Comments on: Police to poke around PCs* without permission

By: Ray Firkins

Ray Firkins — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:51:48 +0000

Heard some time back that Dell actually install Keyloggers as part of USA’s plan on cracking down on terror? Can anyone verify?

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:17:21 +0000

We shouldn’t be worried about laws coming in to prevent serious crime.

However, it’s the constant abuse of laws by the police that cause the concerns.
My friend has done criminal searches on old school friends and run licence plates for personal reasons.

It’s all about who you trust and the police aren’t high up on that list for one reason or another.

I suppose we can always encrypt our hard drives.
Wouldn’t help against a key logger though.
Do they make encrypted keyboards?

Anyway i’m not that concerned I used to run my pc with no firewall and an open wifi.
Figured I didn’t mind sharing, till I startedd being used remotely to send spam e-mail

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 08:51:55 +0000

As funny as that was briefly, I agree with Doomy. People may not have “anything to hide” from the law, but it still classes as an invasion of privacy – Much like them setting up video cameras in your home without your permission. I would imagine however that by the time they actually set this up (lets face it, they usually take a few lifetimes) there shoulds hopefully be a few downloadables to prevent them accessing us

By: Doomy

Doomy — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 02:46:15 +0000

mm does having nude pics of your gf or wife for your own viewing pleasure counts as nothing to hide… i would be really upset if some fat cop was enjoying himself without Permission!

By: worzel

worzel — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:43:50 +0000

Who cares?
If you have nothing to hide or be worried about does it really matter?

By: Andre

Andre — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:38:36 +0000

WPA can still be cracked, and packet sent wireless between your PC and wireless router can be captured and dycrpyted…

By: Dominic

Dominic — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:12:04 +0000

Ahh…it becomes clear after reading the Times article.
It’s not ‘hacking’ your computer per say, merely trying to get you to install a virus (very ethical, virus scanners can prevent), parking outside your house and hacking your wireless connection (WPA encryption can prevent), or installing keylogging hardware within your computer (impossible without a warrant I would imagine, so redundent).

By: Will

Will — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:11:09 +0000

I don’t think hacking into a PC is quite as easy as that, I bloody hope not anyway!

By: Dominic

Dominic — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:05:12 +0000

Is the technology there? If you have up to date virus and spyware scanners with a secure firewall, how exactly are they going to do this? Force everyone to install a trojan?

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:45:21 +0000

“Police Constables are free to poke around one another – they’re consenting adults, after all”

The heading says without permission 0_o