A non-deceptive SE event

Ok, So listening to the latest Social Engineer Podcast   http://www.social-engineer.org  I realized I needed/forgot to write in about a non-deceptive SE event.

 I had won some license plate holders at Ohio Linuxfest a many years ago. So I went to put them on and the screw broke. I went to a local dealer asked if they could put them on. They, like all good dealers said “Sure! $30 each plate.” $60 total is a lot so I started thinking. I ask the manger if he was really going to charge me $60 to remove the advertizing of a competitor? His answer was “Would you like a car wash with this complimentary service?”

The data they collected is at http://www.social-engineer.org/polls/social-engineering-and-deception-whats-the-truth/

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Sony can read English just not understand it

So I was working on cleaning the virus’s and such of a Sony Vaio laptop. The machine is a real mess. I cann’t even load stuff to clean it and I think it has a sata drive. LiveCd’s cann’t or aren’t mounting the drive. Time to pull the drive and clean it from another machine. There is no easy way to get to the hard drive on this machine. So I did the chat online with Sony. They asked for the model of the machine and a discription of the problem. I stated that I wanted to know how to pull the hard drive out so I could clean off the virus’s. I get connected and here is a copy of the discussion. I left my spelling mistakes in the post for fairness, but still. Support staff need to understand the language they are speaking not just be able to read it.

 

Subject: eSupport Chat Transcript
eSupport Chat TranscriptJenny_ > Hi David. Welcome to Sony Online Support. I’m Jenny. Please allow me a moment to review your concern. david > Hi Jenny_ > Thanks for waiting, David. I’ll be glad to assist you with the information to format the Hard Drive. david > Hi, I don’t want to format it. david > I need to remove it so I can Clean it. Jenny_ > I’m sorry for the confusion, David. david > Ok, So how do i remove the drive? Jenny_ > David, I suggest that you perform the System Recovery using the VAIO Recovery Wizard. Performing the Recovery will erase the data from the Computer and reinstalls all the Original Applications, Original Drivers and the Operating System that is supplied with the Computer. david > But that also looses the data on the drive. david > Are there any doc’s that talk about replacing the drive? Jenny_ > David, to clean the Virus on the Hard Drive you may perform the complete Virus Scan. david > True but the Viruses that are on this machine will not let that happen. In safe mode or normal. david > I need to remove the drive to pull the info of and scan it from another computer. Jenny_ > David, please stay online while I che! ck this information for you. Jenny_ > Thanks for waiting, David. david > so ant info? Jenny_ > David, are you trying to save the Data on the other Computer? david > I will be after I get it out of the computer. That’s why I need to remove the hard drive. david > So how do I remove the hard drive from the! laptop? Jenny_ > I’m sorry; Sony doesn’t recommend to remove the Hard Drive by the end user. david > I wouldn’t consider myself an end-user. david > Also you’ll get to read about this on my blog. david > Thanks for waisting my time again…. david > You can read about it on www.securi-d.com david > I’ll try to post it tomorrow. Jenny_ > I’m sorry; However, you may try contacting the Direct Accessories and Parts Center to obtain the Service Manual to get the instructions to remove the Hard Drive. Jenny_ > Would you like to have the contact information of Direct Accessories and Parts Center? david > no, bye

Yes, they did offer to sell me a manual that might have told me how to remove it but 20-30 minutes to tell me that is wrong. I had hoped they’d do better after that whole rootkit thing they did a little while ago.