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Dell Computers Has Been Hacked

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Re: Dell Computers Has Been Hacked

#101

Post by anc84 »

dcposch wrote: post #85
nthitz wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Axciom, Epsilon and similar companies track your credit card purchases and correlate them with a profile of who they think you are. If you work for a large corporation that is probably easier to identify than a small one. http://www.acxiom.com/ http://www.epsilon.com/

I assumed that when I buy something on a card, it's more or less private. The transaction should be known only to: me, the merchant, our respective banks, Visa, and I guess the IRS if they come and ask for it. If I understand correctly, youre saying my entire purchase history is shared with random third party marketing companies. Full transaction data, PII included, no anonymization. How is that even remotely OK?

Now you know why some countries like Germany like cash. It's anonymous by design.

Re: Dell Computers Has Been Hacked

#102

Post by xorcist »

dcposch wrote: post #85
nthitz wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Axciom, Epsilon and similar companies track your credit card purchases and correlate them with a profile of who they think you are. If you work for a large corporation that is probably easier to identify than a small one. http://www.acxiom.com/ http://www.epsilon.com/

I assumed that when I buy something on a card, it's more or less private. The transaction should be known only to: me, the merchant, our respective banks, Visa, and I guess the IRS if they come and ask for it. If I understand correctly, youre saying my entire purchase history is shared with random third party marketing companies. Full transaction data, PII included, no anonymization. How is that even remotely OK?

Guess why Google and Apple desperately wants to get in on payments? It fits their data driven business model perfectly.

Re: Dell Computers Has Been Hacked

#103

Post by bsilvereagle »

krick wrote: post #91
JupiterMoon wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately people have started putting the tracking server side.

You mean GoogleAnalytics-tracking on the server side? Please expand on that, I'm not very versed in all that marketing spy-modules. Do you mean that some internet-shop (or blog or whatever) makes a request to GA or some similar service to share that I was at their website? If so, what information do they share? My IP, cookies or what? I always assumed that very point of GA was outsourcing tracking users to some other…

Everytime you access a website a server is serving you files. Apache (and most web servers) keep logs of this. With Apache defaults you get IP address, the route accessed, and the User-Agent of the user. This is rudimentary information, but if you have these logs from multiple sites, it's pretty easy to roughly track someone. Tracking images in emails use this same principle, a unique link to krick.png is put in an email sent to you, and if it gets served by the server (shows up in the access logs) it's pretty reasonable to assume that you read the email.

If you want to see a simplified version of what this log looks like, run 'python -m SimpleHTTPServer' and visit localhost:8000.

Re: Dell Computers Has Been Hacked

#104

Post by kuschku »

krylon wrote: post #84
roflaway wrote: post #7

Throwaway account because I just shared this story with a buddy of mine: I, too, have received these "Dell" tech support calls and angrily yell at them as I hang up within 15seconds. Lately though, I received a bombardment of calls (15 to be exact) in the past 3 days from the same number. I answered the one of them, and it had the same 1minute 10s message saying to call the number back regarding a computer threat the…

It would be nice - not a solution, but an improvement nevertheless - if there was something like a "firewall" for phones, that allowed you to block calls based on the caller. I have never been harassed like that, but I have often wished for a feature like that.

There are?

Go into your router settings through which you use your landline (or the settings in the phone app on your phone), it should look like this http://www.digiversum.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Rufsperr... and then add the number you want to block.

Re: Dell Computers Has Been Hacked

#105

Post by kuschku »

Silhouette wrote: post #65
janvidar wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

C doesn't even have strings, but you would typically be using char arrays instead. All you need is a pointer to the array in order to access it. However, if you just have the pointer then you are lacking to essential pieces of information, the length of the string and the capacity of the string. The length of the string is however by convention determined by the first NULL byte (zero termination), so it is important…

If you find it complicated, then you should not use C, nor should you use it for things it's not intended for. In theory, string handling in C is straightforward enough. In practice, string handling in C is the source of a crazy number of security vulnerabilities and other bugs, even in popular and relatively well regarded software written by experts. No-one should still need to use C in 2016. We know how to fix many…

1 Word:

Rust.

