Scrapyard Wars: Behind Bars Edition

[Omon_Ra]

Ingenuity cannot be caged: two inmates in an Ohio prison managed to cobble together a couple PC's out of salvage parts to make pr0n (among other things) machines. It doesn't say anything about displays, so I wonder how that was setup, in addition to the mouse/keyboard. I'd also like to see what parts were used; did they refer to LTT videos for help??? What did these guys do before they were in jail, were they hobbyist PC builders? The most interesting thing that they found on the computers to me is the, '...records of passes being issued for inmates so they could access various parts of the prison.' Does that mean they were printing fake ones so other inmates could go to areas that weren't intended? Or they were just tracking the passes being used? The rest of the stuff, pr0ns, how-to's, etc, is not all that surprising for a secret prison PC. It should inspire those who feel uneasy about building a PC themselves: if these guys can build a PC in prison, you can build one in your home!

 

Quote

A prison work programme has backfired, after two inmates in the US state of Ohio built computers from PCs they were supposed to be dismantling for recycling.

 

The unsupervised inmates later hid the PCs in the ceiling of a training room. Investigators found software, pornography and articles about making drugs and explosives on the machines. The discovery came after IT staff flagged unusual levels of internet activity on a contractor's account. The PCs were found in 2015 but the case has only just been made public. A report on the incident has been published by the Ohio Inspector General's Office and forwarded to the Ohio Ethics Commission and local officials. It describes the series of events that led to the discovery of the computers in the ceiling of a training room at Marion Correctional Institution.

 

On 3 July 2015, an email alert told IT staff that the daily internet threshold for a user account had been exceeded. But that account belonged to a contractor who was not scheduled to work on the day in question. The mysterious user had tried to access certain file-sharing sites but had been blocked by the prison network's proxy server, which denies access to certain online content. The user "then spent the next three hours straight trying to find sites that would circumvent the proxy and our policies," an email to IT employees noted. After investigating the source of the network traffic, a member of the IT staff and two other inmates who were with him found a network cable leading up into the ceiling. "When I removed the ceiling tiles I found two PCs hidden in the ceiling on two pieces of plywood," the staff member wrote in an incident report.

 

One of the inmates who had set up the computers later described how he had used components from other PCs that were part of a computer waste recycling programme. He then plugged his machine into an internet connection device in the prison, according to the Inspector General's report. "And then... bam, I'm on the network," he told investigators. A trove of data was discovered on the machines, including records of passes being issued for inmates so they could access various parts of the prison. Forensic analysis of the hard drives also found pornography, articles about making drugs, explosives and credit cards. One IT employee was found to have breached inventory and crime scene protection policies. "We will thoroughly review the reports and take any additional steps necessary to prevent these types of things from happening again," the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said in a statement. "It is of critical importance that we provide necessary safeguards in regards to the use of technology while still providing opportunities for offenders to participate in meaningful and rehabilitative programming."

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39576394

 

[IceCold008]

Dont touch the keyboard without using gloves LOL. Do prisons use wetwipes LOL

[Maslofski]

41 minutes ago, IceCold008 said:

Dont touch the keyboard without using gloves LOL. Do prisons use wetwipes LOL

single ply if anything

[Guest]

Dat title...

 

10/10

[ARikozuM]

Sounds like something I'd do. 

 

You can have a Steam server, you can have a Steam server, YOU CAN ALL HAVE A STEAM SERVERS! Except Lenny, you can have Microsoft Hearts, worst game ever.

[xDylanio]

I want to know what their gpu and cpu where. 

[Zodiark1593]

The nerd criminals need not fear Bubba, or any other gangs for thy knowledge is quite valuable a tool and weapon. 

[TVwazhere]

14 hours ago, xDylanio said:

I want to know what their gpu and cpu where. 

I highly doubt they had a gpu, most liekly intergrated graphics.

Since their job was to dismantle PC's i dont think it was anything recent. Probably low end intel/ati hardware

[Omon_Ra]

ArsTechnica had an article with some pics (they're pretty crappy, so I won't bother posting them here, click the link if you want to see them) and more details: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/04/inmates-built-computers-hidden-in-ceiling-connected-them-to-prison-network/

 

Quote

The hard drives were loaded with pornography, a Windows proxy server, VPN, VOIP and anti-virus software, the Tor browser, password hacking and e-mail spamming tools, and the open source packet analyzer Wireshark.

 

A forensic analysis of the hard drives found that they were loaded with "malicious" software and that inmates used the computers to apply for credit cards, research tax-refund fraud, search inmate records, and obtain prison access passes for restricted areas. "Additionally, articles about making home-made drugs, plastics, explosives, and credit cards were discovered," according to the report.

 

The inspector general's report found that inmates "took two computers that should have been disassembled, placed hard drives into the computers, installed a network card, transported the computers across the institution for approximately 1,100 feet, through the security check point without being searched or challenged by staff, accessed an elevator to the third floor and placed the two computers in the ceiling of the P3 training room." The report added that "they also ran wire, cable, and power cords to connect the devices undetected onto the ODRC (Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction) network."

 

So it would appear that these inmates were a bit more adept with computers than the initial article made it out to be. I wonder what it was that these guys were in for in the first place. For those asking about parts, I imagine pretty low-grade stuff; as the article mentions, they '...were assembled with discarded computers from an Ohio aircraft parts company and an Ohio school district.'

[ericlee30]

WOW! That prison network cable management though.

[RocketFarmer]

They learned it all from Linus.