After default password disclosed online, 1200 inmates have prison issued laptops seized by guards, threatening their ability to make class deadlines
After default password disclosed online, 1200 inmates have prison issued laptops seized by guards, threatening their ability to make class deadlines
Students said they were given little information about when and if the devices would be returned, and many wondered if they’d lose access to the work they saved.
Zhang, an electrical engineer in Boston, decided to post about trying to unlock his Justice Tech Solutions Securebook 5 on the social platform X. The thread went viral — also catching the attention of Washington corrections officials, who have used the device for college programming since 2020.
Of particular concern was an article about Zhang’s thread published on a hacker website that shared the default password for the underlying software that starts the laptop’s operating system, presenting what the Department of Corrections considered a security concern.
The department then announced Thursday, five days after Zhang’s viral post, that it would collect all secure laptops from incarcerated students statewide “to provide an immediate system update.” By Saturday, corrections staff had collected around 1,200 laptops, spokesperson Chris Wright said in an email.
Wright confirmed no one incarcerated in Washington prisons had attempted to unlock their devices but said the decision was “made out of an abundance of caution.” It wasn’t immediately clear whether other states whose corrections departments use Securebook 5 laptops have also pulled the devices.
Archived at https://ghostarchive.org/archive/LS3co
e; updated the title due to popular demand
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They didn’t lose their laptop. They got taken to be updated because of a security breach
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Intentionally inflammatory and misleading headlines on Lemmy? Pshaw. The hell you say.
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I never realize what responses like this add to the discussion.
do you have any other community platform free from clickbaits? do you need a pat on the back cuz you think you're immune to clickbaits? what's the point?
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Yea the title is extra click baity
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The article is news worthy but I downvoted the post due to the title being garbage.
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Like everything ad driven has to be.
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Calling it a security breach is a bit of a stretch, to be fair. The company that issued them never changed the default BIOS password, so inmates could gain admin control over them if they wanted. Changing default passwords is like the most basic Help Desk 1 training.
I can almost guarantee that the company is owned by someone who also has direct ties to the prison’s leadership, and they spun up the corporation just to issue (and profit from) the laptops. Because there’s no way that an experienced IT team would allow 1200 laptops to walk out the door with default passwords.
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They were taken for reasons that inmates had nothing to do with, they have not been replaced, and it's unclear when they'll be returned. Inmates who are enrolled in college courses are having to handwrite papers that are due soon.
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Its the us slavery system. The laptops will be returned whenever something happens to some prisoner(s) that gets successfully sold as tragic to the masses. I hope there is some young attractive white mother who was taking classes on the laptops and is about to finish her sentence, or else they're gonna be waiting a while.
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There was no security breach. Did you even read the summary, let alone the article? There wasn't even an attempted breach.
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Lol using a "master password" is the "security concern"
Its going to get leaked again and they still won't criticise company lol
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These prison supply companies are typically owned by fellow prison guards who want to grift the state, which is why they won't criticize them.
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TIL that Washington state has at least 1200 incarcerated students.
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I hope they use unique, random passwords for each device this time. Not that I'm rooting for Corrections, but this is educational time that's being lost
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You should be rooting for “corrections” rather than imprisonment.
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Seems to be an overreaction. What are the prisoners gonna with the bios password? Install an alternate OS? But there is no usb port, and the prisoners can't solder one themselves without, well, a soldering kit. Boot from network? But it may not have a wifi card.
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Nice how they call it a "Securebook" when it has a static default password.
I mean, shouldn't they better call it a "High IQ System"?
B-)
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Where do I get a rad, clear laptop like that?? That looks sick.
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Get a MacBook from the early 2000's
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Thanks for changing that title, OP.
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Good call, the OG title was terrible.
An engineer bought a prison laptop on eBay. Then 1,200 incarcerated students lost their devices.
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justice123
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Hunter2
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default password
It's 2024 and we still have news about these "security problems"?
That Zhang guy can only hope not to go to jail anytime soon. Every prisoner who knew about that password wants to have "the talk" with him. Snitches get stitches...
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Every prisoner who knew about that password
Meanwhile, back in reality
Wright confirmed no one incarcerated in Washington prisons had attempted to unlock their devices but said the decision was “made out of an abundance of caution.”
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an article about Zhang’s thread published on a hacker website that shared the default password
Maybe jumping directly to the "snitches get stitches" part before bothering to spot an actual snitch is a bad idea? "That Zhang guy" was trying to break the thing open, not tattle on others trying to do it.
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I honestly thought to myself that someone had to go and ruin it.
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