What is your WEBCAM really doing - and for who? :0

[jcgriff2]

Just 4 years ago. . .

From the prominent and upscale "Main Line" in suburban Philadelphia -

[font=meiryo ui,verdana,geneva,sans-serif]Robbins v. Lower Merion School District[/font]
​

The lawsuit was filed after 15-year-old high school sophomore Blake Robbins was disciplined at school, for his behavior in his home.

The school's "evidence" that triggered his discipline was a photograph that the school had secretly taken of him in his bedroom, via the webcam in his school-issued laptop. Without telling its students, the schools remotely accessed their school-issued laptops to secretly snap pictures of students in their own homes, their chat logs, and records of the websites they visited.

The school then transmitted the snapshots to servers at the school, where school authorities reviewed them and shared the snapshots with others. In one widely published photo, the school had photographed Robbins in his bed.

<...>
After the suit was brought, the school district, of which the two high schools are part, revealed that it had secretly snapped more than 66,000 images.

^^^ THAT IS SICK!

Robbins v. Lower Merion School District - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

$600,000 settlement - http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirh...in-spycamgate/

I'm sure the taxpayers of Lower Merion School District were thrilled when they learned how their school tax dollars were spent. :shame2:

 

[Corrine]

The thing is, that school district got caught. Who is to say other schools haven't done the same thing, although I certainly hope not. What about company-owned laptops?

 

[jcgriff2]

I agree - who else?

Who wrote the software & how widely distributed is it?

Interesting that the spy software apparently resided off-campus:

The school then transmitted the snapshots to servers at the school...

I wonder where the culprits were while committing these felonies -- in a van outside the victims house?

 

[bassfisher6522]

Are there any other links beside Wikipedia about this?

 

[jcgriff2]

​

Robbins v. Lower Merion School District

Pa. school settles 2 webcam spy lawsuits for $610K - Washington Times

Judge: Pa. district must pay $260K in spying case - Washington Times

Shameful! --> Feds: No charges in Pa. school laptop-spying case - Washington Times

The complaint filed in Federal court - http://media.philly.com/documents/Robbins+v.+Lower+Merion+School+District.pdf

 

[Tekno Venus]

I agree - who else?

Who wrote the software & how widely distributed is it?

Interesting that the spy software apparently resided off-campus:

The school then transmitted the snapshots to servers at the school...

I wonder where the culprits were while committing these felonies -- in a van outside the victims house?

The software used for this is very likely to be some form of RAT - Remote Administration Software. This software does have a legitimate use of managing remote computers. However, cloaked versions are used by hackers in order to spy on people. Remote administration software - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

In the scenario you are on about, the school probably preinstalled the RAT with the computer. They would have been able to monitor the system on and off campus with this software. It would have likely been configured to relay information to the school servers. But hackers can be anywhere in the world and monitor infected computers.

It's not even something reserved for elite hackers. I'm not going to link to anything for obvious reasons but a quick Google on how to setup RAT will reveal all.

There's a very good article by Ars Technica on this - Meet the men who spy on women through their webcams | Ars Technica

 

[Wrench97]

It started out as a security package, some of the students in the laptop programs in previous years had reported them lost/stolen.
The parents had paid $50 a year(I believe) for a required insurance plan for damaged/lost/stolen laptops.
It turns out the it department had the ability to track them and turn on the cameras of the stolen units in order to capture images of the alleged thief, when low and behold they where the students the laptop was issued to or family members......................................
This of course led to the IT department tracking users that constantly had virus/malware problems and the images of students smoking weed and other issues for which they got sued............