finished the process of certifying it for use in a secured environment.
As usual, you have governmetn mouth-breathers hitting a problem with a sledgehammer.
Technology has advanced to the point these days, that anything can be a monitoring device. Stupid bans on cellphones or macs is not going to have any effect on an evil-doer who wants to commit espionage. A ball-point pen can have a camera, microphone, and gigs of recording capacity.
Also, the removable memory card in a regular digital camera is absolutely equivalent to a hard drive that you can plug into a USB connector, so you could walk into a company with a camera and walk out with lots of their data copied off (NOT pictures). I mentioned this to a law enforcement person once, and he seemed unaware of this.
Sure, but that takes effort,and you'd be in big, big trouble if caught with that pen on the premises without authorization. Across-the-board bans on bringing a camera to work pluck off the low-hanging fruit, so the folks watching the watchers can focus. Basically, if the security folks (government or corporate) treat a computer or cell phone with a camera the same as they would a digital camera in your pocket, it seems reasonable to me.
I have a Treo without a camera. Kind of a long story. Palm offered the option of a cameraless Treo so they could sell to customers who have those security concerns. If that market were big enough for Apple, they could offer a laptop without a camera.
Thats pretty scary! I think I'd better go put some clothes on.......
I haven’t used BackToMyMac but I do use GotoMyPC and I know that when I’m connected remotely from another computer to my PC using GotoMyPc there’s a little green popup just above the taskbar that shows that there is a remote connection in progress to the PC.
I wonder if BackToMyMac does the same thing.
“Big Brother didn’t wait....”
for the luv of gawd relax.
And because the reporter didn't understand it.
I’m perfectly relaxed. You’re the one who raised the specter of Big Brother.
I'd expect that it's similar to LogMeIn (my preference) or GoToMyPC. Both of these programs allow you to access your PC from any remote site. I have my home system set up to allow me to use it from anywhere on the internet.
oh, the struggles of the human soul...
Man, these guys are dumb. Like in a Death penalty state, rob and kill a 7/11 clerk, for 60 dollars, all caught by one of ten security cameras.
The store you frequent.
In your distinctive LA Laker's coat.
With two hanger's ons. (Total take divided, $20 each)
Those two get caught first or just walk in, admit to being part (and thus eligible for the grand prize needle) and give up the trigger puller. Of course the buddies think that they'll get off on the Death sentience. Wrong. Better luck next time.
The trigger puller is usually found at A. His baby Mommy's house, his Grandmothers house, or his mother's house.
Try doing THAT with a “Dell”....
No chance!
Heh. My dad, now retired, worked in corrections for 36 years. When he got paged on weekends, I could hear his half of the conversation: "Alert the local cops and tell them the mother's and the girlfriend's address." At least 3/4 of the time, he got paged back the same day to tell him the escapee had been caught.
Certainly possible, but I wouldn't assume it. When the editor wants 500 words, you give him 500 words, and pare down to the most essential details. Though it would have helped to include something like "Back to My Mac, a user-installed remote access program ..." for clarity.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.