Re: Some Scottish Webcam Links

Karen McDonald wrote:

Wow. You guys sure are touchy - never mind PARANOID.

Not really, just careful. In fact I have been ticked off already for not
being careful enough, and another poster has identified a Win32 worm
associated with the sites you listed.

It is *not* being paranoid to be suspicious of a previously unknown poster
who comes along and asks us to visit some numerical URLs for webcam views.
In fact I was prepared for the worst, and fully prepared to report what I
found to the appropriate authorities, so was somewhat relieved that the
sites in question were extremely boring webcam views, and that the only
infection I picked up as a result of my brief visit was a fairly innocuous,
though possibly irritating, piece of pop-up adware.


I gave these links out in good faith because I found them and I
thought that people with an interest in Scotland would like to check
out the views. I never said the views were gonna be remarkable. How
many webcam views are? Not many, believe me. And I'm into these things
big time.

In that case, you are the sad person around here.

As for one pointing at a play park? Well? So what? If a play park
forms part of a 'general view' it's fair game?

Whereas if a cam 'specifically' points at a play park and shows enough
detail so you can actually identify kids playing there...that 'might'
be cause for thinking that the person who runs the cam has nefarious
intent (even if he or she does not).

Otherwise whoever raised their eyebrow at this needs to get a life.

I "raised an eyebrow" because it is a big issue in Scotland at the moment,
following the tragic murder of a schoolboy in my very own town last summer.

Simply because the cam in question will only show any playing kids as
'little anonymous dots on the screen'. None of these cams have
user-controllable PTZ.

The fact is that the police here, and most parents, are *extremely* twitchy
about this sort of thing. So much so that playgrounds, such as the one
shown by the webcam in question, are now going be put under surveillance
for *any* suspicious activity.


Meanwhile the poster above who claims to have caught some adware and a
cookie from one of these cam servers is verging on the schizophrenic
(pathological ideation and all that jazz) and needs to see a shrink.

I think you need to look up the word "schizophrenic" and see what it means.
I ran a check for infections on this PC just before visiting the site,
found nothing, visited the site, immediately checked again, and found the
infection mentioned. I only ever acquire such infections by visiting dodgy
websites, and that was the only website I visited between checks.

This is IMPOSSIBLE. REALLY.

It's not impossible and it happened.


Lemme explain.

The viewer interface tells us beyond question that these are budget IP
cameras made by AXIS Corp.- the world market leaders in this
technology - each cam incorporating a video web server with very
limited user configurability. Therefore, nobody in their right mind
would want to use such basic devices for spreading malware round the
net.

Who said it was a deliberate action?

Somebody's been watching too much TV.

Nope. Hardly ever watch any at all. I've got a life, unlike someone who
searches the web for boring webcam views.

Indubitably this person got
his/her cookie and adware from somewhere else and needed a scapegoat.

Nope again. Not possible.


I've been viewing these cams periodically throughout today and they've
done nothing strange to my rig. Only thing I have noticed most
recently is that, because the owner has reconfigured the live view
setup in some way (prolly something to do with that GIF in the top
left) the password prompt has gone. Otherwise - no probs.

The login nonsense only made me even more suspicious of the site.


And Yes Mr Makowie. How really, really, really clever you are to have
sussed that these cams are being run by:

'just a Demon customer hosting on their own computer. The address
goes back to Demon's ADSL space. Whois output...'

I've put in a word for you at FBI/MI6/CIA. But don't call them.
They'll call you.

OF COURSE this is the case here.

From the 'suspicious URLS' somebody else talked of - never mind the
speed and nature of the video available - it should have been
glaringly obvious to any dork that here is just some webcam freak
running three cams, each with its own port number, on a static IP
address, using standard domestic ADSL or cable. In the UK I know
that's mostly 256k max upstream. Hence the lack of smooth-motion
video. Any faster and he would need a leased line, which, in the UK,
would cost him megabucks and hardly be congruent with:

This particular "webcam freak" has a malware infection which is being
propagated to visitors.


a) the low-cost gear he's using.
b) the non-spectacular nature of the views depicted.
c) the serious glass reflection obvious on one of the views and the
evidence of a window frame in shot.

Etcetera...

If it's all so awfully low-tech and boring why did you think anyone here
would be interested in these sites?


People who know would say a 'serious' mischief-maker would be doing
somewhat better.

No, the "dork" who has set up these webcams may not be a serious mischief
maker but he does have a malware infection.


So, as suggested - you only needed half a brain to have worked this
out. But I'll give Lieutenant Mak a silver star for effort. Fair dos?

Unlike most of us, you've only worked out half of the story.


I hope everybody's happy now because I REALLY WAS only trying to help.

Sorry, I don't believe you.

I also hope my ancestors weren't as mistrustful and unappreciative as
you guys seem to be. The response to my 'good deed' has been
well...let's just say...

Good deed?

I think not.


--
Ian O.
http://www.iomorrison.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk
.