Regarding password etc. It doesnt matter at all if its windows, you can just boot from a cd or whatever if they can access Bios and do everything from there then.
Its been said before, to be really safe youd need a good Biospassword an a HDD encryption.(because even with a Biospwd they still could take your hdd out for example).

Pokerstars are shady... Enough said.

this is also what i think ... PS never has done such things in publicity. imo a good thing ... better than a big 'PR campaign on 2+2' w/o results. i don't say PS handled it perfectly (still we don't know, what's behind the scenes) and there's always room to improvement, but saying PS doesn't take it seriously is a joke imo ... LJ posted in the 1st thread and recommended to wipe out your system if you stay in the hotel, this is a more than serious advice if you're able to read between the lines.

PS isn't more than a big client and has limited powers ... maybe ppl think they are a big company and could just sent out a crew of 25 investigators/specialists w/ full control of all the security material and FBI-like authorities ... but NO, it's not like this.

not to mention, that they have to run a major tournament ... it's not like they have ton of staff doing nothing. PLUS they still need the help from the hotel personnel, and if it's an inside job, they can't do anything. Especially if one ore more ppl from hotel security is/are involved.

it's a fvck*d up situation, really hope more details will become public



EDIT: btw ... what's about the strange phone call about 'doing biz' & 'woman' ???? maybe it isn't a poker specific scam at all and the hackers implant some kind of stuff on your computer just to blackmail you (i know .. weird theory)

You dont need a member of staff to access the room with a key card theres millions of hotel room door locks vulnerable since a hacker discovered how to unlock these electronic door locks with a little gadget he made and how to build it is widely available on the internet....

http://www.pcworld.com/article/25977...oom_locks.html

http://hackaday.com/2012/10/02/dry-e...el-room-doors/

Only thing suspicious to me is that the Camera's where supposedly not working, I guess if someone from the inside was in on it then it was the camera operator.

So in reality in most hotels whatever you leave in your room is there for grabs, you might aswell think of it as there is no door on your hotel room and people can walk in and out with whatever they want.

Very sad to hear your story and I hope everyone gets notified about it to not use there laptop to log into any poker site or buy anything online with there credit card ect untill they have the laptop cleaned of the trojan.

Also you should immediately notify your bank about what has happened and tell them to freeze your account for the time being aswell as notifying all the poker sites with the same, then you can get new cards for your banks with new security codes and also change your password for the poker sites and dont forget to change your password for your email - BUT DONT DO IT NOW ON THE LAPTOP THAT COULD HAVE BEEN COMPROMISED

Wow this story not only crazy but also an eye-opener!

With 2 laptops stolen from 2 different rooms the police would have to investigate this.

Laptop is returned for the first time in the hurry, so there is a chance they forgot to remove something that compromise them (fingertips or some data/disk inside). So they took it for the 2nd time.

I also think that the thief (or his partner) has to be working in the hotel, otherwise he would not return the laptops because he wouldn't care about police investigation.

This sort of thing is going to get bigger before it gets smaller by the way. It's such an enticing crime to anyone (or any group, like the Swedish biker gang I remember being referenced in a thread or two elsewhere on 2plus2) due to facts like the large amounts of money available, the difficulty in finding any 'police' or security apparatus willing or able to seriously investigate, the ease with which it can be done (particularly if one knows a high stakes player who has low moral scruples), and the near impossibility of being incarcerated in the unlikely event that one is caught.

I suggest a single thread be created that is dedicated to extreme security measures for high (and even succesful mid-stakes) stakes players who understand that it is now (and probably has been for some time) no longer possible to not become extremely aware of everything security related connected to online poker and computers. Any business that boasts hundreds of thousands to millions in profit does this, even hiring qualified people to take care of it--simply having a solid password or even learning a bit about encryption is not enough.

Someone itt says they were the finder and handed it back.

You can remove the laptop hard drive and clone the disk. There is even freeware that allows you to do this. This allows the hacker unlimited time to access sensitive information and break passwords.

By returning the laptop, you would not know anything was wrong. Imagine if someone stole your house keys, made a copy and returned them. They could rob your house at their leisure.

This cloning process normally takes a few hours. I'm sure it can be much faster if you have commercial grade hardware and software.

Hacked people don't need to buy a new computer. Formatting the hard drive should take care of the problem. If you are super paranoid, just replace the hard drive which will only cost you ~$200.

Hi folks -
Here's an update from the past 24 hours...

• My first post said that the police were involved. I was wrong about that; in the confusion, I thought that we had contacted the police but we hadn't. The mistake is mine and I take full responsibility for it.
• When I said we were taking it seriously, I meant it. Our head of live events security has spent the last 48 hours on very little else since Jens first reported the incident to us. Other staffers have given up time off and meals to attend meetings with hotel security people.
• There is no evidence that any hotel staff are involved. I should point out that incidents such as WCGRider's don't involve third-party inside jobs. It's usually much easier to just make "friends" with the mark.
• We have been working with the head of hotel security from the start. At this point, both the local police and the national police have been contacted. The national police have a gambling crimes unit and we hope that they will be involved in the investigation.

