“Bad guys are encrypting their stuff now, so we need a methodology of hacking on that to try to break passwords,” Claude E. Davenport, an agent in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Cyber Crimes centre, told Joseph D. Szydlowski of the Scripps Howard Foundation Wire. “The Playstation 3 – its processing component – is perfect for large-scale library attacks.”

Here’s the deal. Under the Fourth Amendment, suspects in the U.S. are not required to give up passwords they use to secure their information. But the Fourth doesn’t cover cops cracking their way into hardware they lawfully seize under a search warrant. That’s where the power computing comes in.

In the past, they’d use a Tableau/Dell server combination running about $US1,100. Then they realised they could get the same computing power out of a PS3 for a quarter of the cost, roughly. So they throw networked consoles at the problem, to unravel the nearly 282 trillion possibilities in a six-digit password.

“You take the ability of a single person to throw a few passwords at it a minute to a few million a second,” Neil Condon, vice president of Public Affairs for AccessData Corp., told SHFW. Condon’s company does investigations.

Here’s the funny part. While Condon said that any console with a high-end graphics card is capable of the same power, the PS3 is used because you can install Linux on it. Guess they’re using the old PS3 Phats. Go Phat! Go!!

Federal Officers Use Video Game Console to Catch Child Pornographers [Scripps Howard Foundation Wire (subscription required) via Hot Blooded Gaming]

Cops in Meadville, Pa. say a man went into a GameStop there at 7pm on Tuesday, informed the clerk he had armed help out the door who’d start shooting if anyone called police, and so therefore start handing over the merch. I like that style. The hell with this finger-in-the-jacket-pocket shit. Just let your imaginary friend be your accomplice.

The guy made off with 100 copies of MW2, plus some other items for a total cash-and-prizes value of $US6900.

I’m not sure what surprises me the most, the ballsiness of the robber, or the fact a GameStop still had 100 copies of this 19 hours after its midnight release.

Also, please tell me the “other items” were some refurbed PS2s with balky DVD drives. Please.

Man Steals 100 Copies Of Popular Video Game From GameStop [WPXI-TV, Pittsburgh, via Destructoid]

Granted these may be Mario and Luigi lookalikes, given that the robbery and beatdown took place on Halloween night at a Great Kills, NY gas station, not in some Mushroom Kingdom borough. According to police reports, the dressed up duo assaulted and robbed the 48-year-old taxi driver after an altercation inside the cab.

A third man dressed in a tuxedo, who we’ll presume was Toad in formal attire, is also being sought.

Wanted in Halloween assault: Not so Super Mario and his brother Luigi in cabbie beatdown [NY Daily News - thanks, Will & Chrismoke!]

All of them, whose names aren’t being published because they were working undercover, got nastygrams and retraining. Nobody lost their job, which probably is fair. It was embarrassing as hell to the Polk County (Fla.) Drug Task Force but despite the pleading of the kingpin’s lawyer-mans, their conduct did not invalidate the search.

Caught in the blast: six detectives, a deputy and four sergeants. The detectives got “a letter of retraining” (i.e. Don’t do that again, dammit) and “two hours of retraining”. The supervising sergeants got a “letter of guidance” (i.e. Please, dammit, don’t do that again) and “four hours of retraining”. Retraining? Like what, how to put better spin on the Wiimote?

The Lakeland Ledger has the full story at the link.

Polk Officers Disciplined in Wii Bowling Incident [Lakeland, Fla. Ledger]

As we posted previously, announced that it and 54 software game companies were filing a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court against companies that import “R4 Revolution”-type devices, using the Unfair Competition Prevention Law as the legal grounding.

According to Nintendo, such devices hurts the growth of the entire game industry and steps must be taken regarding the legality of R4 carts. It’s important to note that this legal injunction is for Japan only.

Nintendo is asking for the cease of marketing, sales and importation of these Chinese-made devices. The R4 allows easy software piracy by fitting right into the DS’s cartridge slot. Data is stored on a Micro SD and downloaded from websites via a flash drive, and the R4 has a small slot that the Micro SD card goes into.

In addition to the suit, Nintendo launched a website devoted to collecting information about R4 sellers. “It’s getting increasingly difficult to track down R4 sellers as day by day they get more ingenious, flourishing online and complicating matters,” said Nintendo in a written statement. Because of this, Nintendo is calling on the strength of the masses to eradicate the sale of these devices.

The website Nintendo has set up has an anonymous form that can be filled out. Selectable choices include retail stores, internet shops, online auctions selling R4 devices. Another choice includes “game software uploads” — or those sites or individuals making DS games available online. There’s also spaces for dates and time, a box for details and another box for the shop’s address or home page.

Today, Nintendo announces that the information collected by this website has been “extremely useful”.

“We would like to say that the information we have collected from so many individuals has been extremely useful and offer our sincere gratitude for everyone’s cooperation.” Nintendo goes on to say that with the cooperation of all, the legality of this issue will be concretely resolved.

[Pic]

It all started with a Craigslist post, as many seedy stories these days do. Last Thursday a listing popped up for a Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 bundle, nearly two weeks before the eagerly anticipated game was supposed to hit store shelves. Activision hired Dallas private investigation firm IPCybercriume.com to track down the sale. A little investigative Facebook work later and the firm uncovered two men who had stolen a crate of the bundles from the back room at a video game retailer. They turned the criminals over to the store’s loss prevention department, but that was only the beginning.

