Full FeedDell shipping systems with pre-installed keylogger?
At least one unidentified Dell user has recently found some additional hardware installed on his newly purchased laptop. Now, normally most people would be happy to find something extra included, but in this case it seems to be exactly the opposite. The additional hardware that was found was a hardware Keyghost keylogger. The user did what most people would do, immediately called up Dell, sadly the response was not exactly welcoming. According to the Dell tech support rep:
“The intregrated service tag identifier is there for assisting customers in the event of lost or misplaced personal information.”
The rep then promptly hung up the phone. Now we can just sit back and wonder why this keylogger would have been installed and more importantly, is this installed on more computers, all computers or just random computers that Dell ships. Of course at this time it seems limited to this one occurrence as we have yet to find other similar issues.
Following up on this issue, the user then called his local police who told him to call the Department of Homeland Security. Keep reading for the Department of Homeland Security response letter…
Via [Gadget Review]
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This seemed familiar. The Homeland Security file number agreed—this is 3 years old. (I don’t remember what if anything followed.)
on February 21, 2008 at 08:52 PM - LINKThere was an idea it was not a keylogger, but just a hoax. Anyway I deem having strong anti-keylogging protection like Privacy Keyboard or any other anti-keylogger capable to protect your PC from hardware keyloggers would be necessary. Just to be sure.
on February 22, 2008 at 12:00 AM - LINKThis is a hoax, as you surely must know. It’s been on Snopes for years!
The letter from the DHS is copied from another, real letter, exact same reference number.
Nice source checking ;-)
on February 22, 2008 at 04:14 AM - LINKWhile it did seem strange that this would happen, I did not find anything else (recent) about it. Sadly I have to admit that while I was skeptical, this was one seems to have gotten me.
I did see some older stories, but just did not put two and two together. Thanks for keeping me in check!
on February 22, 2008 at 09:51 AM - LINKNice to see a well researched article </sarcasm>
on February 22, 2008 at 02:03 PM - LINKCheck with Snopes before you publish things like this in the future.
on February 23, 2008 at 01:15 AM - LINKhttp://www.snopes.com/
It makes you look like a bunch of Numb Nuts from the New York Times when you publish without checking.
Thanks for this efficient information!
on August 19, 2008 at 09:00 AM - LINKContinue to associate us in your information!
xcellent article, but I think forex is very saturated right now,.
on February 5, 2010 at 11:11 PM - LINK