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Be careful your mouse might be infected. — Parallax Forums

Be careful your mouse might be infected.

RDL2004RDL2004 Posts: 2,554
edited 2013-07-12 22:03 in General Discussion
Be careful your mouse might be infected.
In an almost cartoonish response to a relatively minor problem, employees at the obscure Economic Development Administration took a hammer to their computers, keyboards and mice in an effort to destroy all of the agency’s tech-related hardware after incorrectly believing their network had been hacked.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/10/us-agency-destroys-computers/

Sometimes I have trouble believing this kind of thing can really happen.

Comments

  • xanaduxanadu Posts: 3,347
    edited 2013-07-11 16:13
    So unorthodox I don't know how to feel about it.

    It would be funny if they only hit the outside of the computers and the hard drives were perfectly intact.
  • ElectricAyeElectricAye Posts: 4,561
    edited 2013-07-11 16:35
    If you read through the original report, you'll see that lots of relatively minor errors apparently resonated with each other within the various levels of bureaucracy.

    http://www.oig.doc.gov/OIGPublications/OIG-13-027-A.pdf

    Just curious: is it possible for a mouse to harbor a virus? There are wireless mice, for example, so I'm guessing there are chips in there that might store data of some sort. Anybody know for sure that all mice are, by their very nature, unhackable?

    I recently read where an iPhone could be hacked through a modified charger.
    http://gizmodo.com/your-iphone-can-be-hacked-with-a-modified-charger-510988017
    I hate to sound paranoid, but...
  • W9GFOW9GFO Posts: 4,010
    edited 2013-07-11 16:39
    Things like this are what make real life more interesting than fiction.
  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2013-07-11 16:54
    I fix computers for various people... I've been around some mice (and keyboards for that matter) that I thought I might catch something from..

    eeewwww...
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2013-07-11 17:02
    Marginally related: I spent a few hours fixing the wife's computer yesterday. Nasty ransome-ware called US Courts:

    http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-united-states-courts-ransomware

    Nothing worked on her computer, it booted direct to the ransom page. After numerous "fixes" failed, I just installed her HD in my Vista computer as a slave and ran Malwarebytes, SuperAntispyware, CCleaner, and my newly updated Security Essentials. All good now, just a time-consuming PITA.
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    edited 2013-07-11 17:12
    When I worked at the CDC in Atlanta, one of the department I was in charge of repairing computers was the Hepatitis research area. All the people were wearing gloves typing on their keyboards. They asked me to verify some problems with the keyboards,..I said I'll return after I bought some gloves for me.... :)

    They used mice for other activities.
  • jazzedjazzed Posts: 11,803
    edited 2013-07-11 17:18
    Just think, all you have to do is pay racketeering insurance premiums to McAffee, Norton, Microsoft, etc... to feel secure.
    If you don't pay, they will break your legs ... LOL
  • xanaduxanadu Posts: 3,347
    edited 2013-07-11 17:25
    ElectricAye wrote: »
    If you read through the original report, you'll see that lots of relatively minor errors apparently resonated with each other within the various levels of bureaucracy.

    http://www.oig.doc.gov/OIGPublications/OIG-13-027-A.pdf

    Just curious: is it possible for a mouse to harbor a virus? There are wireless mice, for example, so I'm guessing there are chips in there that might store data of some sort. Anybody know for sure that all mice are, by their very nature, unhackable?

    I recently read where an iPhone could be hacked through a modified charger.
    http://gizmodo.com/your-iphone-can-be-hacked-with-a-modified-charger-510988017
    I hate to sound paranoid, but...

    Yeah but if someone could hack a mouse over USB for whatever reason, physical destruction? I'd frame them; "1st Malware Hacked Mouse Evar July 2013" and sell them on eBay. Who wouldn't want a hacked mouse?
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,069
    edited 2013-07-11 17:31
    Back in years gone by when disk drives were the washing machine size for 40MB, a customer had a fault in their drive. The engineer who came to fix the drive found a dead rat in the drive. The customer wrote to the supplier disclaiming ownership of the rat. It was written is such a way that the supplier did not know if it was written in jest or serious.
  • pjvpjv Posts: 1,903
    edited 2013-07-11 19:55
    Laughable (or not) events abound.