On the 30th of October, Activision directed IPCybercrime to an individual going by the handle “cedelamo” and “cdelamo815″, who had posted on an Xbox 360 ISO site requesting donations to buy one of the bundles so he could duplicate Modern Warfare 2. The investigators checked the email address used in the posts against Facebook users, which led them to a site offering console mods. From there they brokered a deal, acquired the culprit’s mobile phone number, and tracked him down at the address they had acquired through Facebook.

The investigators identified the culprit as 18-year-old Christian Del Amo, a modder known for selling hacked Xbox 360 hard drives filled with pirated games. IPCybercrime turned the investigation over to the Miami-Dade police department, which purchased a copy of Modern Warfare 2 from Del Amo, arrested the runner who had delivered the disc, who then led him directly to the Del Amo home, where the pirate was arrested.

“It all happened very fast,” said Rob Holmes, owner of IPCybercrime. “If these guys get their stuff out, then they can do some major damage to sales and spoil it for everybody. We plug leaks every day, but this was one of the biggest ones of the year.”

While the investigation didn’t do much to curb the piracy already plaguing Modern Warfare 2, it is an excellent example of the lengths that publishers will go to in order to protect their property, as well as being proof that no matter how well you think you covered your tracks, they’re probably not covered.

Hit up the link below for the full story.

How investigators tracked down a Modern Warfare 2 cyber pirate [VentureBeat]

After losing three games of FIFA 2008 against his younger brother and a friend, James Callaghan, 17, polished off a bottle of vodka, armed himself with an axe and a knife, and stormed into the night near Yorkshire, England.

Callaghan attacked several teens with the axe, knocking one to the ground, threatened a cyclist and finally attacked a 65-year-old widow, bludgeoning and stabbing the woman to death before trying to break into a neighbour’s home while demanding alcohol.

The court heard that Callaghan had a history of undiagnosed schizophrenia, and that he was known by his friends to be violent after drinking alcohol. The Daily Mail article also points out that FIFA losing-streak and that Callaghan “also played the computer game Grand Theft Auto, which sends the player’s character on a violent crime spree”.

It’s a terrifying and sad story, but it sounds like anything could have set Callaghan off — it just happened to be a video game.

Teenager killed widow with axe in drink-fuelled rage after losing a computer game to his brother [Daily Mail]

If you live in the Philadelphia area and had trouble receiving your GameFly rentals last year, odds are good that Reginald Johnson was to blame. Johnson worked as a mail-processing clerk at the US Postal Service processing and distribution centre in Philadelphia, responsible for unloading mail from the trucks that docked there. And unload he did…into his own SUV.

Reports of missing GameFly shipments in the area began reaching the Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General in 2007. In September of 2008, the inspector general set up a sting operation using test mailings, and Johnson was found to be the culprit. After a car chase that ended in Johnson crashing his car and fleeing on foot, authorities discovered 79 GameFly mailings in a backpack in the vehicle, with an additional 81 found in a duffel bag dropped during the pursuit.

And what was Johnson doing with all of these rental games? In his SUV authorities also discovered five Nintendo Wii Sports, three Wii Fits, a PlayStation console, game controllers, and receipts from GameStop, where Johnson had been exchanging games for trade-in credit.

Johnson admitted to stealing 2200 GameFly mailings over the course of his employment with the US Postal Service in federal district court yesterday, and now faces 12 to 18 months in prison according to preliminary sentencing guidelines. Sentencing is scheduled for January 13.

I’m actually interested to know which GameStop he was bringing these games to. A guy showing up on a regular basis with a stack of caseless game discs had to have thrown up some sort of red flag, shouldn’t it?

Ex-mail handler admits theft of video games in envelopes [Philly.com - Thanks David!]

The site goes on to link the group’s upcoming weekend event to a school shooting that occurred earlier this year.

While I don’t want to disrespect an anti-violence movement that’s a direct response to the tragedy, I have a serious problem with the thought of an activist group trashing video games. The wanton destruction (or junking) of any entertainment media for no better reason than it might have something to do with something people don’t like reminds me of book-burning — something the Nazi party encouraged.

That nasty association only got worse when I read this next paragraph:

GP reader Matthias noted that one image used in the group’s promotion for the event appears to use a modified copy of an image designed to aid Germany in ridding use of the swastika, substituting a CD or DVD for the Nazi symbol.

Really, activist group? You couldn’t think of a more productive thing to do with video games?

German Group Plans Killer Game Drive [Game Politics]

According to Sweden’s Metro, the unnamed 18-year-old assailant “became angry when his internet connection wouldn’t work.” He then consulted a troubleshooting manual which apparently told him “grab a knife and go outside, that’ll solve everything.” There he attacked a 15-year-old girl “who was on her way home from a party and laughing with a friend.” Take that, you inconsiderate laugher!

Her injuries were not life threatening. Knife guy just got sentenced to psychiatric care. The prosecutor wanted hem tried for attempted murder but the court stepped in and said, no, it’s quite likely this guy is nuts.

Oh, this happened Aug. 9. And people say I’m slow with the news.

Crazy Starcraft Player Stabs 15yr Old Girl [Hot Blooded Gaming]