Skip to content

Comment on Bought a Prison Laptop on eBay

Comments

Prison laptops are clear so the insides can be checked for threats, contraband, etc.

I wonder if they do the same with the source code.

The thread contains multiple tweets about how hard it was to remove the password prompt, so I'm guessing "yes."

That the bootloader is hard to bypass says nothing about whether the bureau of prisons has checked the source code. It seems to me unlikely they have.

Super unlikely they audited it. But also what's the risk?

Generally they only care about prisoners getting things in or out of the prison without the blessing of prison staff. Prisons also tend to be able to afford to be reactive, rather than proactive. If a new method of smuggling is created, the prison staff will learn about it eventually and deal with it at that point, by ensuring that only they control what comes in/out using that method.

Oh certainly. I was only commenting on the flawed logic of the comment I responded to.

For what exactly? You reckon MS would package dark web messaging so that prison kids could communicate?

AboutSource Built by g1lg1l

Hackerly is an independent reader for Hacker News, built on the public HN API. Not affiliated with Y Combinator.