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It's not just blackmail that I worry about. A hypothetical, ruthless hacker manages to install malware on a person's computer. Hell they could target certain

It's not just blackmail that I worry about. A hypothetical, ruthless hacker manages to install malware on a person's computer. Hell they could target certain zip codes. All the information is on the Internet. Hell, they could get a picture of your home. (By the way, Google will blure out you home, if you ask. It tends to reappear, although they claim its permanent. If your house has been sold recently, a thief/criminal has easy access to interior layout through Zillow, and the like.) They watch you through your cams. A lot can be deduced with that information--valuable information that could be sold. Maybe I've watched too many movies, or crime shows, but I just picture certain questions being asked, "Does the home look like its worth robbing?" "Are there hostages we could take?" "What times do they leave, we need to install our cams because they might find our malware?" "Do they have a safe, or do they seem like they have money/valuables in the house, bedroom?" "Are they doing anything illegial themselfs?" They could develop psychological profiles for people? I hate to think like this, but certain people think nothing of doing some horrid crimes. A hacker overseas gains some valuable information, and makes a phone call to the Triads, or Russian mob? Your life becomes a statistic. It sounds far fetched, but just what if? (And am I going to cover my cams? No, because I don't have a life, and I'm poor.)

beachstartup 10y ago
this happens a lot through low tech means. they'll just case a house and note the owners' movements until they recognize a pattern. the only real solution to this is good insurance and good luck.
- stinkytaco 10y ago
  But that at least requires some human investment of time and movement. Someone has to case your house and sit there for however long it takes, risking discovery, boredom, opportunity cost, etc. Wholesale information theft is another level. Someone in a different state or country has access not only to me, but potentially hundreds of people's details, without ever leaving their home. And then they can leverage a whole community that is doing the same. This is how "The Fappening" occurred. This sort of crowdsourced stalking would be impossible pre-internet.
  - Bartweiss 10y ago
    Surely it's at least as much human effort to compromise a specific webcam, identify the house it's tied to, monitor it extensively, and then rob/assault the owners? Obviously there are other reasons to worry about webcam access, but "they could spy on me to set up a robbery" is exceedingly low on my list since it just recreates a pattern that doesn't involve a computer.
    - stinkytaco 10y ago
      I think it's more about the mass dissemination of that information. We've seen how easy it is to "Dox" someone without much information. One person might not be able to glean much, but what happens if 4Chan gets a hold of that data and has decided they don't like me?
- alexjakobnelson 10y ago
  Knowing your neighbors doesn't hurt, either. I like to think that if my neighbors noticed something untoward happening at my house, they would sound the alert.
mafribe 10y ago
This is all true, but wouldn't somebody who has the technical skills to pull this all of, be able to pull in a legal income far in excess of what burglary is likely to yield?
- heroprotagonist 10y ago
  A lot of trojans are like off-the-shelf kits that anyone can grab. The technical skills amount to convincing someone to run an executable (email, malicious USB keys, poorly managed advertising networks, etc) and then clicking a few buttons in a GUI to connect to them and do what you will. For the slightly more technical, you've got frameworks like metasploit which can perform network attacks, but even that is getting much more like a kit these days. Port scan for services, fingerprint them, check database for known vulnerabilities, automatically attempt to exploit known vulnerabilities, deploy payload (the trojan).
- tropo 10y ago
  A typical drug dealer would make more money working at McDonald's, so why don't they? People are weird. Once you've been convicted of something, or even arrested really, you have few legal options to support yourself.
  - dragonwriter 10y ago
    > A typical drug dealer would make more money working at McDonald's, so why don't they? I think a substantial share of those drug dealers who aren't working formal-economy jobs as well are also drug addicts that would not be able to keep such jobs particularly well even if they weren't drug dealers, and/or convicts that wouldn't be likely to be offered such jobs if they chose to pursue them.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]

beachstartup 10y ago

this happens a lot through low tech means. they'll just case a house and note the owners' movements until they recognize a pattern. the only real solution to this is good insurance and good luck.

stinkytaco 10y ago
But that at least requires some human investment of time and movement. Someone has to case your house and sit there for however long it takes, risking discovery, boredom, opportunity cost, etc. Wholesale information theft is another level. Someone in a different state or country has access not only to me, but potentially hundreds of people's details, without ever leaving their home. And then they can leverage a whole community that is doing the same. This is how "The Fappening" occurred. This sort of crowdsourced stalking would be impossible pre-internet.
- Bartweiss 10y ago
  Surely it's at least as much human effort to compromise a specific webcam, identify the house it's tied to, monitor it extensively, and then rob/assault the owners? Obviously there are other reasons to worry about webcam access, but "they could spy on me to set up a robbery" is exceedingly low on my list since it just recreates a pattern that doesn't involve a computer.
  - stinkytaco 10y ago
    I think it's more about the mass dissemination of that information. We've seen how easy it is to "Dox" someone without much information. One person might not be able to glean much, but what happens if 4Chan gets a hold of that data and has decided they don't like me?
alexjakobnelson 10y ago
Knowing your neighbors doesn't hurt, either. I like to think that if my neighbors noticed something untoward happening at my house, they would sound the alert.

mafribe 10y ago

This is all true, but wouldn't somebody who has the technical skills to pull this all of, be able to pull in a legal income far in excess of what burglary is likely to yield?

heroprotagonist 10y ago
A lot of trojans are like off-the-shelf kits that anyone can grab. The technical skills amount to convincing someone to run an executable (email, malicious USB keys, poorly managed advertising networks, etc) and then clicking a few buttons in a GUI to connect to them and do what you will. For the slightly more technical, you've got frameworks like metasploit which can perform network attacks, but even that is getting much more like a kit these days. Port scan for services, fingerprint them, check database for known vulnerabilities, automatically attempt to exploit known vulnerabilities, deploy payload (the trojan).
tropo 10y ago
A typical drug dealer would make more money working at McDonald's, so why don't they? People are weird. Once you've been convicted of something, or even arrested really, you have few legal options to support yourself.
- dragonwriter 10y ago
  > A typical drug dealer would make more money working at McDonald's, so why don't they? I think a substantial share of those drug dealers who aren't working formal-economy jobs as well are also drug addicts that would not be able to keep such jobs particularly well even if they weren't drug dealers, and/or convicts that wouldn't be likely to be offered such jobs if they chose to pursue them.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]