Re: Dell Computers Has Been Hacked

#106

Post by arethuza »

pdkl95 wrote: post #55
rms_returns wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It already happens unofficially. How do you think banks assess your lending/borrowing habits when you apply for a loan? There are detective agencies who track credit cards and other things (like a few examples someone gave in this very thread).

There is a huge difference between a "private" rating system and a public rating that uses your friends against you as manipulation. See Extra Credit's description[1] of how this works. We aren't there yet , but consider that Facebook wants to use your social network associations in your credit score[2]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHcTKWiZ8sI [2] http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/09/facebo..…

Thanks - that is a really good video - I had heard about that scheme but I hadn't thought about the implications for an entire society of using gamification in that way.

Re: Dell Computers Has Been Hacked

#107

Post by ascagnel_ »

DrScump wrote: post #54
bonestamp2 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they could prevent/stop caller id spoofing, that would be a big help in at least the detection phase of phone system security. It's really hard to identify a threat if they can look like they're anybody.

This is too easy with VoIP. It should be illegal for anybody to spoof Caller-ID for deception. The only acceptable caller-id transmitted should be one of: a) the actual origin number; b) the number for a company switchboard that accepts incoming calls to the originating group; or c) blocked number.

This would also prevent instances of SWATing (someone calls a hoax call into a local police department to force a deployment to a hostile situation where one does not exist).

Re: Dell Computers Has Been Hacked

#108

Post by krick »

bsilvereagle wrote: post #103
krick wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean GoogleAnalytics-tracking on the server side? Please expand on that, I'm not very versed in all that marketing spy-modules. Do you mean that some internet-shop (or blog or whatever) makes a request to GA or some similar service to share that I was at their website? If so, what information do they share? My IP, cookies or what? I always assumed that very point of GA was outsourcing tracking users to some other…

Everytime you access a website a server is serving you files. Apache (and most web servers) keep logs of this. With Apache defaults you get IP address, the route accessed, and the User-Agent of the user. This is rudimentary information, but if you have these logs from multiple sites, it's pretty easy to roughly track someone. Tracking images in emails use this same principle, a unique link to krick.png is put in an e…

Have you even read my message? Or the thread you are answering to for that matter? The question is not how website owner knows I visited his website, that much is pretty obvious, but if it is the case that server-side tracking somehow allows to use GoogleAnalytics as well (that is, to notify Google from server side who has visited their website) and if this is the case — how does it exactly work. Because that's what JupiterMoon seems to be claiming.

Re: Dell Computers Has Been Hacked

#109

Post by damian2000 »

Natsu wrote: post #17
roflaway wrote: post #7

Throwaway account because I just shared this story with a buddy of mine: I, too, have received these "Dell" tech support calls and angrily yell at them as I hang up within 15seconds. Lately though, I received a bombardment of calls (15 to be exact) in the past 3 days from the same number. I answered the one of them, and it had the same 1minute 10s message saying to call the number back regarding a computer threat the…

I prefer not to hang up right away. Instead, I try to waste a bit of their time. For automated calls, I just put down the phone and wait a while to hang up. But for people? I try other means of time wasting, so they can't call someone else to scam them. Last time they called, I told them that it was good that they called, because my computer had detected a virus on their computer and that I wanted them to download an…

Put the phone on speakerphone with the volume down, don't listen to them at all and just get on with what you were doing, make some occasional noises to keep them interested. They normally get fed up after about 5-10 mins though.

Re: Dell Computers Has Been Hacked

#110

Post by toyg »

krick wrote: post #91
JupiterMoon wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately people have started putting the tracking server side.

You mean GoogleAnalytics-tracking on the server side? Please expand on that, I'm not very versed in all that marketing spy-modules. Do you mean that some internet-shop (or blog or whatever) makes a request to GA or some similar service to share that I was at their website? If so, what information do they share? My IP, cookies or what? I always assumed that very point of GA was outsourcing tracking users to some other…

Even just your UA string is enough in most cases to make educated guesses. See here: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/tracking-by-user-agent... . The server will get that UA string, and it can make subsequent calls (or serve you content that will automatically make calls, like hidden tags...) to further restrict the search space. You can have middleware that does this transparently.

I'm not in that particular market, but I know people who are and tbh more often than not I think it's an arms race the individual simply cannot win. Unless there's a conscious effort from browser-makers to actively counter tracking practices, you should assume everything you do on the web is public and can be tracked by multiple parties.

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