Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide • Hacker News Board

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#421

Post by Bedon292 » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 8:50 PM UTC

dmurray wrote: post #336

Bedon292 wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While not congress, so I can't say for sure, I have been around government and other enterprise systems. Some measures they had in place: - Disabled USB Ports (except whitelisted peripherals) - User accounts don't have permission to install anything at all - If you plug a deceive with a different mac address than expected into an ethernet port the port locks down until a sysadmin verifies it and manually unlocks it -…

> If you plug a deceive with a different mac address than expected into an ethernet port the port locks down until a sysadmin verifies it and manually unlocks it Reckon they'd immediately block this laptop's MAC address after it gets reported stolen? If not, that's reason enough to steal it - clone the MAC address and plug in your own device which is now whitelisted. Of course this isn't enough on its own and you lik…

Probably would remove it as soon as its reported yes. Even if they didn't you would still have to take the device back in the building to that same exact port to connect.

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#422

Post by Pokepokalypse » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 8:50 PM UTC

chasd00 wrote: post #345

johnnyballgame wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Optimistic thinking. Chances are it has many PDF and PowerPoint files scattered on it. And probably a shared user account where the files fill up a Windows desktop.

yeah, i bet it has every presentation ever done sitting in good ol' ~/Documents or the desktop.

almost certainly on a server hosting roaming profiles.

And if not, then they should hire me and I'll set it up for them. :D

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#423

Post by jasonwatkinspdx » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 8:50 PM UTC

stagger87 wrote: post #253

jeffbee wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I admire the restraint on display here, but if even one of those guys had been black, the cops would have iced every one of them. Imagine someone grabbing a cop's gas mask at a BLM march and not being dead 2 seconds later.

Hyperbole, this kind of stuff happened all the time at BLM protests. There is literally hundreds of videos of this stuff. No one was getting 'iced'.

No, it's not hyperbole. I was at the Portland protests this summer, and nothing even close to this happened. They'd have gone to mass use of tear gas and less lethal munitions long before that point, and if by some improbable chance a context like the above video push into a building arose, there's no question in my mind the CBP and related agency unmarked officers would have just straight up opened fire.

There are two standards at work in how protests are treated. This is a factual matter, not an opinion. It doesn't mean every protester on the left is a blameless, as obviously that's a straw man position on its face. But the disparity in how violence is used, and in particular how early its used is very clear. You can't just handwave that away. Likewise you can't handwave away that showing up with military style gear and loaded firearms is a defining feature of right wing protests that is not duplicated on the left.

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#424

Post by aggie » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 8:50 PM UTC

spzb wrote: post #12

coldcode wrote: post #6

If they followed proper security it would be encrypted. All of our Macs at my employer automatically have it on.

Given that Pelosi's desktop was logged on and unlocked, there's a fair chance the laptop was too which would render full disk encryption useless. As long as whoever stole it didn't close it and send it to sleep anyway.

Do we know it was Pelosi's computer and not just a staffer in her office? I also imagine it's a lot harder to walk out of the building with an open laptop in hand than a closed one in a bag.

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#425

Post by Pfhreak » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 8:50 PM UTC

rlt wrote: post #294

rtkwe wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She was climbing through a barricaded door through a broken window with a person with a drawn gun on the other side protecting who knows who, armed or not the outcome was kind of a given when she decided that was a good idea. Not the best comparison to put up against the treatment of BLM protestors throughout the year.

> treatment of BLM protestors How many BLM protestors were shot and killed by police? I’m genuinely curious, as I’m not aware of any.

I'm going to assume your question is in good faith, and try to provide a factual set of people who died (that I'm aware of).

* Sarah Grossman was pepper-sprayed at a demonstration and later died in the hospital from acute respiratory issues.

* David McAtee was fatally shot by police at a protest : https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/us/louisville-protests-man-sh...

* Sean Monterossa was killed while kneeling with hands raised when shot to death by police because they mistook a hammer in his pocket for a gun. https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/Attorney-identifie...