With that said, let me point out that while we are certainly doing everything we can, there is a limit to what we can do. We don't own the hotel and we're not an investigative body (e.g. the police). We can't just decide we're going to review security camera footage, interview hotel employees, etc. Again, our head of live events security is working very closely with the hotel and as closely as he is able with the police (our standing in the matter is not terribly strong), but there are clear limits to what he can do.

In the meantime, anybody who plays online poker for a meaningful amount of money should take precautions concomitant with that. I mean, if you're making "transactions" worth tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on a laptop, you should be careful (approaching paranoid) about that computer's security.

• Put full disk encryption on it. There are plenty of commercial packages and (hint) the difference between "free" and "$39.95" shouldn't matter to you if you're a serious player; pick the best product. For what it's worth, all of our PokerStars corporate laptops have full disk encryption on them - it's not rocket science.
• Password-protect everything, use strong passwords, don't share those passwords with anybody, change them occasionally, etc.
• Don't let anybody else use your computer, obviously.
• Physically secure your computer - get a locking case for it.
• Use good virus detection software and scan it frequently. We don't recommend specific products, but here's a review of a bunch of products you can consider.
• If you have any concerns that your computer may have been compromised, take it to a professional. It's silly to worry about $100 when thousands or tens of thousands may be at risk.

Obviously, we don't like this situation. We want our players to have a completely positive experience at our live events and I doubt either Jens or Ignat would describe their experience as completely positive. We don't like fraudsters and/or thieves using our events as a hunting ground. We don't like people being distracted from a stupendously successful poker festival that we've worked hard to organize.

You have our promise that we will continue to do our best to find out what happened here. We're also considering other measures we can take for future events. You can help us and yourselves by using good precautions with your computer and your computing practices.

Thank you for your understanding. We're proud to put on PS Live events for you.

Best regards,
Lee Jones

PokerStars Head of Poker Communications

I'm not entirely sure that's enough at all. .

wow this is super ****ed up, will be very interesting how this turns out

The timespan between the moment the minibar service entered your room (15:42:06) and the moment you entered your room (15:44:29) is 2:23.

I think it's quite unlikely that the minibar service randomly re-supplies just 1 room; it usually supplies an entire floor. If no one was there when you entered your room at 15:44:29, you must have seen the minibar service in the hallway re-supplying the other rooms (either at 15:44:29 or at 15:53:12, when you left the room again).

Seems nearly impossible that the minibar service appears out of nowhere to refill just your fridge and then go to another floor, in the short timespan you were downstairs.

they do if they expressed it needing to be filled, otherwise it is as you say, maids might notice minibar-service aswell if they cleaned the room earlier but a good thought

Lee I really don't understand how the hotel security team can still be involved in the investigation. If Jean's OP is to be considered accurate then the hotel head of security was deliberately trying to mislead him with information about broken cameras and how the laptop came back into the hotel's possession.

Are you seriously saying that none of the hotel staff are involved? You are deluded, ofc they are involved.

How do you forget if you called the police or not? Do you have dementia or something?

Well I think they have to be involved to some extent....turning over logs and security footage etc... the police can't just go in there (for what's deemed a minor crime to them) and kick everyone out of the hotel and confiscate all the cameras, bring computer experts to seize all the logs etc... . Like it or not the security team at the hotel is needed for access. IMO...have to put it in perspective from the police's point of view....this isn't a murder investigation, this is a missing laptop that was returned.

LOL at guys thinking Human is behind anything shady.
Liviu is one of the most respected poker players in the world. His fair play was shown at a high stakes headsup tournament when the opponent was disconnected and he sit-out so the other guy could reconnect.
I wouldn't even dare to think 0Human0 was more than a victim in this case.
So lets get back to what really matters and lets avoid this kind of discussion without having any solid proof.
Probably the guys commenting about Ignat, don't know anything about him. I have also seen lots of nonsense posts (about F-secure being a shady company even though the article claimed otherwise).
Good luck to all of the victims in this case.
Sooner or later (hopefully) you will learn what happened. All this pressure (Trip Advisor complaints and so on) will motivate the hotel management to find out the truth(in case they we're not involved).

Are you seriously trying to pass off the PPA as a large and effective organization? Ahahahaha.

And call the police immediately when **** gets like this. LOL @ waiting for pokerstars security pleebs to sort this out.

Agreed, they must be involved in order to allow access. But it surely must make everyone uncomfortable that these people, who have behaved in such a questionable manner, are still in a position that may allow them some sort of influence.

Hanlons Razor.

There are victims here.. they certainly arent your employees that missed meals.

I would suggest you rethink your response wording moving forward...

From what Ive seen, you sir are not the person to be publicly commenting on sensitive issues for a company as profound in the OLPI as Stars.

Im not even going to comment on the rest of your post I snipped.

You are handling this poorly IMHO.

1st point: While I think it's weird Lee Jones told they have contacted the police in his first post I wouldnt read too much into it. Lee is not the only dude in PS team and maybe he thought someone else contacted the police? Athough he probably should have made sure before announcing it.

2nd point: There is no HARD evidence you mean? Obviously not since the staff is not willing to assist. The way they have handles this makes it super likely someone from the staff is involved. I would give it less than 10% chance that staff is completely innocent.

You say there is no evidence that staff are involved and then say it is easier to make friends with the mark? Are you trying to side with the hotel without any evidence? Your post is hypocritical.

Agreed.