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Given the current security climate, if that were my stolen gear, I'd treat it all as suspect and burn the lot in a barrel. There's no telling who's done what t
by Karunamon 11y ago
Given the current security climate, if that were my stolen gear, I'd treat it all as suspect and burn the lot in a barrel.
There's no telling who's done what to it or what kind of nasties are now in the firmware.
- fouric 11y agoGiven the non-trivial value of his equipment (the MacBook Pro alone was probably >$1500), a slightly more constructive use might be to donate it to an organization that can use it in a non-sensitive environment (e.g., a school that could give it to a student). Sure, the equipment might not be trustworthy in a secure environment, but I highly doubt that anyone would really be interested in a high schooler doing his/her CS homework on it.
- psykovsky 11y agoEven if the high schooler is dealing drugs to his classmates?
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- ars 11y agoI think you are overestimating both the ability and the budget of the FBI.
- bobjob 11y agoI think you overestimate how hard it is to add spyware to a system. Esp. if said system is not a unique design. And things like SMM makes it really easy to hide this stuff. E.g. I would trash the computer bacause you really can not be sure what was done to it.
- DanBC 11y agoThe FBI are a government agency, with some funds, and they had physical access to the devices, for some time. The devices absolutely cannot be trusted. Whether a person cares about trusting the FBI or not (or thinks they're happy with just flashing the firmware and replacing the harddrives) is another thing.
- njharman 11y agoThe FBI abilities do not end with them. There is a host of 3 letter government agencies they can (and have) gotten assistance from. But, in this case. I seriously doubt this guy is worth trouble... Unless government knows more about him than we do (e.g. he sells stolen intel to highest bidder).
- rasz_pl 11y agoIm sure someone like Kaspersky Labs would be more than welcome to buy his stuff at a market value. at the same time I wonder if crazy US agencies wouldnt call for treason charges after Kaspersky discovery of an implant, or even before, or even claiming his equipment is federal property now like in the case of GPS trackers.
- eru 11y agoCan there be treason if they sell it to a non-USA security research company?
- omginternets 11y ago>Can there be treason if they sell it to a non-USA security research company? I'm going to say "yes", since it seems that simple accusations of treason are enough to declare, say, a whistle-blower to be a traitor. In the end, you're effectively a traitor when someone with sufficient power says you are.
- Tinyyy 11y agoBut if it is treason, wouldn’t it be an open admission that the device was tampered with?
- ixwt 11y agoI saw a talk by him this year. He will probably be happy to receive this gear back to begin messing with people potentially on the other end. I wish I could find the video, it was a recorded talk.
- gherkin0 11y agoIf's he's a security researcher, he might actually appreciate samples of real government spyware to research.