* Aubreana Inda was sent into cardiac arrest, 'dying' three times, after being shot in the chest. https://www.kuow.org/stories/this-26-year-old-died-three-tim...

There are countless incident reports of 'less lethal' ammunition being aimed at faces. Less lethal is still lethal. This woman was placed into a medically induced coma: https://timesofsandiego.com/crime/2020/06/02/family-of-woman...

And several incidents of police using their vehicles or horses to ram, trample, or assault people (e.g. by opening a car door to hit protestors as they drove by). Those could easily have been lethal, though they weren't in this case.

Edit: I know this is all super polarizing stuff, but I'm trying to provide a specific and direct answer to the question above.

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

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Post by golergka » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 8:50 PM UTC

JKCalhoun wrote: post #419

golergka wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> having people roaming around the halls of a sensitive government institution Depends on your views on right to rebel.

Right to rebel? I'm not aware of that one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_revolution

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

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Post by JKCalhoun » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 8:51 PM UTC

mekkkkkk wrote: post #222

cabaalis wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd never see any of it. Depending upon who it damages, it either (a) wouldn't be published, or (b) it would be suppressed by media outlets for violating some obscure policy.

I think both of those are invalid if we're talking about WikiLeaks, no?

You don't think WikiLeaks is selective about what it leaks?

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

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Post by ezequiel-garzon » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 8:51 PM UTC

californical wrote: post #393

hwillis wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably the same reason police moved barricades, waved them in, and took selfies with them.

I’m sorry but if you’re a couple of police officers in a room full of literal terrorists, of course you’re going to try to be as restrained and friendly as possible. You’re horribly outnumbered. They would be murdered if they tried to take on the crowd. They needed to wait for reinforcements to arrive, and meanwhile do their best to keep the crowd from going fully insane. They managed the situation with very few peop…

Absolutely. Moreover, why are the Capitol Police Chiefs singled out? Could they have asked for, say, the National Guard? Were they supposed to go to the leaders of Congress the days before the certification to make it happen? I was always of the idea that federal authorities would be tasked with such planning, enrolling (among others) the Capitol Police.

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

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Post by Pokepokalypse » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 8:51 PM UTC

ladyanita22 wrote: post #240

geofft wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The presentation machines at my workplace (in addition to being desktops in a locked cabinet, because why would they leave the room?) just allow you to remote desktop back to your real workstation or to a VM. They have nothing locally. I think that's a good solution to avoiding over-granting privileges.

How can you lock up Windows like that?

roaming profiles is one common way.

I've seen it done badly a number of times, and I've seen it done correctly, and work really well.

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

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Post by petre » Fri, Jan 08, 2021, 8:52 PM UTC

35fbe7d3d5b9 wrote: post #46

mumblemumble wrote: post #14

Beyond the information security risk around the loss of this specific device, what really worries me is the physical security implications here. I'm certainly no expert on the subject, but it seems to me like, in a building like the US Capitol, it should not be anywhere near this easy for unauthorized people to waltz into an office or conference room in the first place. Let alone walk away with items from within that…

I've traveled to countries before whose offices of government are behind very large fences, protected by unfriendly looking men standing behind heavy machine guns in armored vehicles – and the guide books are very clear that you are not to take photos of them. I much prefer the approach taken in the USA, where our offices of government are accessible to the people that the government serves. It's very good that I can…

US embassies just about everywhere are like that. The one in Budapest has two inch thick metal bar gates and guards armed with machine guns. Lesson learned from the embassy hostage crisis in Iran.

Anyway, an angry mob of wacko rioters shouldn't violently force their way into the legislative's building. They should respect the outcome of the democratic vote and vote again in four years. Maybe if this was Iran I would say okay, people are fed up with the ayatollah and the revolutionary guards, but this is the US and the poor buggers are being manipulated, shot tear gas at and four of them got killed. For what? Absolutely nothing. The unfortunate officer died doing his job. This is very sad and scary, it looks like civil war brewing. A really bad thing to happen to a nation armed with nukes. Please do not let it happen, it is within your power to distance yourselves from these people and just say no to violence and vandalism.