    At the time of Y2K concerns, one of our clients insisted we audit the computers we supplied them for compliance. An engineering firm was sent around to do this. And for sure, one of the things on the checklist was the plugin power cord. Go figure !

    I wonder what the whole non-event cost us. Billions for sure.

    Cheers,

    Peter (pjv)
  • TtailspinTtailspin Posts: 1,326
    edited 2013-07-11 21:15
    ...Nasty ransome-ware called US Courts:

    http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/viru...rts-ransomware

    Nothing worked on her computer, it booted direct to the ransom page...
    Sorry to hear that. :frown: I know it can be a real pain to clean up if your not ready for it...
    Did your web cam turn itself on? that is so creepy when you see yourself in the little web cam window...

    The FBI virus-ransomware started at $100 dollars and quickly moved to $300 dollars,
    What a great time a group of us had, not sending the money... Some pretty funny stuff..:lol:


    -Tommy
  • kwinnkwinn Posts: 8,697
    edited 2013-07-12 07:17
    RDL2004 wrote: »
    Be careful your mouse might be infected.



    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/10/us-agency-destroys-computers/

    Sometimes I have trouble believing this kind of thing can really happen.

    I can't help but wonder how these morons get management positions in organizations like that. Don't they have a minimum IQ requirement? Perhaps all employees should be required to pass an IQ and TQ (Technical Quotient) test for the position they aspire to.
  • pmrobertpmrobert Posts: 675
    edited 2013-07-12 08:22
    Fair use quote from Wikipedia:
    "
    The Peter Principle is a proposition that states that the members of an organization where promotion is based on achievement, success and merit will eventually be promoted beyond their level of ability. The principle is commonly phrased, "Employees tend to rise to their level of incompetence." In more formal parlance, the effect could be stated as: employees tend to be given more authority until they cannot continue to work competently.
    "
    I worked in a government job (County level, but in FL, which has it's own alternate Universe as SOP) for 31 years and the IT people were, well, interesting. The network was so locked down that very little useful work could be performed unless it was in the form of an Excel worksheet. So we had Excel memos, todo lists, scheduling sheets, you name it. AFAIK, they're still forcing that very square peg into a round hole. You should see what kind of documents that can be created when Excel is used as the word processor of mandate.
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2013-07-12 09:02
    Should have used LInux.. it never would have happened.

    People in Taiwan were quite fearful of Y2K downing the country's banks and government, but all the data is kept in years since the founding of R.O.C. not Christian era. We were at R.O.C era year 89 ( this year I have to data my bank withdrawals in Year 102) with 11 years after Y2K to solve Taiwan's century rollover problem.

    And Thailand has yet another era based on Buddha.

    But that didn't stop the histeria and media buzz about Y2K. Most people use Windows and have no idea how to manage their computer.

    These days to be employable you need a high IQ, a high EQ, and a high CQ.. and a degree helps too.
  • kwinnkwinn Posts: 8,697
    edited 2013-07-12 10:21
    Ah yes, the Y2K hysteria was a little over the top. I had one customer retire a $35,000.00 piece of equipment because of it. Wouldn't even let me buy it for parts, and went so far as to drill holes through the circuit boards.

    The date was entered and stored as a text string, used only for printouts or to indicate the date some data or setting was manually changed, never for calculations.
  • localrogerlocalroger Posts: 3,451
    edited 2013-07-12 16:26
    ElectricAye wrote: »
    Just curious: is it possible for a mouse to harbor a virus?

    It is possible to hardware hack a USB mouse to spread malware. You need to cram a micro-USB hub and USB thumb drive board into the mouse enclosure. The thumb drive runs the malware by autorun. I've seen this done somewhere as a proof of concept but it's an exotic labor-intensive method of attack.
  • ElectricAyeElectricAye Posts: 4,561
    edited 2013-07-12 22:03
    localroger wrote: »
    It is possible to hardware hack a USB mouse to spread malware. You need to cram a micro-USB hub and USB thumb drive board into the mouse enclosure. The thumb drive runs the malware by autorun. I've seen this done somewhere as a proof of concept but it's an exotic labor-intensive method of attack.

    Thanks for answering that.
    I could imagine a less harmful hack where the mouse starts to roam around a screen and maybe guess where to point and click to launch a browser or something, just to freak people out.
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