Here’s a fun story. Police in Australia thought they were being mighty clever when they took over an “underground hacking forum.” (The forum is r00t-y0u.org, though it seems to be down right now.) One of the hackers on the forum then retaliated by breaking into police computers using a simple SQL injection. Security fail.

The police computer that the hacker broke into was supposed to be a honeypot, something put there so police could “trick” the hackers into exposing themselves. Unfortunately for the police, the PC ran Windows, and the hacker was able to rock a SQL injection. The police “left the MYSQL password blank.” Smart.

Of course, the police say that no “real” data was compromised in the hack.

The lesson is, of course, not to mess with script kiddies and their message boards. Or, maybe, to at least set a password every once in a while.

Some privacy news to freak you out this fine Monday. A court ruling in Wisconsin means that police there can track your movements with a GPS device without a warrant. So, let’s say you’re suspected of something. The police can then slap a Garmin on your car, without any permission from the courts, and follow your car’s movements about town. Sorta scary, sure.

Of course, the police are hailing the decision, saying it’ll do wonders to protect the public at larger, etc. On the other hand, privacy advocates, like the ACLU, are all, “Yeah, this is a gross violation of one’s privacy, and makes the Fourth Amendment a sad clown.” Exact words, I swear.

To be fair, the court, which approved the use of warrant-less GPS by likening it to old fashioned police surveillance, French Connection-style, asked the state legislature to look into whether or not there should be a law on the books that prevented the use of warrant-less GPS. As it stands, and as the court interpreted, there’s nothing of the sort right now. Hence, the pro-GPS decision.

This is the part where I throw in scary words and phrases like Police State, Big Brother, 1984, etc.

As weird as this apparatus looks, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that it’s actually not a bad idea. The $50 “CoolCop” is basically a length of vacuum-like hose that goes from a car’s air conditioning vent on one end and clips to a police officer’s bullet-proof vest on the other end. Those vests are hot, I tell you! Well, I don’t tell you, actually. Not much need for a blogger to wear a bullet-proof vest… yet.

From the product page:

The CoolCop dash attachment attaches easily into the air conditioning vent. The soft vinyl vest attachment fits comfortably between your vest and undershirt. Cool air is then delivered under your vest to keep you cool, dry and comfortable. Close the additional air vents and adjust the temperature on the a/c unit as needed.

There are two models available; one for a Crown Victoria and a universal one that’ll fit an Impala. Now if only they’d make a civilian model that attached to my belt buckle, I’d be able to keep the downstairs nice and cool all summer long.

CoolCop [Product Page via Gizmodo]

The REDFLY Mobile Companion embiggens even the smallest of compatible Windows Mobile smartphones and PDAs. In light of this, the Memphis police department just threw down for 1,200 of the devices and deployed them in their cruisers, saying, “The REDFLYs save hardware costs while increasing productivity and also improving the quality and accuracy of the officers’ field reports.”

The department had previously been doing everything by smartphone but the small screens and keyboards “limited the officers’ ability to effectively use the [Memphis PD] databases and applications to aid in their jobs.” And reports had a tendency to be much shorter than they should have been since they had to be typed using a thumb keyboard. Spelling errors were frequent as well. The REDFLYs make it much easier to type detailed reports from the field.

Here’s the full press release:

Celio Corp today announced that the Memphis, Tennessee, Police Department (MPD) has purchased and deployed 1,200 REDFLY Mobile Companions to officers in the field as an alternative to in-car laptops. The REDFLY is a smartphone terminal with a large screen and full keyboard that lets officers use their Windows Mobile-compatible smartphones as if they were full-blown PCs. The REDFLYs save hardware costs while increasing productivity and also improving the quality and the accuracy of the officers’ field reports.

The REDFLY links to the smartphone via a USB cable or wireless Bluetooth connection. REDFLY enables users to comfortably use email, read attachments, view Web sites, and use applications that reside on their smartphones for greater mobile productivity.

