The man with binoculars and altered Comcast ID

[KatMac]

Greetings,
Yesterday evening upon arriving home my next door neighbor comes over and relays an odd encounter he just had. Seems neighbor was out for his evening stroll and noticed an unmarked white pickup truck cruising slowly down the street. As this is a small, quiet neighborhood where everyone knows each other, strangers often get noticed. Guy in pickup truck is looking at Comcast wires on poles and following the lines, apparently looking to see which houses have connections. Neighbor then sees this man turn the corner and slowly retrace his path along the rear of our houses. So neighbor gets his binoculars out (he's newly retired and likes to keep an eye on things . Neighbor then sees that guy in the white pickup is also using binoculars. So neighbor approaches him and says "Did you find what you were looking for?" Guy in truck mumbles something about working for Comcast, so neighbor asks for ID. The guy produces a badge that says Comcast, but the Photo area has been altered, neighbor said badge was scratched and photo had been removed. Guy mumbles something about checking lines and drives away. Neighbor jots down his license plate number. Neighbor plans to call Comcast and see if this guy is truly an employee and if not, report him, but office is closed till Monday.

From years of hanging out here, you guys have taught me to be on the shy side of paranoid First thought that came to mind as I heard this story was how vehicles that have the right equipment can pick up just about anything off a PC. So I promptly came in the house and turned off my cable modem. Am I being too paranoid? Anytime Comcast has been in my neighborhood to work on their lines, it's normal business hours in a Comcast van. With the altered badge, and the after hours cruising with binoculars in an unmarked vehicle, I just don't see what possible good this guy could have been up to. What do you think?

[Abhoth]

Well it's a wired connection so he'd have to be pretty bold to hook up outside the home...
Now, if you have a wireless LAN connection in your home then, with the right equipment, he could hook up. But you need more than binoculars to make that happen...

Sounds pretty odd though, I'd be curious to know how it turns out...

[fink]

If he was a Comcast employee then I'd register a complaint about invasion of privacy. If he wasn't I'd call the police immediately because he may well have been casing out residences for break-in potential.

In fact even if he was a Comcast employee I'd call the police to ask them about the legalities of being spied on by some stranger with binoculars.

If none of that gets anything done then get your neighbours together and write a letter to your local newspaper or TVnews show and tell them about the incident. I bet they'd take an interest.

[jerryctx]

http://www.eskimo.com/~joelm/tempest.html

Remote surveillance is possible but it doesn't require Comcast so this is probably not your situation.

FYI, the US Army's Tempest site was removed after 9/11. It included a diagram of a Tempest-proof computer room... several inches of lead on all walls, floor, etc.

Also, beware of mobile phones and laptops used near electronic devices storing or transmitting confidential info. Both can be used to eavedrop.

[KatMac]

OK, finally got the scoop from my neighbor the other day. He called Comcast the following Monday after this incident and basically their answer was they "didn't know for sure" if this guy was with them or not. Seems they hire "independent contractors" to check wires and not all of them drive vehicles with Comcast logo on them. She offered no good response to his query regarding the altered ID badge. Whoever my neighbor talked at Comcast said the only way she could verify if an independent was scheduled to be in our area was to check her log (not available for a couple days) but even at that she would not be able to verify vehicle description or plate #, only a name. With all the recent events in the news, it's a jolting reminder that protecting little ones in the area is much more a harsh reality than worrying about PC snoopers/hackers and alerting authorities would be well within reason.