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Blog: Internet Thief Taunts Victim Over Facebook
Shane McGlaun (Blog) - August 17, 2009 11:11 AM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 22 comment(s) - last by murphyslabrat.. on Aug 20 at 12:11 PM
Thief uses stolen laptop to hack owners Facebook account

A couple from Hove, West Sussex had their home burglarized and the thieves took a Nintendo DS, a Toshiba laptop, and an iPhone. The thief left behind the TV set owned by Dan and Victoria Richardson. The day after the theft the burglar used the stolen laptop to hack the couples Facebook account.

Once inside the Facebook account the burglar posted updates taunting the victim. The first post to the Facebook page said "On my new Laptop." The next post said "Listening to music on my new phone feels so good. I have the laptop, phones OK but a bit scratched it'll do. TV was rubbish so I left it, ds was a bonus. Now to the porn (sic) shop I gooo, thankyou Toshiba is my favourite make."

The final post from the thief said, "regards your nighttime burglar."

Victoria Richardson said, "I felt very spooked. I have never felt like that before. It felt like they were rubbing my nose in it. They have been in your physical space, and then they are in your online space."

A spokesman from the Sussex police said, "Being burgled is traumatic enough for any family but for the culprit to apparently use their stolen possessions to publicly gloat over the crime is a sinister twist. As with all burglaries we are taking the matter seriously and a thorough investigation is under way to bring this offender to justice."

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Policing in Blighty!
By dark matter on 8/17/2009 1:38:54 PM , Rating: 5
I wouldn't hold out too much hope for this so called "police investigation". This is England we are talking about, and the police over here are too busy dressing up as muslims wearing burqas so they understand what it is like to be a muslim. stopping motorists and issuing fines on roads that are only 2 miles long yet have 5 different speed limits. or busy setting up internal pressure groups. We have the "black police association" and just recently the "pagan" police here have won their right to have their "pagan" holidays off. And in the pipeline is a "transgendered, transexual and transvestite association" to further their cause in the police. What with all that going on and stopping any kind of protest with force, I don't think this families missing laptop is high on their list of priorities. They are probably too busy handing out 6 page questionnaires to inmates about the quality of their cells and how they can improve them.

And no, none of this is satire.




RE: Policing in Blighty!
By Nobleman00 on 8/17/2009 1:49:46 PM , Rating: 2
Sounds like a progressive nation to me. Tourism board trying to get past the reputation of old English prisons eh guv'nor? "Visit England, we've done away with the rack and the quartering this year."


RE: Policing in Blighty!
By dark matter on 8/17/2009 2:49:48 PM , Rating: 4
This is a land where we cannot deport convicted (not even alleged) terrorists because it is against their human rights and they may get hurt in the homeland.

:/


RE: Policing in Blighty!
By bubbastrangelove on 8/17/2009 2:39:27 PM , Rating: 2
It's quiet ironic how governments try to unite a nation as "British" or "American" while systematically dividing us at the lowest levels by race, religion, sexual preference etc.

If the hypocrisy wasn't so painful it would be worth a good chuckle.


RE: Policing in Blighty!
By mmntech on 8/18/2009 12:15:16 AM , Rating: 3
Division is a powerful political tool but highlights the failure of multiculturalism. Politicians can target their campaigns and lure voters easier when they're divided into categories based on race, sex, religion, etc. The left within the West has used this vary effectively. However, all this has done is create deep rifts in our society and has devolved into a form of self-segregation. This is why Obama becoming US president is no victory for humanity as he won on the premise of his colour. Everyone got caught up in the "first black president" thing, even though his policy platform stunk. People are just figuring that out now. It's going to take decades to fix the mess that the PC crowd has caused. I have nothing against respecting others peoples' cultures. However, treating them as insular is wrong at all levels.

I'd never thought I'd say this but Canada is probably the last bastion of sanity left in the former British Empire. That's saying a lot. Seems Brown, Blair & Co. have run the UK into the ground in the name of political correctness.


RE: Policing in Blighty!
By Regs on 8/18/2009 2:27:32 PM , Rating: 2
At least fine them 1.9 million. It's nothing. Slap on the wrist.


