This is SCARE-EEY!!!!

ATS ^ | posted on Mar, 18 2019 @ 09:47 AM | Editorial staff

[vannrox]

Not sure where to put this one, it could go in so many different sub-forums, so I'll just put it here in 'General'.

The other day my laptop crashed and burned. Not sure what happened, but I think the motherboard fried. I managed to get it working enough to attach an external hard drive and mirror off all the data files. Most of it I already had backed up, but I just wanted to get the most recent data. Because many of my keyboard keys were not working I had to use some more global commands to get all the data. Last Sunday I went out and bought a new laptop. I wasn't too mad because my old laptop was 4+ years old and had given me pretty good service. I got the new laptop set up, installed all the software and copied all the data from my old laptop (now on my external HD) over to my new computer. Everything was working great, no problems.

So last night I was busy canning some spicy pickles and eggs and decided to listen to some music from my new machine. I clicked on my normal music directories and all these weird files showed up. At first I just ignored them thinking I would just go back and clean them out later. There were a bunch of them, hundreds even. I was searching for a particular song I wanted to listen to, but all these extraneous files kept getting in the way. What are these files???

The new files were .MP3 files and they had titles like 170901_1554. Always 6 digits with an underscore and then 4 more digits. Okay, so it's an .MP3 file, so let's play it and see what it is, right?

So, I played one of the files. ............ It's a recording of ME, in a conversation I was having with someone else. I hadn't recorded that conversation. So then I listened to a whole bunch of these files, and they were all recordings of conversations. Hundreds of conversations!! Me talking with my wife, me talking with a business colleague...even one of me talking to my dogs! Some of them were just 2-3 minutes long. Some of them were 45 minutes long. Hundreds and hundreds of recorded audio of conversations. WTF??? Like seriously...W...T...F??????

Now, I'm pretty computer saavy (lord knows, I work in the industry) so I'm pretty good about turning stuff off. When I set up a computer I spend hours turning off all the bloatware, all the recording and video. I'm kind of obsessive about turning off all the "big brother" stuff, and I frequently check to make sure updates don't add or turn something back on again. I run pretty damn good security on my machines too. That laptop was tight as a drum...or so I thought. Yet, there are hours and hours of conversations recorded on it. Probably hundreds of hours!!!! Absolutely unbelievable!

I have no idea what software recorded these files. I have no idea what triggered them to be recorded. I equally have no idea what or whom they were sent to. The good news is, there wasn't much of anything particularly notable in the recordings, but the simple fact they exist at all is a SERIOUS WTF moment!!!

Pretty scary!! Pretty scary that something like this could happen to someone like me, and it makes me wonder how much other EVIL-WARE is out there on other people's machines, recording everything they're doing!!

[Lurkinanloomin]

The GOV’T guy looks just like John Brennan.

[eastexsteve]

Even Windows shows you hidden files when you call up the File Cabinet. They just show up a bit opaque. Windows has a built-in sound recorder for internal devices like the mic. No big secret here. I thought this guy “worked” in the industry? He should just stop letting his kids play on his laptop.

[Chode]

you dint notice the HDD free space going down?

[Paladin2]

Echo and Echo Dots like s/w.

[apillar]

I know at my work you are subject to audio and video monitoring when you telework from home, but that is only on your work computer and supposedly only during the hours you are "on the clock". Many people where upset when they started this and most simply put a piece of black electrical tape over the camera and microphone port when working from home.

If this isn't a situation like this it sounds like some kind of spyware. Hackers will hack into your microphone and/or camera in hopes of getting financial information (credit card numbers and the like) or compromising video.

[PIF]

In the late 80’s he finally told me that they had developed hardware to collect all electronic and voice communications of everyone in the U.S. going back into the late 70’s.

---

He “misspoke” - hardware was used to collect all electronic and voice communications of everything and everyone in the U.S. and overseas going back into the 60s or a bit earlier. He just made smaller versions of existing items.

Unless you are privy to some SAP, you have no idea what the storage facility is, does, or stores - if it does any of that. Just hysterical speculation.

And before anyone gets on their NSA high-horse, the Russians, the Chinese, and perhaps others record all the same personal data within the US without any restrictions ...

