topic Re: Are you being listened too? in Privacy

Are you being listened too?

Caute_cautim — Mon, 09 Oct 2023 09:36:21 GMT

Hi All

How would you know, unless you looked, that someone had enabled a feature on your TV, Mobile Phone or even Toaster etc?

Do we now have to become forensic investigators can carry out wide band receivers?

Regards

Caute_Cautim

Re: Are you being listened too?

JKWiniger — Sun, 09 Aug 2020 21:17:50 GMT

This is a very good question and it's right up there with how do you know if your system has been compromised. I know on a Mac laptop there is a LED that comes on when the camera is active. I am not 100% sure but I believe it is wired directly into the camera circuit so there is no way to turn on the camera without the LED coming on. I feel this type of protection real needs to be baked in when a product is created like the LED is. Even if there are indicators like this some people will still either not notice or just ignore them.

From a software standpoint when will we start seeing firewalls and other things for our IOT devices, or at least a router with an IOT enable firewall that has very strict control over who and what can get to these devices.

If anyone knows of a better answer I want to hear it because it is a problem and I hope there are some things I am not aware of.

John-

Re: Are you being listened too?

Caute_cautim — Sun, 09 Aug 2020 21:50:08 GMT

@JKWiniger Hi John, a good point. Shodan is one method for scanning for IoT devices, but it does mean potentially we would need to carry personal Technical Countermeasures System to detect, if such activity was being activated on your current systems. Currently, without going through a mental process and logically working through ones settings. Or perhaps this is a business opportunity?

Or perhaps a personal investment such as these: https://thespystore.com.au/collections/bug-detectors

Regards

Caute_cautim

Re: Are you being listened too?

dcontesti — Sun, 09 Aug 2020 22:37:06 GMT

LOL anyone listening to me may be shocked.....I talk to myself when I work, but its worse when I start answering myself......

In all seriousness, most folks wouldn't even know that that feature was there and might not even care. Given that a lot of the world's workforce are now working from home, I am concerned over corporate information that may or may not seeping out. I have seen IT departments shipping new devices to non-technical folks and asking them to set up the device with no real instructions, .....I think bad business practice.

Re: Are you being listened too?

JKWiniger — Sun, 09 Aug 2020 23:56:30 GMT

@dcontesti I hate to break it to you but all this time you thought you were talking to yourself you were really talking to the ghost in the machine! That's my story and I'm sticking too it! Now I need to go find that sone with the line "I'm not crazy, you're the one that's crazy!" hahaha

With all the issues out there I am beside myself that companies do this stuff when we can easily have systems checked for minimum requirements before allowing access to VPNs, now we need an agent that ties into a web login so if you are out of compliance it will not let you log in.

Me and my crazy ideas 🙂

John-

Re: Are you being listened too?

Caute_cautim — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 00:20:10 GMT

@JKWiniger Reassuringly, you are definitely not crazy at all. Automation and baselines are required to ensure that settings have not changed or been tampered with . If an endpoint for example is suspected of being compromised it should be immediately be isolated, and then investigated. This demands automation and orchestration, which is a journey in itself. But given the speed of interactions, and changes, we cannot simply depend on human beings to make rational decisions, when a single endpoint, may in fact compromise many more systems. A level of paranoia is required to exist in today's rapidly changing environments.

Regards

Caute_Cautim

Re: Are you being listened too?

dcontesti — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 02:28:55 GMT

John and John,

I have always maintained that I am the only one that is crazy and the rest of world is sane LOL

Re: Are you being listened too?

JKWiniger — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 11:37:42 GMT

@dcontesti

I just have to go there, I had genetic testing for drug interaction done in the past and the results seemed so odd I arranged to speak to the lab. The geneticist at the lad said she reviewed my results before calling me and was not sure what she was going to say to me, because my results were abnormally normal! hahaha

Not sure if that makes me crazy or everyone else crazy?

John-

Re: Are you being listened too?

rslade — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 18:13:16 GMT

> dcontesti (Community Champion) posted a new reply in Privacy on 08-09-2020 10:28

> I have always maintained that I am the only one that is crazy
> and the rest of world is sane

Long ago I realized that the rest of the world is mad, and I am the only one who is
sane ... but they are in charge ...

====================== (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer)
rslade@gmail.com rmslade@outlook.com rslade@computercrime.org
I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of
what I am saying. - Oscar Wilde
victoria.tc.ca/techrev/rms.htm http://twitter.com/rslade
http://blogs.securiteam.com/index.php/archives/author/p1/
https://community.isc2.org/t5/forums/recentpostspage/user-id/1324864413

Re: Are you being listened too?

Caute_cautim — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 20:43:14 GMT

@rslade This wholly depends on who and what set the universal baseline or was it a recognisable medical standard?

Regards

Caute_Cautim

Re: Are you being listened too?

Caute_cautim — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 21:12:00 GMT

@rslade When someone writes an article like this, one has to be concerned:

https://onezero.medium.com/why-we-think-our-phones-are-secretly-listening-to-us-4fd4176a43e3

Because it is not entirely correct. Given that we know that IoT devices can do this by default given their inbuilt capabilities. It may not be the phone itself, but the embedded IoT capabilities, which accompany the device.

Putting conspiracy theories apart, objectively. People do want to be listened too, but often for the wrong reasons.

Regards

Caute_Cautim

Re: Are you being listened too?

rslade — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 22:05:20 GMT

Me, paranoid?

Who have you been talking to?

Re: Are you being listened too?

CISOScott — Tue, 11 Aug 2020 13:51:48 GMT

And when talking to yourself, what point of view do you take?

For example, Do you ask yourself "Who have you been talking to?" or do you say "Who have I been talking to?" or do you go really strange and go third person? "Scott, who has Scott been talking to?"

Re: Are you being listened too?

rslade — Tue, 11 Aug 2020 18:27:09 GMT

You're just jealous because the voices only talk to me ...

Re: Are you being listened too?

CISOScott — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 14:00:06 GMT

But my voices can harmonize........ or is it demonize? I forget. I'm like that sometimes. No. I'm not. Yes. I am. No. you are. No. we are!

Dang. Lost another argument to myself.

I'm like that sometimes.................

Re: Are you being listened too?

rslade — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 16:45:47 GMT

It's OK if you talk to yourself.

It's even OK if you argue with yourself.

If you argue with yourself and lose, you might have a problem ...

Re: Are you being listened too?

JKWiniger — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 00:47:29 GMT

I have tried to talk to myself, but it seems I want no part of me!

John-

Re: Are you being listened too?

Caute_cautim — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 00:56:54 GMT

@JKWiniger Have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately?

Or what the shock factor or just wear dark glasses? Google Glasses of course.

Regards

Caute_cautim

Re: Are you being listened too?

JKWiniger — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 01:13:55 GMT

@Caute_cautim Oh this is just such a loaded question!

Do I go with most of the time when I look in the mirror I don't have much of a reflection because my inner child just cries in the corner out of site...

Or, that years ago friends kept saying I looked like Heisenberg, from Breaking Bad, I fought it for a while and then got the pork pie hat! Everyone seems to like it so I wear it everyday... So who is in the mirror, hell if I know..

And like Heisenberg, I'm not driven, but I do what needs to be done.. good... bad.. IDK, but I do make thing happen..

Say my name!

Re: Are you being listened too?

cindelicato — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 13:26:37 GMT

Another vector is the now ever-present web conference software. Zoom and WebEx will remind you that you are 'muted' if you speak or make noise while the app has MUTE engaged. While this is a convenience for all those times we speak when believe we're being heard, it also indicates the app is always listening.

Never forget there may always be something listening: https://xkcd.com/1807/