Prior to the REDFLYs, the Memphis PD was using smartphones to gain access to sites and applications such as the Watson Field Reporting Suite and the MPD’s own web database. However, it quickly became apparent that working and typing on the smartphone’s small screen and keyboard limited the officers’ ability to effectively use the databases and applications to aid in their jobs.

“We noticed that when officers use only their smartphones, reports had typos and the quality of the narratives were not as detailed as they needed to be,” said Major Jim Harvey. “The larger screen and keyboard has given our officers what they need to bring up mug shots and individuals’ information from our databases, as well as implement a new Paperless Reporting program to submit incident report narratives. Now they can do their jobs more effectively and are very comfortable using their smartphones to file their reports.”

The purchase of REDFLY has enabled the Memphis PD to improve incident report narratives. The officers now have much larger screen real estate and a larger QWERTY keyboard provided by the REDFLY’s eight-inch display and keyboard.

Harvey continued, “We want to provide our officers with the best technology, while being good stewards of the taxpayers’ money. This is a good investment.”

“The Memphis PD’s decision to use the REDFLY Mobile Companion is a tremendous example of the efficiency and cost savings this technology can provide,” said Kirt Bailey, president and CEO of Celio Corp. “They are showing organizations of every size how to get the most out of their mobile technology investment.”

For more information about the REDFLY Mobile Companion, visit www.celiocorp.com.

[via Tracy and Matt’s Blog]

Turns out, there was a magnetic GPS tracking device stuck to the undercarriage of his car, which helped explain why the aforementioned motorcyclist kept showing up at Cowell’s private meetings. It’s unknown who this person is, but it’s been speculated that he or she may be crazy fan or a member of the paparazzi.

Cowell is apparently “completely freaked out by this” and may call in the police to do a more thorough investigation. In the meantime, if YOU think someone is following you, make three right turns. Nobody makes three right turns for no reason. If they’re still following you, panic and drive straight to your house so they know where you live.

[via The Raw Feed]

We can jokingly say things like “buy a cellphone jammer to silence those annoying people on the bus” but that would be irresponsible. Quite irresponsible, it turns out, as criminals are now using such devices to impede law enforcement efforts.

It happened last month in Canada. Two Mounties had pulled over a car, and as they approached to car their radios went out. It turns out that the two guys inside the pulled over car had turned out one of those $200 eBay cellphone jammers, putting the officers at unnecessary risk.

This is a good time to remind y’all that using cellphone jammers is illegal in the U.S and most other places. In fact, a first time offender faces up to a $1,000 fine for using a jammer in the U.S.

Seems to me that an iPod is a much cheaper way to avoid hearing a fellow commuter’s conversation. And anyone who uses a cellphone at a restaurant should be promptly shown the door.

Carbon Motors, never heard of ‘em either, is working on a custom police car to catch all of Gotham’s baddies. It kind of looks as if K.I.T.T. and Robocop breed a Transformer offspring meant just for police duty. It’s dubbed the E7 and specific details about all the gadgets haven’t been released, but this short video shows off it’s bad-ass styling.

Allegedly, the car can sprint up to 65 mph in under 7 seconds via a 300 HP diesel engine and brush-off small arms fire thanks to bullet proof panels. The cars price range will be $20k-$70k depending on options, but with a 250,000 durability spec, suicide rear doors, and more LED lights than a Caddy, it seems worth it. Nothing like cruising the streets in style rather than in a Crown Vic, eh?

Those wacky Israelis! Police there used a “skunk bomb” for the first time on Friday as part of a crowd control action. The bomb is actually more like super soaker water gun that sprays a vile smelling liquid on people. The liquid is so foul smelling, that people instantly recoil against it. The theory is, if people are freaking out over the horrific smell, they’ll stop doing whatever it was that upset police in the first place.

