Live data from Hacker News

Dell Computers Has Been Hacked

10zenmonkeys.com

1–10 of 218 posts

Re: Dell Computers Has Been Hacked

#2
I don't know if it's related but I found something deeply worrying a couple of months ago. I purchased a laptop on Dell's website at my home address using a personal email and my personal paypal account. No reference anywhere to my job or employer. A couple of weeks later I receive a call from India on the mobile number provided to Dell, from a guy pretending to be from Dell (and he might have been) who wanted to discuss how he could do business with my employer which he mentioned by name (a large corporation).

At that time I thought that Dell's commercials were unacceptably pushy, googling their private clients to find a way in their employer. It didn't occur to me that this might have been a scam using Dell's database.

Re: Dell Computers Has Been Hacked

#3
Am I the only one thinking that we've lost total control over the machines and data we've created. It seems like nothing is safe and or verifiable anymore. Add to this the backdrop of governments wanting backdoors. People calling you in the US pretending to be from the "IRS" and yet nothing is/ can be done about it?

Maybe its really high time for C and its buffer overflows to go... And SQL injection.

We're tech savy here, yet sometime even we fall for these things. Its starting to get actually expensive.

I hate to be all conspiracy theory about this, but if/when the banks fall down like this....

Re: Dell Computers Has Been Hacked

#5
post #3

Am I the only one thinking that we've lost total control over the machines and data we've created. It seems like nothing is safe and or verifiable anymore. Add to this the backdrop of governments wanting backdoors. People calling you in the US pretending to be from the "IRS" and yet nothing is/ can be done about it? Maybe its really high time for C and its buffer overflows to go... And SQL injection. We're tech savy…

While I know very little about 'computer security', I have never been under the impression that Dell is aware such a term exists.

"another dangerous dell root cert dicovered" http://www.pcworld.com/article/3008478/security/and-then-the...

"dell attacks on scada doubled" http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/35967/hacking/dell-attac...

"in what some experts are calling the biggest data theft in US history." http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/04/07/3185296.htm

Re: Dell Computers Has Been Hacked

#6
post #2

I don't know if it's related but I found something deeply worrying a couple of months ago. I purchased a laptop on Dell's website at my home address using a personal email and my personal paypal account. No reference anywhere to my job or employer. A couple of weeks later I receive a call from India on the mobile number provided to Dell, from a guy pretending to be from Dell (and he might have been) who wanted to dis…

[deleted]

Re: Dell Computers Has Been Hacked

#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 they found on my computer (the voicemails are all 1min 10s). These calls woke my kids and I up every..damn..day. The calls kept coming on my work and personal line. Without dialing back the number, I'll never know how this crap even started.

I feel bad for others out there who may actually fall for these kind of tactics

Re: Dell Computers Has Been Hacked

#8
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…

If you do decide to call back, make sure you check the number online first. There are some phone scams that involve getting people to call back pay-to-talk (I don't know what the proper term is) numbers.

Re: Dell Computers Has Been Hacked

#9
post #3

Am I the only one thinking that we've lost total control over the machines and data we've created. It seems like nothing is safe and or verifiable anymore. Add to this the backdrop of governments wanting backdoors. People calling you in the US pretending to be from the "IRS" and yet nothing is/ can be done about it? Maybe its really high time for C and its buffer overflows to go... And SQL injection. We're tech savy…

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.

Re: Dell Computers Has Been Hacked

#10
post #3

Am I the only one thinking that we've lost total control over the machines and data we've created. It seems like nothing is safe and or verifiable anymore. Add to this the backdrop of governments wanting backdoors. People calling you in the US pretending to be from the "IRS" and yet nothing is/ can be done about it? Maybe its really high time for C and its buffer overflows to go... And SQL injection. We're tech savy…

> People calling you in the US pretending to be from the "IRS" and yet nothing is/ can be done about it?

Not quite sure I understand your premise on that one. You can't stop people from pretending to be from the IRS any more than you can stop criminal activity by outlawing it.

Essentially anyone can call anyone else and pretend to be from a government agency. Ultimately you're going to have to verify that or otherwise know better, there is no practical technical means to stop it. There's a certain level of personal responsibility that comes into play there. That goes with similar things like falling for investment scams over the phone as well. Such should be pursued by the authorities obviously - and you're still responsible for your own person regardless, you can't be saved from everything: the IRS doesn't call people like that, it would take 30 seconds to figure that out via google. The same type of problem would arise if an impostor showed up at your door pretending to be from the IRS. How do you stop it completely? You don't, you arrest after the fact if you can; if it gets widespread enough to be a big problem, you attempt education outreach to teach people not to fall for it. These types of scams are ancient, and will never stop existing (the scammers will always adapt); the only highly effective means of stopping it is awareness.

Post reply on HN