Never Steal A Hacker’S Pc

[bangkokcitylimits]

As more of us move to using mobile computers such as laptops, netbooks, and tablets, they become much easier to steal. A laptop in a bag is much more accessible than a desktop PC locked in a house, after all. But if it’s a hacker’s machine being stolen, it doesn’t matter whether its left out in the open, or locked behind three doors, if you take it don’t expect him to give up trying to find it and cause you some grief. In the case of thief Melvin Guzman, it was some very public embarrassment.

During DEF CON 18, hacker Zoz recounted how his Quicksilver G4 got stolen from his room and his two year search to get it back. While his initial search of eBay and Cragslist failed to find it, the G4 eventually turned up due to the DynDNS domain record for the machine getting updated again. That led to an IP address being revealed, which eventually meant Zoz found the PC and starting figuring out where it was.

The video above is his talk discussing how he went about figuring out where it was and who was using it. Zoz managed to recover a full name, address, birth date, dating preferences, and surfing habits. It’s a funny tale, with some amusing revelations, and a bit of NSFW naked footage of both the out-of-work thief, and the honeys he was trying to date online.

Well worth a watch if you have 20 minutes to spare.

[nikster]

Saw this before... it's a bit of a funny story because the guy who stole the computer apparently didn't turn it on for ... years?

Good takeaways:

- Don't leave backup disks in the same room as the computer you're backing up. Thieves will take both, leaving you with nothing

- Bad security is sometimes better than good security - had this computer be locked down more professionally, then the hacker would not have been able to use it and thereby expose himself and his location - the thief would have had to reformat or sell the machine, in which case it would have been gone for good. So if you're interested in getting your machine back, the honey pot approach may be better.

- Keychain or password managers are a good protection against keyloggers. Even though the hacker installed a keylogger right away, he didn't get any passwords for a while as they were automatically filled in by the operating system.

- Don't steal a hacker's computer, or if you do at least reformat it. Otherwise said hacker will show your ridiculous "sexy" dating site pictures - including a naked one in the shower, how could any lady resist. And expose your frequent visits to sites such as "big black booty.com".

- Thieves are just as dumb as you'd imagine. Well - the ones that get caught, anyway.

[bangkokcitylimits]

Two highly recommendable security measurements for PC’s: 1) Hard Disk Encryption: http://www.truecrypt.org 2) OffSite and OnSite Backup: http://www.crashplan.com

[backfromouterspace]

I'm having 'I am a hacker' stickers printed and stuck on my PC and laptop tomorrow. Safety first.

[nocturn]

Two highly recommendable security measurements for PC's: 1) Hard Disk Encryption: http://www.truecrypt.org 2) OffSite and OnSite Backup: http://www.crashplan.com

you have forgotten to mention the tinfoil hat your posts indicate you wear daily

[katana]

@bangkokcitylimits

Quite an interesting hacker story...!

[nikster]

I think it would be fun to intentionally kit out your computer so it comes back when stolen.

There are a few security solutions that do that already - e.g. you install a stealth program on your computer which, in the event the machine gets stolen, contacts you and sends you information like IP address (=location) and screen shots, as well as shots from the computer's camera.

Back to my Mac service does this, and find my iPhone, and there's a few that are actually made to hide in your system - both Windows and Mac - forgot the name now.