+Audioboxer Subscriber² Posted November 16, 2009 Subscriber² Share Posted November 16, 2009 Federal agents typically used $1,100 computers to crack passwords to the seized hard drives of suspected child pornographers. Now they're using $300 PlayStation 3s to pull off the same task. "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 Center, 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 $1,100. Then they realized 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 current-gen console 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!! Source: http://kotaku.com/5405262/ps3-it-only-catches-a-predator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berserk87 Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 ill make sure i use 10+ character password encryption if i ever had to hide anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piggy Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 Bleh I thought like a big cat type of predator, and not Hanson bait. Good to see the husky PS3s being used well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Audioboxer Subscriber² Posted November 16, 2009 Author Subscriber² Share Posted November 16, 2009 Bleh I thought like a big cat type of predator, and not Hanson bait. Good to see the husky PS3s being used well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sethos Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 The Playstation 3 is going to be the enigma machine of our time, wait till grandparents in 2070 tell their grandkids how they captured one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonhapimp Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 who uses 6digit passwords now and days it's all about made up words with numbers mixed in that make up a 15 digit password Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soniqstylz Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 How much computing power does it take to go through "love", "sex", "secret", and "god"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holoshed Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 How much computing power does it take to go through "love", "sex", "secret", and "god"? If you are stupid enough to try to have sex or anything close with a child, much less look for the kids online.... I do not see their brain being advanced enough to understand there CAN be longer passwords. Reminds me of South Park where the predators show up at the studio and go "oh gawd, its chris hansen!" then shoot their self. In other words, yeah... It does not surprise me at all these people are using simple methods to encrypt and probably use default and simple passwords even then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belazor Posted November 17, 2009 Share Posted November 17, 2009 How much computing power does it take to go through "love", "sex", "secret", and "god"? Less than a laptop with a 28.8 kbps modem, at least :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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