Tuesday! Tuesday! Tuesday! Nitro-burning Tuesday Morning Quarterback after the jump!
Archive for the ‘Law’ Category
TMQ watch: August 16, 2011.
Wednesday, August 17th, 2011Staplerfahrer Klaus, call your office, please.
Wednesday, August 17th, 2011The gentleman is charged with stealing the forklift (duh), drinking while driving (and that should be pretty easy to prove, since he’s also charged with throwing beer bottles at traffic), evading police, and…aggravated assault. Aggravated assault? Does that mean that he…tried to kill someone with a forklift?
Also, it is apparently not a good idea to follow a police chase and film it with your iPhone. Important safety tip there, guys.
DEFCON 19 notes: day 1.
Saturday, August 6th, 2011“Welcome and the Making of the DEF CON 19 Badge”: didn’t bother going. I don’t care much about the making of this year’s badge.
“WTF Happened to the Constitution?”: perfectly fine talk. Except for some of the case law theprez98 referenced, pretty much everything he covered was already familiar to me from “The Agitator” and “Hit and Run”. That’s not his fault, though, and I’m sure a lot of what he covered was new to the rest of the audience. I was also previously unaware of The Assault on Privacy, and will have to add that to my blogroll.
“From Printer To Pwnd”: This was a fun little talk, covering multi-function printers and the vulnerabilities they introduce into networks. Basically, people get sloppy with these devices and fail to do things like change default passwords; also, many of these devices have bugs in the embedded firmware. The presenter, Deral Heiland, demonstrated some interesting attack vectors: “malformed” URLs which allow you to bypass authentication on certain devices, “information leakage” attacks which allow you to get useful information (like passwords) out of the web admin pages, “forced browsing” attacks which allow you to grab device address books (which may also contain passwords), and “passback attacks” which trick the device into communicating with an attacker (for example, using LDAP configuration script testing). All of this culminated in the release of Praeda, an automated toolkit for attacking multi-function devices. The latest version can be found here: I don’t have a link to the slides, but will add one when I do.
“Black Ops of TCP/IP 2011“: You know how people talk about wanting the old funny Woody Allen back? This was the old funny Dan Kaminsky back; the guy who does deep arcane magic with TCP/IP packets and DNS.
His talk broke down roughly into three parts:
- Bitcoin. Short summary: Bitcoin is remarkably secure (“there are entire classes of bugs that are missing”) but it isn’t anonymous, and doesn’t scale well. Kaminsky found a way to basically build a file system on top of BitCoin (BitCoinFS) and also outlines ways of breaking BitCoin anonymity. In the process, Kaminsky also outlined a serious flaw with the Universal Plug and Play (UPNP) protocol used by many wireless routers.
- IP spoofing. Kaminsky was running a little behind (it took a while to fill the Penn and Teller theater) and was speeding through this portion of his talk. Rather than attempting to give detailed summaries of how all this stuff works at the low TCP/IP level, I’ll suggest you check out the slides.
- Net neutrality. Kaminsky’s developed two tools: N00ter and Roto-N00ter, designed to detect ISPs playing silly buggers with packets (for example, giving preference to packets destined for Bing over packets destined for Google).
“And That’s How I Lost My Eye“: the funniest panel I went to today. Deviant Ollam, Bruce Potter, and Shane Lawson wanted to see if it was possible to destroy a hard drive in less than 60 seconds such that the data was unrecoverable, without setting off alarms or damaging any nearby humans, and without spending a lot of money on something like the SEMShred.
Ollam took the explosives/incendiary part of the equation. His results can be summarized as: it might be possible to use explosives, especially the popular “boomerite” type explosives used in exploding targets, to destroy a hard drive. But playing around with explosives, especially when you’re activating them electronically, is a good way to attract the attention of unpleasant people with badges. Apparently, those same people have no problems with explosives triggered by a rifle bullet, so if you want to affix an M1A above your server with a ton of “boomerite” below, go ahead…
Chemical methods didn’t work out very well either. Cobalt isn’t highly reactive, and the type of acids that can quickly dissolve a hard drive platter aren’t easily available at Home Depot and don’t play well with people and other living things. There were a lot of slides of vats of acid doing nothing to hard drive platters.
It’s also hard to destroy a drive physically. Hole saws, spade bits, and grinders did nothing.
The presenters did discover that a combination of a salt solution and electricity could strip the plating off of ceramic platter drives. But that didn’t work on aluminum platter drives.
