The ticked box

The ticked box

John Bjarne Grover

Do you use a computer with Windows? Nearly everybody does. Then you should be aware of the following: If there is WLAN gear of some sort or other in the machine, and most modern computers probably have some variant of it, then an external user in the neighbourhood (or even far away) can probably control or at least tap your computer by way of the 'remote control'. It is under START, then SYSTEMSTEUERUNG (in german language) and then SYSTEM, where it is under REMOTE on top of the menu. If there is a box there which is ticked for 'Remote-Unterstützung', then it is likely that data from your computer (at least a 'calling signal' telling that other computers can take up remote contact with yours) are sent out every time you start the computer.

The scandal could be that this box is ticked as default from the dealer or even if you install Windows yourself from a CD. Most people are not computer experts and can never find this box. If this can give rise to an open computer, it is doubtful whether it is permitted by Microsoft to tick the box on behalf of the customers.

The text tells that you must have internet connection for using it for a chat, wherein the other side can see your computer screen and make changes to it, even delete files and so forth - but it probably means that if this box is ticked, then you have given permission to tapping of your computer. It could mean that the national secret services, for reasons of 'statistics' or whatever, can tap every personal computer which has this box ticked.

I bought a netbook for writing out my handwritten manuscripts and there is a button for the WLAN. I made a security lock to it to make sure that it could never be on by accident, but it nevertheless normally blinked frenetically at every start-up, which took some seconds. It could be blinking for a minute or a half. This probably means that it sent out 'data'. It had been going like this for many months before I discovered this phenomenon and unticked that box - and since then the blinking has been off. I suppose this could mean that my authorship was tapped - and I will not be able to discover by who. But many computers have perhaps no blinking signal for it and so you may perhaps never be able to discover it. Is it Windows or the dealer who is to be blamed?

I am not a computer expert so I don't know the extent to which there should be alarm on this point, but notice the general tendency for surveillance policy. It is likely that this could be the sort of politics which also plans to install hidden cameras in every bathroom in order to find out who you think of in the shower. If you accept this computer facility without protesting, then you will probably not protest against the hidden cameras either. It could perhaps be time to refresh the democracy?

I wrote the above on probably 6 october 2011 after having written something similar several months ago. News about trojan horses for surveillance in Germany and Switzerland surfaced I think after 6 october. I hope the news generally are not conducted in this way.