In a rare defeat for law enforcement, the Supreme Court unanimously agreed on Monday to bar police from installing GPS technology to track suspects without first getting a judge’s approval. The justices made clear it wouldn’t be their final word on increasingly advanced high-tech surveillance of Americans.
Indicating they will be monitoring the growing use of such technology, five justices said they could see constitutional and privacy problems with police using many kinds of electronic surveillance for long-term tracking of citizens’ movements without warrants.
While the justices differed on legal rationales, their unanimous outcome was an unusual setback for government and police agencies grown accustomed to being given leeway in investigations in post-Sept. 11 America, including by the Supreme Court. The views of at least the five justices raised the possibility of new hurdles down the road for police who want to use high-tech surveillance of suspects, including various types of GPS technology.
“The Supreme Court’s decision is an important one because it sends a message that technological advances cannot outpace the American Constitution,” said Donald Tibbs, a professor at the Earle Mack School of Law at Drexel University. “The people will retain certain rights even when technology changes how the police are able to conduct their investigations.”
A GPS device installed by police on Washington, D.C., nightclub owner Antoine Jones’ Jeep and tracked for four weeks helped link him to a suburban house used to stash money and drugs. He was sentenced to life in prison before an appeals court overturned his conviction.
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From compromised machines to mass email lists for spamming, electronically-transferring funds out of bank accounts to phishing attacks—India’s 100 million internet users have become prime targets for hackers across the globe.
A report, titled “Global Risks for 2012”, shows cyber attacks on governments and businesses are considered to be one of the top five risks in the world. Be it cybercrime, cyber-espionage or cyberwarfare — they are on a steady rise. The reason: highly lucrative payout hackers get from stealing data. “There are high profit margins and low-detection rate by law enforcement agencies. Further, half of the data thefts (on both individual PCs and enterprise PCs) are executed from remote or stolen server locations, which only makes prosecution difficult,” points an ethical hacker employed with a large Indian IT outsourcing company.
E-mails, personal data and financial data are the most sought after “goods” in the black market, says Pankaj Jain, director, ESET India. “The e-fraud business that has been traditionally flourishing in India is credit card cloning. The cloning itself is mostly performed by Nigerians living in India, though the card data they get are usually from Russian and former Soviet Union hackers on underground forums,” he says.
The fast-maturing cyber crime economy
Even as enterprises and individuals struggle with internet threats, the underground cybercrime economy has moved on to organised entrepreneurship. An ethical hacker from New Delhi, who regularly accesses the digital black market where cybercriminals advertise and trade stolen information and services, shared how the advertisements are done. “Search, compare, and if you find a better offer we will return your money…,” reads an ad selling user data in black market journals. With the economic crisis looming large, such claims and ads are on the rise.
“Today, the main concern for the data sellers is to generate trust among their clients,” the ethical hacker tells Business Standard. He added that data sellers have started offering free “trial” access to stolen bank or credit card details as well as money-back guarantees and free exchanges. “Since there is a great deal of competition in the cyber black market, the rule of supply and demand ensures that prices are competitive, with operators even offering bulk discounts to high-volume buyers,” says a security consultant at a leading pharmaceutical R&D unit in Bangalore.
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Her hands trembled as she picked up her passport.
The woman of the house, who often called her “donkey,” had warned her bad things would happen if she tried to escape.
But she had reached a breaking point.
After months of being held captive as a housekeeper in the Mideast and then metro Detroit, Nade — her name has been changed to protect her identity — had become so ill she could barely move. She pleaded to go to the hospital, but her captors refused. On a July day in 2009, Nade did the unthinkable.
She went to the master bedroom, took her passport from a suitcase, grabbed the family’s cell phone, wrapped it in tissues and tucked it in her pocket.
She opened the door and ran.
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An ex-con accused of spraying a store security guard in the face with Mace when the guard tried to stop the suspect’s girlfriend from shoplifting was behind bars today.
Sammy Young Weakley, 48, was nooked on suspicion of assault with a chemical and being a convicted felon in possession of a weapon for the alleged attack outside a store in the 1800 block of South San Jacinto Avenue.
