Gizmodo: Thieves

German Hackers Publish Interior Minister's Fingerprint to Protest Against Biometric IDs

AddyDugdale — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 15:00:50 EDT

A group of hackers has captured the fingerprints of the German Interior Minister as a protest against plans to use biometric data in e-passports. The latest edition of their magazine, Die Datenschleuder, contains a plastic foil that reproduces the whorls and swirls of Wolfgang Schauble's digit, meaning there are 4,000 copies of the politician's prints just waiting to be attached to someone's finger. More below.

The CCC got its hands on Schauble's prints thanks to a sympathiser, who scarpered with a glass used by the minister during a panel discussion and handed it over to the hackers. Dirk Engling, a spokesman for CCC, defended the group's actions, claiming it was a warning shot, and that fingerprints "certainly [did] not [belong] in the e-Pass."

Along with Minister Schauble's fingerprint, the group also published a wish-list of other politicians whose biometric data they'd like to get their mitts on—including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and the Prime Minister of Bavaria, Guenther Beckstein—as well as a guide on how to capture someone's fingerprints from a glass successfully.

The lawyer hired by the CCC sees it like this: "If journalists and citizens were to do what the government is doing—that is, the collection and use of biometric data—then the prosecutor would be knocking at their doors." Meanwhile, a po-faced spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry, refused to rule out legal action against the fingerprint-stealing hackers. [Heise online via Slashdot]

Question: How Many Cops Does It Take to Bust a Ring of Cellphone Thieves?

AddyDugdale — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:00:00 EDT

This many, apparently. This was the scene in North London yesterday afternoon, as 600 cops in scary riot gear marched up a suburban street on their way to knock some thievin' heads together.

The boys in blue made a beeline for 19 businesses situated on the Blackstock Road, a crime hotspot that, coincidentally or not, is just round the corner from the mosque where extremist preacher Abu Hamza used to preach from. Premises raided included a butcher's shop, internet cafe and greengrocer's.

The raid was not just about cellphones, however—although T-Mobile claims that 40 percent of its stolen phones go on to be used in the Blackstock Road area. Some of the other charges leveled against the suspects include drug dealing, money laundering and selling fake documents.

And the reason for 600 woodentops? Well, a bit like the Kaiser Chiefs, officers predicted a riot, so they sent an entire regiment of men down there. Seventy men were arrested, 300 stolen mobiles recovered, as well as (deep breath) 120 laptops, 110 cameras, 32 iPods and 20 satnavs. Oh, and 47 forged passports and driving licenses. I heart London. [Daily Mail]

iPhone In Ireland and Austria Gives Us Excuse to Talk Beer

Jesus Diaz — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 07:10:13 EDT

The iPhone is now available in Ireland and Austria, for the usual 399 (8GB) and 499 euros (16GB.) Yes, that's $778 for the same 16GB version that is manufactured in Asia for exactly the same price (in the US, a 16GB iPhone will cost you $519—tax included—in New York, a whopping $259 difference.) Apple Europe keeps milking European consumers with extremely abusive pricing, citing "marketing and importing costs." Whatever. European Union, it's time to bust this daylight robbery. And now I need a Guinness (hey, it's like black breakfast cereal). [TMobile and O2]

Crooks Caught Red-Handed Stealing $20K Worth of Gadgets, Laptops and More

Charlie White — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 11:44:00 EDT

Next time you decide to rip off a bunch of Macs, camcorders and laptops, you might want to take a good look around for the unblinking eye of a video camera, because you could end up pilloried in public the next day. Check out this brazen burglary in progress, and then step back and think a minute about the victim's reaction. Rakontur, the robbed production company, decided to exact revenge on the alleged culprits by splashing videos, pictures and personal information about the criminals all over the Internet. And now we are accomplices to that outburst. We feel so dirty. Maybe it would've been better to just let the police handle this. [Rakontur]

Phantom Burglary Ring Targeting Tech

Jason Chen — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 15:00:00 EDT

There's a group out in Tulsa who does whatever it takes to get their haul. They cut open ceilings and walls, rappel down surfaces, disable security systems—even climb through air ducts—and manage to make off with $60,000 to $400,000 per strike. And all without leaving a trace of their identity. Sound a bit like the movies? It does to us, too, but we can't help but imagine what kind of gadgetry these guys carry with them.

