Re: big brother at school

[phester <funsec () armorfirewall com>]

On Fri, 19 Feb 2010, Valdis.Kletnieks () vt edu wrote:

> On Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:23:54 PST, "Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon & Hannah" said:
> > It might be equally possible that a student, having been "given" a high-priced
> > Apple laptop by the school and/or district, decided to see if he could score an extra
> > one, possibly to sell.  And, having reported his laptop stolen, got caught. The
> > Webcam mention may be a complete red herring, mentioned only because Apple
> > laptops have Webcams.  Or, the appropriate school official, having tracked down
> > the laptop, decided to complete the proof, simply by having a look and
> > determining if the student was, in fact, operating the computer when the anti-
> > theft software said he was.
>
> Unfortunately, it's very hard to reconcile that variant version with the fact
> that the webcam software came to light when an assistant principal called the
> kid in for "improper behavior at home".  Not theft. Improper behavior.
>
> http://craphound.com/robbins17.pdf
>
> "23. On November 11, 2009, Plaintiffs were for the first time informed of the
> above-mentioned capability and practice by the School District when Lindy
> Matsko ("Matsko), an Assistant Principal at Harriton High School, informed
> minor Plaintiff that the School District was of the belief that minor Plaintiff
> was engaged in improper behavior in his home, and cited as evidence a photograph
> from the webcam embedded in minor Plaintiff's personal laptop issued by the
> School District."
>
> I somehow doubt the webcam is a red herring.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/19/AR2010021902004.html


"
A Pennsylvania school district says it remotely activated webcams 42 times 
to find missing student laptops, but never did so to spy on students, as a 
lawsuit claims.

Lower Merion School District spokesman Doug Young says the district 
recovered 28 of those laptops over 14 months. The others remain missing. 
The district has about 2,300 student laptops. 
...
Young tells The Associated Press that only two technology department 
employees were authorized to activate the cameras - and only to locate 
missing laptops.
...

"


So there should be 42 police reports of laptop theft? And logs of all 
uses of the backdoor, on both the server and client side?

Of course this doesn't address the legalities of *having* the backdoor, 
but speaks to credibility.

_______________________________________________
Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts.
https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec
Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.