Bungling cybercops' r00t-y0u.org sting backfires Australian Federal police have been humbled after boasting of taking over an underground cybercrime forum - only for hackers to break into a federal police computer system, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. Police computer security experts claimed responsibility for taking over the r00t-you.org cybercrime forum as part of a …
I saw on various "underground" forums especially a few where the Admin who got arrested was a posting member that they noticed even after the raid had gone public and all over the news. The Admin accont showed a login to the website instad of just dumping the DB.
Cyberpolice....Dont you mean CyberIdiots?
Unless the whole thing was an elaborate double-bluff, of course.
1) Bust site
2) Announce "we're so clever" while leaving own systems open
3) Log everything that breaks "through" the honeypot
4) Lie low and secretly track all the perps that were smart enough to not get caught the first time round
Either that or they're just thick...
There are those of us over here that believe that the whole thing was a publicity stunt designed to boost support for intrusive internet filtering this time using the guise of "protecting the public from hackers". There was an associated discussion on the ABC News Online site where the moderator, in a significant break with normal procedure, deliberately steered the comments toward "How do you think the internet can be kept safe", as if the premise that individuals cannot ever be safe online by themselves was a foregone conclusion. Even so, many commenters pointed out what is surely obvious to El Reg readers: that the major problem is MS Windows, usually still using IE6, being easily pwned, information stolen and/or the infected machine being pressed into botnet service. You can read the story and comments here:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/17/2657529.htm
The 4 Corners story, along with other recent strategic leaks and story placements, are all just part of the multi-pronged approach that the Australian Government is employing toward mandatory internet filtering/monitoring/policing/whatever that will get the Government closer to its ultimate goal of complete control over the internet. Oh, and it's not just Conroy - there's no way he's smart enough to be pulling the strings by himself.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
MFP wouldn't have failed. They would have driven over the perps in thier Interceptor V8, or perhaps handcuffed their ankle to a steering wheel next to a soon to be engulfed gas tank. "The ACLs on this DB are high security 64bit encrypted. It will take you 10 minutes to decrypt. Or you can give me sa in 1 minute."
This is all part of a plot dating back to the years when Bob 'silly old bugger' Hawke was prime minister - as he was infamous for saying 'Australia is a primary producer - we don't need to worry about that Technology stuff'
Of course this attitude has been carried on by subsequent prime ministers with some of the worst damage done in recent years by Johnny Howl-hards anti education revolution (what spend money on Education when it could be better spent on tax cuts of maybe 50c a month??).
AWA, BWD, Applied Technology (Microbee), JNA etc. - all once (almost??) household names* for Australian technology now no longer exist - partly due to poor management decisions but also significantly due to lack of encouragement and support by successive governments.
Recently however there have been very embarrassing revelations that the core technologies used in wireless LANs was developed by the CSIRO which is not only Australian but (worse still) a Government body!
This has caused much consternation in the government, resulting in increasingly desperate attempts to prove that Australia has no idea about all this Technology stuff such as the great firewall/filter of Oz and now this - just further attempts to prove we don't have a clue....
*amongst Techs anyway - probably almost unheard of outside Australia, because, well we are great at exporting dirt, mutton, wool, even rice and cotton (how does an arid country sanely grow rice and cotton???)
It seems to me that the AFP are little more than a bunch of keystone cops led by a bungling poseur who is more interested in expanding AFP powers than actually doing anything useful.
They are the same dingbats who bought us the farcical Mohammed Maneef "terrorist" case. It was obvious from the start that they were so keen to make some sort of a terrorism related arrest that they latched on to this poor doctor using the flimsiest of pretexts and refused to let go, even after it was shown beyond any doubt that the guy was innocent. As far as I know, they are still trying to find something to stick the guy with.
As for waking up to smell the coffee, I 100% agree. The AFP are probably one of the most politically motivated bunch of manipulating arseholes you will ever find in this country. I don't doubt that they would do whatever it takes to get the outcome they desire, whether borderline legal or not.
Creating a series of public scares and leaking them to the ever-gullible media in order to garner ever more power and control is apparently their raison d'entre or so it would appear to me.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
