Geek Squad jerk caught swiping porn from customer's computer

Xeni Jardin 7:39 pm Thu Jul 5, 2007

Ben Popken at Consumerist writes:

The Consumerist's 3-month sting operation snared a Geek Squad technician stealing porn from our hard drive, and we've got the work-safe video and logfiles to prove it.

To investigate claims by current and former Geek Squad techies (see "The 10 Page Geek Squad Confession – "Stealing Customers' Nudie Pics Was An Easter Egg Hunt"), we loaded a computer with porn and rigged it to make a video of itself. We captured every cursor movement, every program opened, every file accessed. Everything that the user saw and did, we recorded.

Link, includes video and logfiles, and see also Why We're Not Telling Geek Squad CEO Which Agent Stole The Porn.

The takeaway: this could happen with any tech support service, not just Geek Squad (though Consumerist alleges this is a systemic problem there — not just one rogue dude). If you've got stuff you don't want strangers to see (or copy or steal), encryption is your friend. By the time your PC needs repair, it will be too late to lock down. Plan ahead, grasshopper!

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