What finally did work was fire. Propane and MAPP gas (which you can’t get in the US any more) will melt aluminum, but it’s hard to apply those to a spinning drive and have it melt; the spinning drive tends to dissipate heat. The presenters were working on an automated solution involving a glow plug, propane, and an Arduno, but ran out of time before they could finish that project.
However, you don’t have to melt a drive to render it unreadable; you only have to heat it to the Curie point. That’s not quite as spectacular as a spinning drive throwing off chunks of molten aluminum, but it will work. (However, if I understand Wikipedia right, the Curie point of colbalt is 1100 degrees C, and the melting point of aluminum is 660 degrees C. So I’m not sure what that buys you.) I wonder:
- Could you come up with some sort of inductive heating method for hard drives?
- I also wonder, thinking about Deviant Ollam’s approach, what would happen if you fired a nail gun loaded with the right kind of nails into a spinning hard drive at close range? I wonder if Snoop ever tried that. (I also wonder if a nail gun at close range would trigger “boomerite”.)
“Key Impressioning“: I can’t give this panel a fair evaluation. In brief, impressioning consists of sticking a blank key into a lock, moving the blank up and down, removing it, noting where the lock pins hit the key, filing down the contact points, and repeating the process until all the pins reach the proper depth and you have a working key. The presenter gave a live demo of this process, and was impressively quick at it.
The problems I had with this panel were:
- the camera that was set up for the demo did a poor job of showing the actual process.
- the sound was off for over half the panel. Combined with tbe presenter’s accent, that left me able to make out about one out of every four words he said. I’m sure he’s an okay guy; I just couldn’t see what he was doing, or hear much of what he said.
Police professionalism watch.
Monday, August 1st, 2011Anthony Magsam worked for the Philadelphia Police Department in the Firearms Identification Unit. In that position, Officer Magsam had the opportunity to handle a lot of nifty guns. Officer Magsam was something of a gun buff as well:
Unfortunately, Officer Magsam let his gun buffery get the better of him. Allegedly, he removed the trigger group from what’s described as an AR-15 with three-round burst capability, and replaced it with a semi-auto AR trigger group. He also allegedly took parts out of an M2 carbine:
So this is bad, m’kay? Officer Magsam was fired and criminally prosecuted, right? That’s what would happen if you or I were in illegal possession of full-auto parts, right?
Bzzzzt! Wrong! Thanks for playing! Officer Magsam was allowed by the commanding officer of the FIU to transfer out of FIU into another unit, and the theft was not reported.
If I understand the Daily News article correctly, Internal Affairs is investigating. But IA had been investigating for over a year when the Daily News reported the story; it seems the investigation was “stalled”.
By the way, the guy who was overseeing the IA investigation used to work with Lt. Testa in the FIU. And Officer Magsam’s mother…
Obit watch: July 31, 2011.
Sunday, July 31st, 2011Frank Bender, noted forensic sculptor.
Among his other accomplishments, Mr. Bender did the bust of John List for “America’s Most Wanted”; that bust led directly to List’s capture.
That bugs me. I’d like to think that if I ran a police department and asked Mr. Bender (or someone like him) to do work for me, I’d at least have the courtesy to let them know how it came out, wrong or right, as soon as I knew. Good thing I don’t run a police department, eh?
I haven’t read The Girl with the Crooked Nose: A Tale of Murder, Obsession, and Forensic Artistry
All apologies.
Wednesday, July 27th, 2011I feel bad about this, especially since some folks like South Texas Pistolero apparently think I’m worth reading. (Thank you, sir.) But there’s just not a lot going on right now that’s worth blogging about. I blame the heat. And the vertical integration of the broiler industry.
I guess I could point to yet another reason to carry your damn guns, people!
Or yet another example of the police being indistinguishable from armed thugs.
Or I could put up a nifty photo of myself in one of Sean Sorrentino’s “Project Gunwalker” shirts, which he’s reopened orders for (and which you can now get with a pocket, even) but I haven’t picked up mine from the PO Box yet.
I could also ask what kind of fascist country we’re living in, when a judge expresses doubts about the credibility of an accused murderer.
I suppose I could also ask if it’s actually legal for mariachi bands to collude over the fees they charge; doesn’t that strike folks as being a violation of anti-trust law?
I’ve got a post I’m working on about the egg roll problem, but I’m still doing research on that.
The good news is, we’re only a week away from DEFCON 19, which I do plan on blogging. In that vein, if anyone has recommendations for places to eat in Las Vegas, please drop me an email or leave them in the comments. A trip to Lotus of Siam is required, of course, but I’m looking for something to eat on the other four nights I’ll be there.
