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edmund_the_destroyer wrote

Heh. I guess I automatically assume someone that takes my stuff is as clever as I am. If I was going to take someone's computer, the first thing I would do is run a few passes of random writes over the existing drive data and then install a fresh operating system on it.

So short of taking the gadget from someone that put a physical GPS tracker somewhere I didn't notice or malware into the EFI, as far as I understand it I would be safe from the items you mentioned.

Admittedly wiping Android clean and starting fresh is beyond me (which I hate). So accordingly maybe I should play with the Android backdoors there to protect my Android devices.

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[deleted] wrote (edited )

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edmund_the_destroyer wrote

This site is public enough that I wouldn't post about the stolen laptops. Though probably the FBI and Homeland security have more important targets, like the people that torrented a Michael Bay film. :D

I'm interested in this stuff, I should have known there is a lot of public information available. I assumed it was hard to do this kind of thing with Android. I have had several phones that were supposedly able to be unlocked from the OEM by visiting a website that I could not unlock - one from Motorola, one from HTC. The Motorola hardware is fully dead but I might be able to get the HTC working again, and I'd like to put Lineage on it. I know there are "guaranteed root" tools you can download or buy, but I don't trust the vendor of tools like that to be honest. For all I know, I'm rooting my own desktop instead. ;)

I've thought about buying FSF respects-your-freedom certified hardware to protect myself, but I don't want to sacrifice so much performance. I imagine, though, that it would be extra easy to put my own rootkit into Libreboot.

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[deleted] wrote

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edmund_the_destroyer wrote (edited )

Sorry, I meant bootloader unlock for sticking custom ROMs on the gadget. The howtogeek article you link specifically mentions the official unlocking processes for HTC and Motorola phones, and on my devices those steps didn't work. I followed the process and then got a permission denied error. Multiple tries on each device.

If I can get the HTC phone working I'll try the cyanogenmods unlock, thanks.

Edit: and your point about hardware and backdoors makes sense.

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