Dell Keylogger - Real Or Fake?
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This is interesting for no other reason that today alone I have run into at least Google alerts referencing his alleged posting. At first read, I was just going to ignore it completely. I guess my thinking is why would any company go to the expense of adding a keylogger to every computer they manufactured. But than again, could this be for real. In the article it states the following:
I was opening up my almost brand new Dell 600m laptop, to replace a broken PCMCIA slot riser on the motherboard. As soon as I got the keyboard off, I noticed a small cable running from the keyboard connection underneath a piece of metal protecting the motherboard.
“almost brand new Dell 600m laptop” Strange. I found a C-Net review of the laptop model 600m dating back to March 2003. So the almost new statement doesn’t make sense.
“to replace a broken PCMCIA slot riser” This struck me as odd also. If you have ever taken a laptop apart before you know how hard they are to disassemble. Not to say it can’t be done.
I called the police, as having a keylogger unknown to me in my laptop is a serious offense. They told me to call the Department of Homeland Security. At this point, I am in disbelief. Why would the DHS have a keylogger in my laptop? It was surreal.
Anyway, I’m not going to go through the entire article. You be the judge whether this article is true or not. I have my suspicion at to the validity of the article and that it may be a hoax.
What do you think? Comments welcome.
C-Net review Dell 600M laptop here.
Dell keylogger article is here.
[tags]dell, keylogger, laptop, computer, hoax, security, [/tags]
4 Comments
Bone
February 25th, 2008
at 9:32am
There’s one in pre-installed in my laptop too, and it’s a Gateway. I believe they call it Windows.
Matt Hartley
February 25th, 2008
at 11:12am
It’s a Ukraine based website, so I think that answers itself.
http://www.101domain.com/ua.htm
Besides…
http://www.snopes.com/computer/internet/dellbug.asp
Stan
February 25th, 2008
at 11:23am
I clicked on the link to look at the article. and it looks somewhat suspicious to me too. I have a Dell laptop, and was thinking maybe I should pop it open and take a look.
Then I looked up at the URL, and ‘backed out’ of it, going from
http://virus.org.ua/unix/keylog/klog.htm
to
virus.org.ua/unix/keylog/
and then to
virus.org.ua/unix/
and finally
virus.org.ua/
It’s wide open, with a directory at every level.
‘Ua’ is the top domain for the Ukraine.
There is a bit of juvenile crap in there, and other stuff that points to it being something very unreliable. Most of the text and doc files are in Russian. A lot of the stuff in there makes it look like we’re looking at a computer belonging to a teenager, maybe in Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine, but probably some other smaller city… or town or village.
Just because this kid might have a compromised 5 year old “almost brand new Dell 600m laptop” with a broken PCMCIA slot riser shouldn’t cause anyone else to worry about their system. It’s undoubtedly been through several users.
I’d even prefer lockergnome not post this kind of cr@p. He doesn’t pass on every hoax he gets does he? This isn’t much different.
Ron Schenone
February 25th, 2008
at 1:13pm
Hello Matt & Stan,
Thanks for the information.