Edited to add: Hey, while I’m thinking of it, I do want to point folks to this discussion at Battleswarm. I haven’t had a lot to say about Breivik, mostly because other smarter bloggers are saying it all. But for some reason I’m awfully darn curious about his weaponry; I think maybe because the gun in that photo is so blinged up I wouldn’t be shocked to find out that it’s identical to the ones carried by Food Court Team Six.
A tip of the hat.
Friday, July 22nd, 2011By way of Jimbo, we’ve learned that Vincent A. Musetto has retired after 40 years at the New York Post.
Mr. Musetto was the Post film editor when he retired. But he is most famous for a headline he composed in 1982 1983. That’s right, Mr. Musetto is the man who came up with this:
As noted in the linked article, Mr. Musetto’s personal favorite of his headlines was “Granny Executed in Her Pink Pajamas”.
We wish Mr. Musetto a happy retirement, and all the best in any future endeavors he embarks upon.
Edited to add: P.S.: The happy decapitator, Charles Dingle, is apparently still in prison. Mr. Dingle denies any involvement in the rape/robbery/beheading spree for which he was convicted.
The (Double) Eagle has flown the coop.
Thursday, July 21st, 2011We previously noted the strange legal saga involving the Federal Government and ten 1933 $20 U.S. gold coins.
(Since that time, we have also read Alison Frankel’s Double Eagle: The Epic Story of the World’s Most Valuable Coin
By way of FARK, we have now learned that a Philadelphia jury has found in favor of the Government. Here’s coverage from the WSJ Law Blog, and here’s coverage from the Inky.
As we noted at the time, this seemed like a case that couldn’t be won, given the events of 2002 and the attendant publicity. We are not displeased to see our prediction come true, though we will be sad if the Treasury ends up destroying the coins. At the same time, though, we suspect this is not the end of the story, and that this case will probably end up in front of Dianna Ross and the Supremes. Watch this space for updates.
Edited to add: We wish we had thought of this sooner. Here’s the story from “Coin World”, which appears to have been covering the trial in detail judging from the other links.
Police professionalism update.
Wednesday, July 6th, 2011We previously noted the case of the LA County Sheriff’s deputies who worked in the county jail, and who were fired for thumping on fellow employees at the Christmas party.
As a followup, and in the interest of fairness, we update the story: the prosecutor’s office has decided not to file charges against the accused deputies.
According to a department spokesman quoted in the LAT, this does not affect the ongoing departmental investigation.
Choctaw bingo.
Tuesday, July 5th, 2011Too weird to pass up. On Friday, the Sunset Valley PD arrested a guy on charges of impersonating a police officer. (Sunset Valley is a small municipality on the outskirts of Austin; most of Sunset Valley consists of strip centers and big box stores. Just FYI.)
I really, really want to know where he got those ticket books.
I also really, really want to know how he came into possession of a car belonging to the Williamson County sheriff’s office. Notice that the list of charges does not, so far, include “car theft” or “possession of a stolen vehicle”.
(I know what you’re thinking: “That might explain where he got the ticket books, too.” Maybe. But the way I read the article, he didn’t just have Williamson County ticket books, but also ones from the Austin Police Department and other local agencies. I don’t think all of those would be in one WCSO car.)
The fake inspection sticker is a nice touch, too. What, he couldn’t swing by one of those 10 minute inspection places? Then again, maybe the WCSO car wouldn’t pass inspection. Perhaps there was a problem with the emissions testing.
I wonder how they know he bought the “Choctaw Police” stickers at Home Depot. Was there a receipt in the car? Heck, I didn’t even know you could get custom stickers for your car done at Home Depot. That gives me a few ideas…
I’m wondering about that “antique handgun” as well.
I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ badges!
(Subject line hattip: Do you really need one? He cooks that crystal meth because the shine don’t sell
Good cop, bad cop.
Wednesday, June 29th, 2011Good cop:
Between 1977 and 1987, six women in Northern California were killed and dumped. The cases became known as the “I-5 Strangler” killings; Roger Kibbe was convicted of one of the murders in 1987, and pled guilty to additional murders in 2008.
Unfortunately, the body of one of his victims, Lou Ellen Burleigh, was never found, even though Kibbe attempted to lead law enforcement to where he had left the body.
