The Dell keylogger conspiracy hoax

Just in case you've seen that web page floating around implicating Dell in some wacked out government conspiracy by suggesting they fit a 4mb keylogger between the keyboard end of some guy's 600m and the Ethernet adapter, we'd like to point out a few key bits, having been inside a Dell laptop or forty.

• Dell laptop keyboards plug directly into the motherboard with a ribbon cable

• He was inside to replace a broken PCMCIA slot riser on the motherboard? Uh, that's a guaranteed next-day mobo replacement on a "almost brand new Dell 600m"—not that you could, but why bother even if you knew how and had spare laptop motherboard parts?

• We've never seen a zip-tied circuit board in professionally assembled machine

• That device is far too massive to fit under the mobo of a Dell laptop

• Awful blurry picture of where it's at in the machine!

Sorry dude, but we're calling major, major BS on this. Anyone care to prove us wrong and open up a huge can of civil rights violations?

Update: Looks like the hoaxster pulled the images from here. [Thanks, scim]

[josh @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

Well, I guess I never considered how I would feel about 'honest' spam. Turns out it's about as welcome as regular spam.

everybody knows the dell keylogger is an embedded app, not a physical piece of hardware ;)

[bob23 @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

"If you think They have put a tiny device in your keyboard that records everything you type and sends it to the Illuminati satellites so the Greys can keep tabs on your every action, you may be right."
You mean thats not true?!?!?!?!?!!

[Steven Boger @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

HOAX. Pictures stolen from here, even used the same filenames:
http://www.dansdata.com/keyghost.htm

[Rick @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

8 kilobytes of ROM to run a keystroke logger! Where did these guys learn to code?

[bryan @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

okay, that the pictures and filenames came from another site claiming the same activity does not make it a hoax, it makes it plagiarism.
Some things that I am finding not trustworthy here:
1. the police told him to contact homeland security, how the hell would the police know homeland security had anything to do with it. I would expect the police response to be "huh the wha?!"
2. Dell gave him a bad cover story for this, but Dept. of Homeland Security told him they could not even talk about it. shouldn't these two organizations have their cover stories somewhat in sync.
3. In his FOIA response there is an end note:
"If you have any questions please contact {blurred name} at {blurred address}"
why would you blur that out, I would like to contact this person and find out if indeed they had this.

[John @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

This story is so fake � a hoax. Here are a couple of reasons why:

1. The image of the document is addressed to, "The Honorable Louise Slaughter" (Democrat Congresswoman from NY)

2. Document references file number File Number: 20050112 - 20050119, which refers, white house briefs regarding the possible leaked identity to a reporter(s) of an undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame.
This site references the file #s of the document:
http://www.c0x2.de/lol/lol.html
See Louise Slaughter site for press release regarding File Number: 20050112 � 20050119:
http://www.slaughter.house.gov/HoR/Louise/News/Press+Releases+By+Date/2005+Press+Releases/04-04-05+Homeland+Security+Department+To+Provide+Details+On+Gannon.htm

3. The blurred image of the address looks identical to the original doc (scroll down to see the image):
http://rawstory.com/exclusives/byrne/homeland_security_responds_jeff_gannon_404.htm

4. As far as I know responses from the Department of Homeland Security do not indent their paragraphs, inconsistent font types and use of a wrong acronym (Ex wrong: FOIA right: FOI/PA).

[Simon @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

That KeyGhost is 'nice', though.

[Nick @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

Keyloggers can be both software AND hardware based. Software is trickier because it must be installed and COULD conceivably be detected by the user.

Hardware loggers are harder to find, and in most places they are considered an illegal or "restricted" technology.

[Dancerman @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

As long as you are designing a motherboard, why wouldn't you just slip in the associated circuitry in right away. I mean it would only add a couple of bucks to the design and much more elegant.

[Ryan Ternie @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

http://www.keyghost.com

That kicks the crap out of the one shown above, and it's small enough to fit under a laptop.

