What got breached this week? Ticket portals, DNA sites, and Atlanta's police cameras

This week brought new charges for Marcus Hutchins, a novel way to sneak malware into archives, and shady hotspots for World Cup fans. There was also plenty of other security bits that didn't quite make the headlines. Here are some of the best. Apple wants to be cert-ain on certs Apple is going to make it harder for sites to …

[WolfFan]

hmmm

First, that pic is of a New York City cop, not an Atlanta plod.

Second, the alleged breach allegedly resulted in some alleged cop cam footage going bye-bye, eh? If you actually believe that, I have a bridge for sale. In New York. What I think is that there might have been some embarrassing footage which is now no longer available, that's what I think. Cynical, and not trusting cops further than I can throw HMS Cruise Missile Target? You betcha.

Mine's the one with the working, turned on, camera attached to the lapel, thanks.

[TheVogon]

Re: hmmm

"Because unbeknownst to the users, their webcams were turned on and recording them. "

That's why all webcams should have a led lit when active. State actors could no doubt hack the firmware or drivers to bypass that but its a good start for basic protection.

[ThatOne]

Re: hmmm

> all webcams should have a led lit when active

All webcams should have a manual lid. I wouldn't trust a LED, there is certainly some way to remotely deactivate it. A layer of opaque plastic in front of the lens is the best and only 100% reliable protection.

[Stork]

Re: hmmm

I use a bit of orange Post-It (other makes available). Had the advantage of being at hand :-)

[jelabarre59]

Re: hmmm

I use a bit of orange Post-It (other makes available). Had the advantage of being at hand :-)

Green painters tape here.

[Paul Crawford]

Re: hmmm

I wouldn't trust a LED, there is certainly some way to remotely deactivate it.

If the LED is simply a software status indicator then it is worth SFA. But correctly engineered the LED would be fed direct from the switched power to the webcam/microphone so it is an unambiguous indicator of the device being usable.

Sadly that is not how most things are done these days :(

[Waseem Alkurdi]

Re: hmmm

That's why all webcams should have a led lit when active.

And the microphone?

I'd suggest a hacky 1 cent/penny switch to the power cable of the webcam+mic assembly (but I wouldn't dare to do it to my laptop of course :-P )

[Richard 22]

Re: hmmm

I've just tested on my laptop, and there is an LED which is lit when the webcam is on. Unfortunately it is only barely daytime visible, even when I'm looking for it, so not much use. An LED (appropriately connected to the hardware, not software controllable) is a minimum, but a manual cover is a better option.

[TheVogon]

Re: hmmm

"I have a bridge for sale."

Did you buy it from Michael Corrigan?

[ds6]

Given El Reg's ads are usually relevant and unobtrusive, and I want to give them free money, I leave my blocker off. So what a surprise that, immediately after the break in its relevant story, I got an ad for Supermicro.

How quaint.

[Anonymous Coward]

Given El Reg's ads are usually relevant and unobtrusive

What ads?

[Anonymous Coward]

There’s got to be the corroborating testimony of the officer

Hmm, like the "corroborating testimony" that was given by THESE officers over the years?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/when_cops_become_robbers

[Anonymous Coward]

no other personally identifiable information was accessed

Does anyone really believe there is such a thing as "non-personal" identifiable information anymore?

Especially in the AI/DeepMind era?

[Waseem Alkurdi]

Re: no other personally identifiable information was accessed

Hell, even Paul Revere can be found using just metadata (ignoring DeepMind and AI for the moment!)

https://kieranhealy.org/blog/archives/2013/06/09/using-metadata-to-find-paul-revere/

[Rustbucket]

police credability

"Police Chief Erika Shields told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that the city will hopefully still be able to proceed with the cases.

"But the dashcam doesn’t make the cases for us. There’s got to be the corroborating testimony of the officer," Shields was quoted as saying."

These days many juries (and hopefully judges) won't take the word of the cops without electronic evidence to back them up.

[Pascal Monett]

"It’s not something that makes or breaks cases for us"

So let me get this straight : losing video footage of actual criminal activity is not a make-or-break situation, but not being able to decrypt phones that might have incriminating data is ?

Hypocrites.

[GnuTzu]

Tape!!!

If you're reading these comments and don't know what I mean by "tape", welcome--there is much here for you to learn.

[jelabarre59]

Why? Because unbeknownst to the users, their webcams were turned on and recording them. The video clips were captured by the scammers and used to compile 'testimonial' videos that would make their dodgy support operations seem more legit.

So record it with your Darth Vader voice changer while mooning the webcam.