Earlier this year, Napa County Deputy Sheriff Michael Bartlett decided to search for the body on his own time. It took him about a month, but he eventually found a place that matched up with Kibbe’s description, and a bone.
DNA tests confirmed the bone was Burleigh’s.
At least now her people know. Well done, Officer Bartlett.
Bad cop: Houston police officer Mike Hamby.
Actually, make that “former Houston police officer”. Mr. Hamby was “relieved of duty” June 17th.
What gets you fired from HPD? In this case, former officer Hamby was accused of throwing a tear gas canister into another team’s tent during a barbecue cookoff at the Livestock Show and Rodeo earlier this year.
Former officer Hamby can appeal his firing.
Today’s bulletin from the Department of WTF?! (#4 in a series)
Tuesday, June 28th, 2011Mark Davis is a writer in Lynchburg, Virginia.
Mark Davis wrote a book about a writer who gets discouraged over his rejections.
That’s not a bad sounding plot. But Mark Davis decided to take things one step further.
Yeah, I’m going to say the answer to that question is, “Hell, yes!” Either that, or Mr. Davis put on the Bad Idea Jeans that morning. I’m boggled at the fact that a lawyer apparently told him this was legal, or even a good idea.
Apparently, this strategy actually worked, for definitions of “worked” that include “finding a publisher” (Poinsettia Publications, according to the article; the book is available in their online store) but there’s no mention that Mr. Davis has actually secured an agent. Frankly, if I were a literary agent who’d read about this stunt, or received one of those letters, my first reactions would involve a restraining order against Mr. Davis and press-checking my .45.
(Hattip on this: I picked up the story by way of Marko Kloos on the Twitter.)
Noted for the record.
Friday, June 24th, 2011I wonder which of these “AK-47 assault rifles” Whitey had.
I also wonder how “sawed-off” that shotgun was.
Legal update, and other random notes, for June 23, 2011.
Thursday, June 23rd, 2011After 16 years, James “Whitey” Bulger has been arrested in California. Boston Globe coverage. If you go to the front page, the Globe has a quite extensive package, including some of their previous Bulger coverage. Boston Herald coverage. Ditto on the Herald having an extensive package, including commentary by Howie Carr. LAT coverage, but don’t bother. It doesn’t add much.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the story, Bulger was the leading crime boss in Boston for many years; he built his empire largely through a corrupt relationship with the local FBI office, which covered for his criminal activities because he served as an informant for them. (Bulger’s work as an informant generally involved either providing misleading information, or using the FBI to eliminate his competition and other folks he wanted to get out of his way.)
There are two excellent books on the Bulger case: The Brothers Bulger: How They Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century
One of the first cases I mentioned here at WCD was the Sedona sweat lodge incident. I am mildly pleased to report that James Ray has been convicted of three counts of negligent homicide. Unfortunately, he was not convicted of the more serious manslaughter charges he was facing, but he could still get 30 years on the negligent homicide charges.
Due to being busy and on the road, I’ve been somewhat neglecting “Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark”. From what I hear, the revised version (which is now open, and getting “official” reviews) is actually a vast improvement over the original. (The NYT review is linked from the article I’m about to link; I’m not posting the link here because I’ve used up my free articles for the month on this one.) Anyway, Patrick Healy and Kevin Flynn have an interesting article in today’s NYT on where, exactly, that $75 million went.
At this point, “Spider Man” is bringing in $1.2 million to $1.3 million a week, per the NYT. However, the show’s operating costs are…somewhere between $1 million and $1.2 million per week. And the show owes roughly $100,000 a week on the construction loan they took out to renovate the theater. (I’m not clear if that’s included in operating costs, or is a separate line item.)
Edited to add: By way of Jimbo:
Meanwhile, you have to dig down to the Bulger page on the “America’s Most Wanted” web site to find any mention of the capture. This seems odd, given the number of times John Walsh ran stories about Bulger, but perhaps they’re holding off until they determine if an “AMW” tip was behind the capture.
Edited to add 2: The LAT coverage on their “LA Now” blog is a vast improvement over the initial LAT story I linked, and is being constantly updated. Kudos to the “LA Now” blog team.
The Mighty Quin(tana).
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011There are apparently three other charges (misdemeanor assault, criminal mischief and criminal trespass) still pending, related to an incident in 2009. (The charge Mr. Quintana was acquitted on relates to a 2008 incident.)
You may remember former officer Quintana from such hits as this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and this. I may be missing a few.
At this point, I’m tempted to give former officer Quintana his own (sub)category on WCD.