The liquid, as awful as it may be, is non-lethal, which is what makes it so attractive to police forces around the world.

Then, of course, you’ve got the people who are all, “violation of my rights, yada, yada.” I don’t know, I’d rather be shot with some awful smelling liquid than by rubber bullets, or worse. Then again, I’m the last person you’d find at a protest or rally of any sort.

Here’s a fun little story that ought to excite your Freedom Bone. It seems an 18-year-old was recently pulled over for speeding, with police claiming that the lad was 17 mph north of the speed limit. An on-board GPS unit disagrees. Yup, the kid had a GPS device(an RMT Rover, seen here) in his car at the time , and its data indicates that he was doing the 45 mph speed limit all the way to his destination.

A police-produced expert claimed that such GPS devices are accurate within a couple of meters and within 1 mph. That certainly seems accurate enough to drag out this case for a little while longer, as both sides argue over who’s technology is more accurate, the radar gun or the GPS device.

And yes, the case will drag on, at least through October, when the judge in the trial hears expert testimony from another GPS expert, presumably Ted the GPS Expert.

Police departments in the U.S. are increasingly relying upon text message tips to catch bad guys. Boston started doing this a year ago and has received 678 tips. These tips have helped take numerous bites out of various crimes, including vandalism and murder.

One thing that concerns me is the possible abuse of such a system. Say Popular Girl A doesn’t like Popular Girl B: why not send in an anonymous tip that she’s dealing marijuana, or something else just as sinister?

As an aside, the original story quotes a girl who typically sends upwards of 6,000 text messages per month. Are you kidding me? What a horrible existence.

Japanese accessory maker Carrot Systems began to sell a flashlight [JP] last month, which is able to record video and sound via an integrated mini CMOS camera and microphone. The AD-1500 stores recordings in MP4 format on miniSD cards. 2GB can hold up to 180 minutes of video material.

The flashlight is ready for infra-red video recording (within a distance of 4 meters). Carrot Systems wants to enable police, security personnel and firefighters to record evidence at crime and accident scenes using just one device in dark areas.

The camera features 300,000 pixels and records video with 640×480 VGA resolution. Photos are saved in JPEG format.

The flashlight comes with a USB port (USB 1.1), 128 MB of internal memory and a small LCD display. It costs $800.

A couple from Long Island left their camera at a restaurant in Florida where two of the employees found and kept it . The camera contained an Eye-Fi card which automatically found an open wireless base station and began uploading their photos including some photos the thieves had taken of each other. When they contacted the restaurant with the evidence, the camera was returned and the couple declined to press charges, proving that even technologists have a heart.

I wonder how much this is going to affect petty theft. With everything enabled for Wi-Fi and cellular, how often will we get our pockets picked when the thieves have no idea how the device is rigged.

It turns out that the lead investigator of the Pirate Bay raid from a few years ago has been working for Warner Bros. Naturally, that’s causing all sorts of commotion online, with cries “corruption,” “conflict of interest,” and whatever other insult you can think of.

The Pirate Bay is already spinning the news, calling the officer’s Warner Bros. employment a “reward” for his work in the original raid. How can you work for the police, and all that entails, while simultaneously taking orders from Hollywood? That’s the issue.

While I find it hard to get worked up over such scenarios&I can’t spend my days freaking out over every little anti-MPAA story—I do understand where TPB is coming from, especially since they’re supposed to be the white knight of the BitTorrent crowd.

Meh, move along. Go read a book or something.

Sure, we all get a laugh at someone else’s expense when watching taser videos on YouTube, but did you know that the device may affect your heartbeat? That’s not cool, especially since Taser, Inc. says its devices are totally safe and in no way affect your biological functions.

It all stems from a recent incident where a man was running from police and hid in a lake (?!) to escape them. His heart, possibly from the shock of the situation and cold water, experienced atrial fibrillation. He had an irregular heartbeat, he did. But, once he was zapped by a taser, his heartbeat returned to normal, and he began to fight and resist arrest.

