Chad's News

Here’s the situation: “DNA traces of an unknown eastern-European woman had been found at almost 17 crime scenes, including two murders … but also car jackings, unprofessional break-ins and on a bullet fired in a marital dispute. The crimes [were] spread around a large area including south-west Germany, France and Switzerland.” Law-enforcement officials set up a massive task force to track down this super-criminal, and they believe they’ve found the culprit—a woman at the factory that makes cotton swabs for DNA tests. The swabs used at the crime scenes were contaminated with her DNA. Oops.

Link #1: http://mwinkelmann.com/…
(via Slashdot)

Link #2: http://en.wikipedia.org/…

Link #3: http://www.reuters.com/…

In the UK, suspected criminals are required to provide their encryption keys to law enforcement officials, even if the unencrypted data would be incriminating. From the linked article, “In the decision, the Court stated that although there was a right to not self-incriminate, this was not absolute, and that the ‘public interest’ can supersede this right in some circumstances.” All I can say is thank God for the Bill of Rights. (Chad’s New has previously covered the UK’s use of ubiquitous surveillance cameras.)

Link: http://arstechnica.com/…

In George Orwell’s famous novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, a primary feature of the totalitarian government is that every citizen is under continuous observation. Over the past couple years I’ve read about how various parts of the United Kingdom have gone all-out with video surveillance cameras. The linked video shows how pervasive it is. Oh, and you get to see a neat, 8-foot tall alien.

Link: http://presurfer.blogspot.com/…

Some tips on what and what not to do when you’re pulled over by the police.

Link: http://www.caranddriver.com/…
(via digg)

A precise and difficult sniper shot, caught on video.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/…
(via digg)

A teenager in Washington state was using a MySpace account to send bomb threats to his school. The FBI was able to infect his home computer with spyware that harvested enough information to identify him. Details are not clear about exactly how the FBI managed to get the spyware installed on his computer, but the article covers several ways in which it might have been done.

Link: http://www.computerworld.com/…
(via Kim Komando)

There have been a few recent cases where people were arrested for using open (or even free) wireless connections. In the linked article, a man parked in front of a coffee shop and used its open wireless connection without going inside or purchasing anything. In another case I read about, a man found an open wireless connection in a residential neighborhood, and accessed it from his parked car. A police officer got suspicious and arrested him. The applicable laws about unauthorized access can be stretched to cover this type of situation. So the moral of this story is that even though the wireless connection is wide open, it’s still illegal to use it without authorization of some sort. And in Michigan at least, it’s a felony offense.

Link: http://www.foxnews.com/…
(via Consumerist)

Researchers tested 45 Irish banknotes and found traces of cocaine on all of them. Assuming this also applies to most American high-denomination currency, the finding is especially significant for people in the US—because detecting traces of drugs on currency is sufficient cause for law enforcement to seize (and keep) the money via a process known as forfeiture. Simply put, don’t carry large amounts of cash.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/…
(via Nothing To Do With Arbroath)

This college student packed three flour-filled condoms in her luggage for a trip home. Unsurprisingly, she was detained, arrested, and held in jail for three weeks until tests determined it was only flour. Note that the linked article doesn’t give all of the information. Security officials did a field test that came back positive, so they did have cause to arrest her.

Link: http://today.reuters.com/…

Apparently it is quite easy (and legal) for law enforcement to use your cell phone as an eavesdropping tool. With the right software downloaded to the phone, it becomes a microphone and transmits all nearby conversations to a third party. This can be done without the owner’s knowledge, and the eavesdropping occurs even when the phone is turned off. There is, however, some question as to the exact methods used by the FBI in this specific case. They may have installed traditional hardware bugs in the suspects’ phones, but some experts believe they used the software method.

For the paranoid, there is this link, explaining how to detect/circumvent software bugs on your phone. More information on how a cell phone can become a bug is at this link (scroll down to the article entitled “Cell Phones Become Instant Bugs!”).

Link: http://news.com.com/…
(via Ars Technica)

This prisoner managed to smuggle himself out of jail in a shipment of shrink-wrapped street lamp parts. Authorities quickly caught on, but it was too late to capture him.

http://today.reuters.com/…

Security researcher Christopher Soghoian, a Ph.D. student at Indiana University, published a web application that would generate a realistic-looking Northwest Airlines boarding pass with information that you supply. He said it would probably be possible use the boarding pass to get past security, but that it most likely would not work for getting on the airplane itself. He also stated that he had never actually used the program to bypass security. The purpose was to expose a flaw in airport security and try to shame the TSA into doing something about it. Note that this flaw is not new and has previously been “exposed” multiple times—but Soghoian is the first one to openly publish a boarding pass generator on the web.

It turns out that what he did is illegal, and he got in trouble. First, a Congressman called for his arrest. Then he got a visit from the FBI, with an order to take down the site. Then he got another visit from the FBI, but this time they confiscated his computer equipment. As one slashdot user states in his signature: “Civil Disobedience, it’s not just a good idea, it’s illegal.”

Soghoian has a blog, slight paranoia, where posts the latest news about his situation. He’s also taking donations for his legal defense fund.

http://www.wired.com/…

http://www.consumerist.com/…

UPDATE: The charges have been dropped [link2] [link3] in this case. All is well.

UPDATE #2: Okay, all is not well. The Transportation Safety Administration has opened an investigation into the matter. They could levy a big fine, but not criminal charges.