Weakley was being held in lieu of $50,000 bail at the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning.
Shortly before 10 a.m. Thursday, Weakley’s girlfriend, identified as Chante Park, walked into a shop, allegedly shoved an item into her purse and tried to leave without paying for it, according to Riverside County sheriff’s officials.
When Park left the business, a store loss prevention officer detained her, at which point Weakley rushed to her aid, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
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After being confined to Spring Arbor Nursing Home for more than a year, Patricia Gipe was eager to regain her independence, her family said.
Gipe hired Tonya Antionette Lloyd, a housekeeper from the nursing home, to help around her house and run a few errands.
Everything seemed fine until a phone call from her bank in November about a suspicious check alerted the 85-year-old woman to the theft of nearly $150,000 from her bank account.
Rocky Mount police arrested Lloyd, 35, on Thursday and charged her with felony obtaining property under false pretenses and three felony counts each of financial card fraud and identity theft. She was jailed in Nash County under a $300,000 secured bond.
“Tonya had Patsy’s trust and she just took advantage of it,” said David Bock, who is married to Gipe’s niece. “This woman is the lowest of the lowest type of criminal to take advantage of an 85-year-old widow.”
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In what the U.S. authorities have called one of the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought, the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have seized the Web site Megaupload and charged seven people connected with it with running an international enterprise based on Internet piracy.
Megaupload, one of the most popular so-called locker services on the Internet, allowed users to transfer large files like movies and music anonymously. Media companies have long accused it of abetting copyright infringement on a vast scale. In a grand jury indictment, Megaupload is accused of causing $500 million in damages to copyright owners and of making $175 million by selling ads and premium subscriptions.
Four of the seven people, including the site’s founder, Kim Dotcom (born Kim Schmitz), were arrested Friday in New Zealand; the three others remain at large. Each of the seven people — who the indictment said were members of a criminal group it called Mega Conspiracy — is charged with five counts of copyright infringement and conspiracy. The charges could result in more than 20 years in prison.
As part of the crackdown, about 20 search warrants were executed in the United States and in eight other countries, including New Zealand. About $50 million in assets were also seized, as well as a number of servers and 18 domain names that formed Megaupload’s network of file-sharing sites.
The police arrived at Dotcom Mansion in Auckland on Friday morning in two helicopters. Mr. Dotcom, a 37-year-old with dual Finnish and German citizenship, retreated into a safe room, and the police had to cut their way in. He was eventually arrested with a firearm close by that the police said appeared to be a shortened shotgun.
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Corrections officials in Onslow County, Ga., said they think they have solved the mystery of how a man managed to smuggle a .38- caliber handgun into his jail cell: He used his rectum.
According to a news release, the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office said the 10-inch-long weapon was found in the jail cell of Michael Leon Ward, following his arrest a day before on drug-related charges during a traffic stop.
Investigators said Ward was also a wanted fugitive on a murder warrant out of Atlanta.
Corrections officials told MSNBC that Ward did undergo a strip search during his booking, but that nothing turned up.
Authorities said the handgun was discovered in the jail cell toilet after Ward told corrections staff that he found the weapon in his cell. Deputies said the gun was test fired and found to be operational.
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An Elementary School janitor who was arrested after a drug round up by police agencies had avoided undergoing any background checks by the Beaumont Independent School District (BISD) that may have uncovered past drug charges because he was hired prior to 2008, according to a report from KMBT 12 News in Beaumont, Texas.
12 News reports that the janitor had been previously arrested six times on misdemeanor drug charges of possession of marijuana since 2000. Officers also found marijuana on the janitor during the arrest, a violation of BISD policy that forbids any employee to possess, distribute, or use any illegal drugs on school property. Since the janitor was found with drugs in a drug-free zone, the charges could be upgraded to a felony.
12 News reports that the BISD employee handbook for 2011-2012 states any non-certified employee who is not a teacher – including janitors – hired prior to January 1, 2008 did not have to receive a background check. 12 News reports the janitor – who was hired part-time in 1998 and full-time in 2001 – has been suspended pending the results of the investigation. The 12 News story is available at: http://www.12newsnow.com/story/16551081/parents.