RE: Policing in Blighty!
By SiliconDoc on 8/20/2009 5:06:23 AM , Rating: 2
I can't say I disagree with you because obviously, the "spokesperson" is keenly aware that the public's opinion is they don't take this seriously at all: " As with all burglaries we are taking the matter seriously and a thorough investigation is under way to bring this offender to justice."
---
Sure. I am amazed by what nowadays appears to be a fine tuned PR lackey that apparently EVERY government entity and agency has at least one of, and more likely a rotating crew.
Why do you even have to tell us you're taking it seriously, unless, in fact, you do not ? I mean the whole concept that police aren't "taking it seriously" is such a lousy and frankly revealing way to put it, one immediately must think they have a real problem doing so, and curiosity arises as to exactly why.
We have this kind of spewing idiocy at the public level all the time - where all involved have to tell us all their true feelings in the matter (supposedly to dispel the broad notion, or actual reality, that in fact they could care less?).
I mean really, what does that tell us: " As with all burglaries were taking it seriously." What kind of moronic liar even says something like that ?


RE: Policing in Blighty!
By murphyslabrat on 8/20/2009 12:11:03 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Why do you even have to tell us you're taking it seriously, unless, in fact, you do not ?

It's not like they called a press conference and said, "hey everybody, we're working hard on it." What would you have said?


Once again
By DotNetGuru on 8/17/09, Rating: 0
RE: Once again
By Mojo the Monkey on 8/17/2009 6:33:10 PM , Rating: 1
I think the people rating you down are misinterpreting your post. If you are referring to the Windows User Account, then I wholeheartedly agree with you. I think its foolish not to PW protect a laptop, which presumably leaves your home.

Perhaps people think you are talking about a "Facebook user account" and rating you down because, obviously, you must make a password for this account.


RE: Once again
By mofo3k on 8/18/2009 1:13:29 PM , Rating: 2
A Windows password is only a speed bump for some of us. There a quite a few utilities out there that erase passwords and recover passwords, not to mention that you can always log in as an admin user and remove the password that way.

So just because you set a password, don't assume you're secure.


RE: Once again
By Brain onna Bun on 8/19/2009 11:07:57 AM , Rating: 2
BIOS password.
Yes i use them
Yes i know if it goes boink or I forget my password it is a minor catastrophe.

But that, plus Windows Password means halfway non useless security


RE: Once again
By nafhan on 8/19/2009 12:24:18 PM , Rating: 2
BIOS password can be gotten past without too much effort. It's harder on a laptop than it is on a desktop (desktop takes about 1 minute). Do a search on "reset laptop BIOS" plus your laptop make/model. Plus if a thief wants your data, all he has to do is pull the hard drive and drop it in a different computer.
If you're paranoid or have important/sensitive data, your best bet is to encrypt the hard drive. That renders the computer useless until the hard drive is replaced, and protects your data much better than a BIOS password would do.


RE: Once again
By Mojo the Monkey on 8/19/2009 12:56:27 PM , Rating: 2
either way, i think the gist of his post was the "secure you s__"


RE: Once again
By omnicronx on 8/18/2009 1:21:21 PM , Rating: 2
DotNetGuru meet safemode.. safemode meet DotNetGuru.. Unfortunately the administrator password for most OEM's is wait for it.. nothing..

All you need to do is go into safemode, log in as Administrator that does not have a password set and change the password for the user or remove it completely.

HP for example does not set admin passwords
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/fastFaqLiteDocu...

Now I understand why they do this, if someone forgets their password they are SOL, but from a security standpoint it does not make sense, no major OEM locks down their machines meant for home use.


IP
By gmyx on 8/17/2009 11:36:39 AM , Rating: 2
I hope for his sake he was using a public access point.




RE: IP
By messyunkempt on 8/18/2009 2:36:05 AM , Rating: 5
I hope for humours sake, he wasn't and he gets what he deserves.


IP?
By Murst on 8/17/2009 11:38:57 AM , Rating: 5
I wonder if facebook stores the IP address of the person who posts an update. Maybe the thief was stupid enough to do this from their own home.




RE: IP?
By cochy on 8/17/2009 4:28:40 PM , Rating: 2
I would imagine this thief being that dumb. Facebook certainly must keep these records, and I'm sure it wouldn't be a very complicated request to get at this information seeing as one of their users account has been compromised.

I also imagine these users already changed their password unless the thief did so first.


Hacked their facebook account?
By mikecel79 on 8/17/2009 12:50:49 PM , Rating: 5
quote:
The day after the theft the burglar used the stolen laptop to hack the couples Facebook account.

More than likely they had their browser save their password automatically. I wouldn't really call that hacking into their account...

I hope they catch this guy. I hate thieves.




"Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine." -- Bill Gates











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