What could make him go from have an irregular heartbeat to fighting with the police?

Doctors are now speculating that the taser “zapped” his heart back into shape. That may sound nice, but tasers aren’t supposed to affect your person quite to that extent.

Taser was quick to point out that the man’s experience could be explained by any number of things, and not necessarily its device.

The technology was adopted after a public outcry surrounding the 2006 shooting of a Newbugrh, New York man in which, “the street version of the story differs massively from the one told by the cops,” according to The Register.

Washington, DC NBC News affiliate WRC is now reporting that a bill has been put in front of the DC Council that “would require police service revolvers to have miniature cameras to record how the weapons are used” in order to “provide a clear record for both police and citizens on how police weapons are used.”

The system that’s currently in place in New York is just being tested and isn’t widely deployed yet. The DC bill would likely call for a more widespread adoption, though.

Did American companies violate U.S. law by selling hi-tech police equipment to the Chinese? The Old Gray Lady asks this today, examining a recent Chinese police equipment trade show held in Beijing where several American companies, including Motorola and DuPont, were notably present. (An old law going back to Tiananmen Square prevents American companies from selling police equipment to China.) On display: Kevlar bulletproof vests, advanced police radio systems, fancy protective boots and a device that “swiftly” copies the entire contents of a hard drive without leaving any trace of having done so. That one’s developed by Intelligent Computer Solutions, which is based in California.

This all comes just a few weeks after China’s crackdown on Tibet protesters, never mind the controversy surrounding the Olympic Torch relay.

Of course, all companies deny any wrongdoing, stressing that they haven’t broken any laws. Be that as it may, I wonder if it’s worth sullying a company’s image just to make a few dollars from the Chinese. Not trying to pull a Jack Cafferty or anything, but selling American-developed technology to be used by Chinese authorities, that doesn’t seem like it’d be too popular with Joe Sixpack.

Attention Police: We’re really getting tired of reminding you about this stuff, bit you should really pay attention this time. MP3 players are not guns. Please quit tasing, arresting, and otherwise antagonizing those of us with them.

This is Darren Nixon, and it wasn’t really the police’s fault, as a woman called them suspecting he had a gun. But the cops should have been able to tell quickly that his DAP was not a deadly weapon. He was arrested and shaken by the experience, and rightly so.

Man arrested at gunpoint after police mistake his MP3 player for a gun [Daily Mail]

Before this system, "officers would write out 5 copies of each citation by hand" and about 10-15 percent of tickets (nationwide) have to be thrown out because of legibility issues. One of the officers says that the time it takes him to write a ticket is about three minutes, down from over ten minutes.

Police Use High-Tech Ticket Technology [WJLA]

Now the neighboring city of Cambridge is developing a similar system for its own police department but will add an outgoing alert option that allows the city’s residents to subscribe to alerts issued by the police department. There will also be separate network to alert business owners of any mischief. The entire system has been approved and should be functional by early next year.

Cops to roll out text-a-tip program soon [Cambridge Chronicle]

Police raided and shut down the OiNK BitTorrent site earlier today after a two-year investigation, shocking users across the BT community. Additionally, the 24-year-old man who ran the site was arrested. Good luck, bro.

I really love this quote by one of the anti-piracy guys that make OiNK users sound like war criminals:

OiNK was central to the illegal distribution of pre-release music online. This was not a case of friends sharing music for pleasure. This was a worldwide network that got hold of music they did not own the rights to and posted it online.

What a paranoid industry, thinking everyone’s out to get them.

Well it was fun while it lasted. The thing that always amused me on OiNK was how so many people wanted you to keep it a “secret.” “Don’t tell anyone about us, we want to stay under the radar.” I should hope these people didn’t think the authorities were oblivious to the site’s existence. That would be stupid.

Music piracy Web site closed after UK, Dutch raids [Reuters]