Now they've turned their eyes toward electronic heists. At a Best Buy in Tulsa, the burglars entered the store by breaching the ceiling, rappelling down to the store office and cutting a hole into it, taking care of the alarms and surveillance of the store, and then took around 50 laptops and 60-inch plasma TVs. And then they took the safe, weighing a few thousand pounds, which is evidently a trademark of this particular ring.

Their earlier exploits make equally interesting reads. Like when they hit a jewelry store tunneling through to it from an adjoining business. Again they took the safe along with the jewels. Last December, they managed to somehow take 60 large appliances from a Hahn Appliance Center by way of an Office Depot, which would no doubt require a massive truck or two to pull off.

Authorities have nothing on these guys. They take what they want and no one finds it ever again. Of course we don't condone robberies at Gizmodo, but if they are ever caught in the future, I just hope they have some pretty hi-tech methods to dish out on, because there's nothing better than custom gadgetry. – Kevin Hall

Professional Burglary Ring On The Loose [KOTV News via CrunchGear]

HOAX! Alleged Thieves Unknowingly Upload Fun-House Mugshots from Stolen MacBook

Charlie White — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 10:30:03 EDT

Update: We've been had. It looks like this is a hoax. These pics were uploaded to Flickr from the website TopShop, and are the Top 50 photos taken in the exclusive Photo Booth areas set up at the London Fashion Week Venue. Turns out these people aren't thieves at all!

Here's a lesson for you, prospective thieves: if you steal a MacBook, it is entirely possible that any pictures you take of yourself using the onboard application Photo Booth could be uploaded directly to a photo-sharing Web site that's frequented by millions of people. That's exactly what happened when a group ~~of hapless robbers~~ got a hold of a MacBook, engaging in hilarity by taking over a hundred pictures of themselves as seen through the fun house mirror that is Photo Booth.

Apparently the rightful owner of the black MacBook had an application such as FlickrBooth 1.1 loaded, uploading every one of those pictures automatically to photo sharing site Flickr. A few weeks after the theft, the owners noticed these photos on their Flickr account. ~~Now here they are, for all to see—four of the more-recognizable pics are in the gallery below.~~ Anyone know these people? Let's find out who they are and perhaps ask them if they've seen a black MacBook lying around anywhere. – Charlie White

Wanted [Flickr]

How to Hack an ATM and Not Get Caught: $5 Turns to $20

Charlie White — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 09:57:43 EDT

We showed you one way to how hack an ATM a couple of weeks ago (we noticed that video is no longer available for some reason), but here's a guy who had an even better way. Somehow, he got his hands on a secret code that tricked an ATM into handing him free money. The override code made the machine think it was full of five dollar bills when it was actually full of twenties. The guy used an untraceable pre-paid debit card and for every $250 he withdrew, he was actually getting his hands on $1000.

A footnote to the story: this ATM was handing out four times the amount people requested for nine days before one honest woman fessed up, admitting she had received more money than she should have. What would you do? – Charlie White (Thanks, Jaan!)

Who Jacked My GPS?

Charlie White — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 11:59:50 EDT

Stay on the lookout, dear readers, because there are miscreants on the prowl, looking to lift your GPS navigation system. In fact, according to USA Today, they're more interested in those assorted and sundry technological devices such as GPS/nav units, cellphones, Blackberries and various music players than the cars themselves.

It appears that a critical mass has been reached, where cars are bristling with electronica, highly desired by those less honest than ourselves. Just think, the easier it is to transport, the more appealing it is to thieves. Or, simply put, it's whole lot easier to stick an iPod in your pocket than a Cadillac up your nose. Stop the presses. – Charlie White

Where In The World Is My GPS?: Thieves Targeting Car GPS Units [Jalopnik]

NAB Host to HDTV Camera Heist

Charlie White — Fri, 19 May 2006 13:29:59 EDT

As some of your intrepid Gizmodo editors walked the aisles of last month's National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention in Las Vegas, little did we know that there were thieves afoot. Even though there were over 100,000 people there, right under all our noses was a series of big-ticket heists underway.

The take included an Ikegami HDN-X10 disk-based HD camera worth $55,000, a $34,000 Canon high-definition lens and a $50,000 Sony HD camera. The hardest-hit victim was Abel CineTech, which had a $72,000 Panasonic VariCam jacked, along with a $27,000 standard-definition Panasonic camera and a $4000 Panasonic MiniDV camcorder. Next year they'll just have to nail everything down.

HD Is Popular With Crooks, Too [Audio Video Producer]