This case is an example why employers should run background checks on all employees and not just those hired after a certain date. It also shows why re-screening of current employees with background checks is sometimes necessary to ensure a safe, drug-free workplace.
For more information on background checks, visit Employment Screening Resources (ESR) – ‘The Background Check Authority’ and nationwide background screening firm accredited by the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS) – at http://www.esrcheck.com/ or call ESR tolls free at 888.999.4474.
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Julie Chambers’ heartbreaking experience of losing her 2-year-old daughter was made worse in an unimaginable way.
The mother from northeastern England recently discovered a fraudulent Facebook page with pictures of herself and her daughter, Zoe, who died in 2008 after undergoing heart surgery, the Daily Mail reports. The site was taking donations for a transplant for Zoe, who was born with a heart valve that was too narrow.
“It would have been hard enough to handle if Zoe had been alive, but she isn’t with us,” Chambers, 37, said. “She’s dead and someone has used her picture to con people out of money.”
The Facebook page, traced back to Jamaica, asked visitors to “share” the link, which would result in a free heart transplant should 1,000 people participate. The page also accepted donations to a personal PayPal account. Though Chambers has contacted police, she doesn’t have a case since money hasn’t been directly stolen from her, the Daily Mail reports.
Unfortunately using the names and identities of children for fraudulent purposes isn’t uncommon, and some thieves go a step further.
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It was a 65 year old North Texas woman who caused the security breach at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.
She left the airport police station without commenting.
“We found her on the plane and took her into custody. She had a handgun in her possession in her handbag”, said airport spokesman David Magana.
Around 6:20 Wednesday morning, the woman went through a checkpoint at Terminal D. She grabbed her bag and left.
It was then that a TSA worker detected the handgun.
But the TSA says the woman grabbed the bag and left before the screening process was finished.
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Earlier this month, the Dallas Police Department changed its policy for responding to shoplifting calls. From now on, the department would no longer routinely dispatch officers to shoplifting calls that involve merchandise valued at less than $50.
Gene Smith, president of the Loss Prevention Foundation, told Security Director News that this type of policy is increasingly being seen in municipalities across the country as police departments try to maximize tightening budgets. “It is a trend,” he says. “It gets down to the economics. With tax dollars being squeezed at municipal police departments, they’re trying to prioritize their calls and a lot of people look at shoplifting and a big company and don’t think it hurts anyone because it’s a company. Well, add up those $50 shoplifting cases and we end up paying higher prices. It hurts us. It hurts the taxpayers, so it really does hurt somebody.”
Five or 10 years ago, police departments didn’t determine their response to a crime based on the dollar amount involved, Smith said. “The bottom line was: If you shoplifted something, the police were called. Period,” he said. “If it was $15, $20, it didn’t matter. Why should someone put a dollar amount on theft?”
Lt. Scott Walton from the Dallas Police Department told SDN that the policy to not dispatch an officer for shoplifting cases valued at less than $50 is not absolute. Officers would be dispatched if the shoplifter is in custody and has prior arrests on his or her record, he said. He couldn’t comment on why the policy change was made.
In Dallas, retailers who catch thieves who have stolen less than $50 worth of merchandise would need to verify the thief’s identification and mail a form to the police department. It would then need to release the suspect.
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Two men who defrauded two aboriginal organizations of almost $1 million were sent to jail today.
B.C. Supreme Court Associate Chief Justice Austin Cullen sentenced Craig Morrison to two years in jail and handed an 18-month jail sentence to his accomplice, Dennis Wells.
The men pleaded guilty last year to two counts of fraud over $5,000 after being caught siphoning off money from the Aboriginal Council of B.C. and the B.C. Aboriginal Fisheries Commission.
Morrison, 34, was the bookkeeper for the two organizations and diverted the funds to his cousin, Wells, over a three-year period,.
The judge decided the magnitude and lengthy duration of the crimes required jail time and rejected the urgings of defence lawyers to impose conditional sentences, which would have allowed the men to serve their time under house arrest.
The Crown called for a four-year jail term for Morrison and a two-and-a-half to three-year jail term for Wells.
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