From Crowdsourcing to Crimesourcing: The Rise of Distributed Criminality
Crowdsourcing began as a legitimate tool to leverage the wisdom of the crowds to solve complex business and scientific challenges...
Spoofing Life: Reality Altering Technology Enables Crime
As we come to rely more and more upon technology as a filter for our life experiences, opportunities to bend reality abound. In theory, none of this is new.
When Flash Mobs Become Crime Mobs
When people think of flash mobs, they tend to focus on the positive: 300 people showing up to dance to Michael Jackson’s Thriller in a London tube station, a relatively calm Worldwide Pillow Fight Day or even an impromptu Sound of Music performance in Antwerp’s (Belgium) central rail station. Yet as the below article demonstrates,...
Hacking Airport X-Ray Machines: Terrorist Implications
(Part 2 of a 2 part series) In part one of this series, we examined the latest generation airport full-body scanners and explored the privacy concerns raised by many regarding potential abuses of this technology, to include the unauthorized preservation and sharing of nude images of passengers passing through the devices. In this second...
Hacking Airport X-Ray Machines for Fun and Porn
(Part 1 of a 2 part series) Ever since the unsuccessful bombing attempt against Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas day 2009, there has been renewed scrutiny of airport security measures. Given that the suspected bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was able to easily pass through security with mixture of explosive materials,...
When Computers See: Crime and Policing Implications
Ah, remember the good old days of searching the Internet…the days when you had to type your search request into a search engine text box? So quaint…so 2009. Now, thanks to Google Goggles, it is possible for your mobile phone’s camera to take a picture of an object and use that image itself to search...
Haitian Earthquake Disaster, SMS/Text Message Donations and Cyber Criminals: A Perfect Combination
As the world responds with kindness and compassion to the devastating 7.0 earthquake that struck Port-au-Prince on January 12, 2010, fraudsters and cyber criminals are quick at work to take advantage of the situation. In addition to the traditional forms of despicable profiteering that occur surrounding many natural disasters, new technologies for emergency philanthropy and...
Stolen Android Phone Sends Victim Picture of Thief
According to the below television news report, police in Wilsonville, Oregon arrested a neighborhood burglar after he used the Motorola Droid mobile phone he had stolen to take a picture of himself on an Android phone. What the thief did not know is that the phone had a mobile ap on it known as “Lookout.” ...
Human Tragedy: Potent Vector for Malware Transmission
The Case of the Air France Crash As the story below demonstrates, any item that generates a lot of international news headlines is likely to be exploited by global criminal networks. Whether it is the unexpected death of Michael Jackson or a tragic tsunami, earthquake or volcano, scammers are using the public’s interest as a...
