Geek Alert... is this a hoax?

corjulo said:
Never mind, its a hoax

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/06/16/conspiracy_theory_of.html
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I looked at the description of the circuit and I don't see any likelihood that the device as described would be a "hardware keystroke logger". The author also speaks of a connnection to the "integrated ethernet board" which is itself an oxymoron. Finally if Dell wanted to monitor their customer's keystrokes all they'd have to do is include that function in the BIOS.
 
lancefisher said:
I looked at the description of the circuit and I don't see any likelihood that the device as described would be a "hardware keystroke logger". The author also speaks of a connnection to the "integrated ethernet board" which is itself an oxymoron. Finally if Dell wanted to monitor their customer's keystrokes all they'd have to do is include that function in the BIOS.
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While I don't argue for the validity of the claim, I'm curious why you describe "integrated ethernet board" as an oxymoron?

On a side note, I do have some hardware keyloggers, although they are for external keyboards only (which works with keyboards hooked up to laptops). I've seen some modified keyloggers with ethernet connections but they're not really all that discreet and easily seen (thus avoiding the whole idea of 'stealth' when logging keystrokes for...an investigation).
 
Brian Austin said:
While I don't argue for the validity of the claim, I'm curious why you describe "integrated ethernet board" as an oxymoron?
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'Cause "integrated" means it's part of the motherboard, not a separate circuit board.
 
lancefisher said:
'Cause "integrated" means it's part of the motherboard, not a separate circuit board.
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They are pretty much that way nowadays, especially on laptops.

Okay, I see what you're saying. I didn't really see the significance, though, since this was probably written by a non-geek trying to sound like he knew what he was talking about. Not unusual, especially with "policy" type folks.
 
Brian Austin said:
They are pretty much that way nowadays, especially on laptops.

Okay, I see what you're saying. I didn't really see the significance, though, since this was probably written by a non-geek trying to sound like he knew what he was talking about.
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That was my point. He claimed to be an EE and as such should have known the difference. He also described one of the IC's incorrectly which leads me to believe he wasn't much of an EE.
 
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