Anti-terrorist drill reveals Segway attack plan, legions of embarrassed patrolmen
[Via CNET]
Posts with tag police
Cops doing computer forensic work already have a ton of tools to choose from, but Microsoft is doing its part to help out as well -- the company just revealed that it's been distributing a special thumb drive to cops in 15 countries to help them identify and extract information from suspects' computers. The drive, called COFEE for Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor, is in use by more than 2,000 officers, including some in the States, and Microsoft is giving it away for free, saying that its doing it not for profit but to "help make ensure the Internet stays safe." COFEE contains more than 150 commands that can be used to collect information, decrypt passwords, and poke through network activity, which helps alleviate the problem of having to remove and transport a suspect's computer for evidence purposes -- officers can just plug in the drive. There's no word on when Microsoft will start widely distributing the drives, but we'd assume it'll be soon.
Regardless of what the UN / Taser thinks, the fuzz around Clinton, Connecticut aren't too fond of taser-like weapons being in the hands of teenagers. Case in point: a 14-year old with a certain knack for wandering around the intarwebz and filling his brain with all sorts of hacktastic methodologies managed to stumble upon directions (what, these?) for transforming a vanilla disposable camera into something "capable of zapping people with an electrical charge." School Resource Officer Kyle Strunjo even said that the improvised weapon was "potentially capable of a 600-volt shock," though it wasn't actually used on anyone before it got swiped by the boys in blue. Chin up kid, you've got a future waiting for you yet.
Apple's no stranger to having its wares ganked (a lot), but this one really has us scratching our noggins some kind of fierce. Apparently a couple of meddlesome 20-somethings working at a Salem, New Hampshire Apple store managed to scoot away with somewhere between 330 and 700 iPhones. After somehow stuffing that many handsets into a panel van / pickup truck / privately owned C-130, they seemingly sweet talked a single high-roller into snatching up their entire stash for upwards of $138,000 -- which could be a bargain (or not) depending on the actual quantity included in the deal, internal capacity, etc. Minutiae aside, both individuals are currently residing under the strong arm of the law (surveillance cameras are hard to dodge), but curiously, nothing is mentioned about the buyer who didn't find spending over a hundred large with a couple of average joes (who just happened to have an inordinately large amount of iPhones for sale) the least bit odd.
Sure, clip-on PVRs aren't exactly revolutionary, but the vast majority of 'em require you to don some pretty fugly headgear. The VIEVU PVR-PRO, however, can be placed most anywhere on your person, so long as you're satisfied with the angle at which it records. This little bugger isn't much larger than a traditional pager (remember those?) and can reportedly capture video at 640 x 480 (30 frames-per-second), and while we're not told how much internal capacity is housed, it can store some four hours of content before needing to be emptied. As expected, the rechargeable battery also provides around four hours of usage, and it's not scared to get thrown around / wet either. 'Course, this gem wasn't designed for the casual lifeblogger, as the vanilla model will run you some $500 while the "encrypted police version" goes for two bills more.
Rest assured, we've seen some brainless criminals in our day, but this one ranks pretty high on the list. Reportedly, a (potentially inebriated) individual waltzed into a police station and frantically announced that his phone had been stolen at gunpoint. When the detective called the number of the phone reportedly stolen, however, a ring was heard from the "victim's" pocket. After pondering what the criminal hoped to gain from the situation, we here at Engadget HQ came up empty, and apparently, the police involved in the situation were equally stumped -- so stumped, in fact, that they issued a statement entitled "Dumbest criminal?" with details of the event in a local newspaper. We'd say that sums it up fairly accurately.






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