[Sampo Niskanen @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

The first time I saw the site, the creator had left the Photoshop .PSD-files of the copy-paste letter in the directory, and another variant of the same letter as well. Now they are removed from the site, but I posted them to http://eddie.tky.hut.fi/~sampo/homeland/

[Max @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

Well, whenever I come across a conspiracy theory I am instantly skeptical. The first thing I noticed was the description of the circuit board. While the chips mentioned are probably fully real, the detail of description makes it sound to me like an attempt to confuse.
Then I looked at the attached letter. This is the clencher, look at the letterhead. Pay close attention to the symbol. First of all the symbol has no visible writing on it. I also didn't think it looked like a government symbol. To verify this I simply went to the Department of Homeland Security website. Look in the upper right hand corner of the page. Do you see a resemblance to the symbol on the letter? I don't...
Furthermore, to finalize it completely, look at the "letter" again. Under "Department of Homeland Security" on the letter head "United States Secret Service" is written. The Secret Service (I just realized the initials of the Secret Service is SS, that's a little scary...) is in NO WAY affiliated with Freedom of Information online. The Secret Service, or as I will refer to them from now on, the SS has 2 and only 2 jobs. The obvious one being protecting high level political figures, i.e. the President, and the lesser known one being combatting counterfeit money. A letter concerning computer information freedom would have come from Andy Purdy, the IAIP National Cyber Security Director, assuming it came from a high level politician (I call BS on that one).
So here is my conclusion, it's as likely for this to be true as ice cream in Hell, as Jamie Hyneman says, this myth is busted. Any way you want to put it, in my mind at least, there is absolutely no way this is true. So rest easy, big brother may be watching but not by keyloggers in laptops.

[Max @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

Well, whenever I come across a conspiracy theory I am instantly skeptical. The first thing I noticed was the description of the circuit board. While the chips mentioned are probably fully real, the detail of description makes it sound to me like an attempt to confuse.
Then I looked at the attached letter. This is the clencher, look at the letterhead. Pay close attention to the symbol. First of all the symbol has no visible writing on it. I also didn't think it looked like a government symbol. To verify this I simply went to the Department of Homeland Security website. Look in the upper right hand corner of the page. Do you see a resemblance to the symbol on the letter? I don't...
Furthermore, to finalize it completely, look at the "letter" again. Under "Department of Homeland Security" on the letter head "United States Secret Service" is written. The Secret Service (I just realized the initials of the Secret Service is SS, that's a little scary...) is in NO WAY affiliated with Freedom of Information online. The Secret Service, or as I will refer to them from now on, the SS has 2 and only 2 jobs. The obvious one being protecting high level political figures, i.e. the President, and the lesser known one being combatting counterfeit money. A letter concerning computer information freedom would have come from Andy Purdy, the IAIP National Cyber Security Director, assuming it came from a high level politician (I call BS on that one).
So here is my conclusion, it's as likely for this to be true as ice cream in Hell, as Jamie Hyneman says, this myth is busted. Any way you want to put it, in my mind at least, there is absolutely no way this is true. So rest easy, big brother may be watching but not by keyloggers in laptops.

[Robert M. Stockmann @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

Hal Turner "files off" Homeland security "File Number"

Hal Turner revived the Dell Keylogger hoax on this page :

http://www.halturnershow.com/KeystrokeLoggersInAllNewComputers.html

But I have never seen such outragious news reporting. see also

http://crashrecovery.org/KeystrokeLoggers.pdf

note the "evidence eliminator" button.. Hal Turner is a nasty reporter : "Did you enjoy this story?" Turner not only 'filed off' the homeland security "File Number" from this case, which i found back (see the pdf), he _also_ removed all pointers to the remark of the original poster, that it was his Dell laptop which presumedly had a hardware keylogger.

So can we conclude that Turner caters to the needs of paranoid neo-fascists with this certified hoax (c) ?

Robert

[TigerSun @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

I can not describe my desire to ridicule people who actually buy into this stupid bullshit. I'm even more outraged at people actually trying to prove other people that this is not said bullshit.

Seriously, what are the chances of someone actually getting away with this?