hacker hijacks xbox, sends swat to home

from kprc: It looked like the scene out of a video game; and indeed an Xbox was behind a SWAT team invading a suburban Florida home. The SWAT invasion turned out to be a hoax, but police aren’t laughing. The family at the butt of the joke, on the other hand, can't tell their tale without a bit of a smile. "I come out of my room and they've got their guns pointed at me and stuff," said Hunter Gelinas. "I open my door and I had the whole SWAT team down in the front door. I was like, 'Oh my God, I'm going to die.'"

It turned out that a hacker had gotten access to Hunter's Xbox and put in a call to police. His mother, Daleann Gelinas, said that the hacker used "a handicapped line, saying that Hunter had been stabbed and the parents and other people being held hostage at the house." Neighbors watched in awe as police poured down their street. "They all had their guns up like they were ready in case anyone was going to fire on them," said neighbor Sam Murphy. "When I heard it was a hoax, it kind of made more sense because I figured with this neighborhood, nothing ever really happens here."

Officers took electronics and the hacked Xbox in a search for the Canadian hacker who has yet to be identified. Experts said that the hoax reveals frightening flaws in online security. "There is nothing there to stop them. Once they gain accessibility to the machine, they can do whatever they want as long as they have the capability and knowledge to do it," said computer expert Neil Wexell. Wexell said that the easiest way to prevent hackers from gaining access is to keep gaming systems offline when not in use.

cops love iphone data trails

criminals who use device may be left without alibi
from chicago sun-times: Detective Josh Fazio of the Will County Sheriff's Department loves it when an iPhone turns up as evidence in a criminal case. The sophisticated cell phone and mobile computer is becoming as popular with police as it is with consumers because it can provide investigators with so much information that can help in solving crimes. "When someone tells me they have an iPhone in a case, I say, 'Yeah!' I can do tons with an iPhone," said Fazio, who works in the sheriff's department high-tech crimes unit.

The iPhones generally store more data than other high-end phones - and investigators such as Fazio frequently can tap in to that information for evidence. And while some phone users routinely delete information from their devices, that step is seldom as final as it seems. "When you hit the delete button, it's never really deleted," Fazio said. The devices can help police learn where you've been, what you were doing there and whether you've got something to hide...

Sometimes, the phones can help even if the case isn't a matter of life or death. In Kane County, the sheriff's department used GPS information from one of the phones to help reunite a worried father with his runaway daughter, who was staying at a friend's house.

net police: uk signs warn against accessing 'extremist' material

from steve watson: Police signs have begun springing up in internet cafes in London warning users that they could be reported to the police and face criminal charges if they access “extremist”, “offensive” or “inappropriate” material. The signs, which state that the owners of the premises are actively working with the Metropolitan police, have drawn criticism due to their vagueness and questionable legality. “Downloading or accessing certain material could constitute a criminal offence” states the bright pink sign. Comments concerning the signs on both flickr and popular blog site Boing Boing encapsulate the threat such policies pose... We have previously reported on filtering and blocking of all kinds of political websites including Prisonplanet.com in public domains in both the UK and the US. This type of catch all censorship creep is part of an ongoing agenda to use legitimate concerns such child pornography to regulate and control the internet as a whole.

florida judge rules post on ratemycop.com is protected speech

from threat level: A federal judge has struck down a Florida law prohibiting the publication of a police officer’s name, phone number or address, calling the statute an unconstitutional restraint on speech. The decision leaves Arizona, Colorado and Washington state with similar laws on the books. Florida authorities said Wednesday they were mulling whether to appeal. Robert Brayshaw, a 35-year-old apartment manager, brought the challenge to Florida’s law after he was briefly jail in 2008 for posting personally identifying information of a Tallahassee police officer on RateMyCop.com — a 2-year-old website that lets users rate and comment on the uniformed police officers in their community. RateMyCop uses public records requests to gather the names and, in some cases, badge numbers of thousands of uniformed cops at police departments around the country, and allows users to post comments about police they’ve interacted with. The site’s launch in 2008 drew cries of outrage from police, who complained that they’d be put at risk if their names were on the internet.