[BlackbirdSST]

Vanroxx You live in China. You are an apologist for the Chinese. Who the hell do you think is recording you, it is not too hard to figure out. Sheesh. It is your Chinese overlord. Enjoy your Chinese life.

I'm surprised it took 30+ post to get to the truth of the matter.

[null and void]

I’m sure that’s just a coinky-dink.

All our betters cultivate that look...

[Rusty0604]

:-)

[Jane Long]

Same thing happened when we wore our iWatches.

We would be away from phones/computer....talk about a product or a place...and then *magically* receive pop ups or emails about said product/place.

We ditched the iWatches and haven’t had the issue, since.

[Rusty0604]

Russians!

[Liz]

Yikes......scary.

[Swordmaker]

Non-US date format. Software probably written by someone outside of the US. So my guess would be NOT a "big name" program or one that's part of bloatware on the laptop.

Not necessarily. File names constructed in that manner automatically alphabetizes the files in the order the files were created. Year, month, day, then time. Putting the year in the traditional third position would not, requiring a parsing routine to sort the files. This approach requires no such parsing. I agree it’s deliberate, but it’s something I’d do as a database designer.

[dayglored]

FReeper Tech Alert / Support ... PING!

You can find all the Windows Ping list threads with FR search: just search on keyword "windowspinglist".

Thanks to Excellence for the ping!

[dayglored]

> Pingging to Dayglored. If anybody would have a good take on this it is Dayglored.

Thanks, I appreciate the compliment :-)

A number of things come to mind.

• As Excellence and others stated, a computer is not off in "sleep" mode. It's very quiet, but it's awake, don't let anybody fool you. Otherwise you couldn't get its attention to "wake it up".
• A computer isn't really off even if it's turned off. As long as its battery is there, and/or its AC charger/adapter is connected, it has power and it's capable of operation.
• If you don't believe the above, search for Intel Management Engine security. That "management engine" can turn on your microphone, camera, wireless, and wired networking, among other things -- even when the computer is switched off, as long as there's a source of power.
• Spyware rarely writes to the hard drive when the computer is powered off with only the battery (no AC), because running the hard drive chews up the battery charge and can alert the user that something is up. Instead, spyware tends to send the data directly out the network, over WiFi or Ethernet, if it can reach the internet.
• I agree with FReeper Mr170IQ that the MP3 filenames you found are timestamps.
• Given that these files were written to the hard drive, it's almost certain they were recorded while the computer was on or in sleep mode.
• Look around on your computer for an application that records voice data -- memos or other "benign" uses -- and research the internet about whether that application is known to do unexpected or surreptitious recording.

That's about all I have on the top of my head. The other suggestions on this thread are worthwhile; don't take my comments above as anything like complete. :-)

[JDoutrider]

Marker

[Swordmaker]

Same thing happened when we wore our iWatches.

We would be away from phones/computer....talk about a product or a place...and then *magically* receive pop ups or emails about said product/place.

We ditched the iWatches and haven’t had the issue, since.

I’ve worn my first generation AppleWatch every day for five years and I’m going to call BS on your claims. First of all, AppleWatches up until the cellular enabled third generation AppleWatch, did not work independently of the iPhone and never worked dependent on a computer. Secondly, the AppleWatch never listens continually and only listens when the user lifts the watch and speaks the phrase "Hey Siri" to trigger its attention. Finally, Apple does not sell advertising to any third-parties as you describe and even using my iPhone or computer, unless GOOGLE was involved with a webpage or I was using a GOOGLE app or service, no Apple product ever provided a third-party advertisement based on a search or conversation or anything else, and most certainly none through my Use of my AppleWatch nor have any of the numerous members of my family and friends who own and use AppleWatches ever reported such an experience, and some of them own third and fourth generation cellular enabled AppleWatches.

Frankly, with your calling the AppleWatch an "iWatches," which is a denigrating term used only by anti-Apple critics, I doubt you ever owned one much less multiple AppleWatches, nor stopped using them for the reason you stated.

[Bob434]

I would think that IF computers were ‘secretly recording our conversations’ that some savvy techie somewhere would have discovered this by now, and it would have been confirmed by now by many others, and it would be all over the INTERNET and microsoft would be in court over this

[Nifster]

And Above Top Secret is always my go to site for true information. /s

[Nifster]

Curious

Not really a trust worthy source