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Google Search Convicts Hacker
An anonymous reader writes "Google search terms have helped convict a wireless hacker. The queries the hacker performed were introduced into evidence at court, where Matthew Schuster was charged with disrupting his former employer's wireless network and imitating other users' MAC addresses to obtain access. From the article: 'Court documents are ambiguous and don't reveal how the FBI discovered his search terms. That could have happened in one of three ways: an analysis of his browser's history and cache; an Alpha employee monitoring the company's wireless connection; or a subpoena to Google from the police for search terms tied to his Internet address or cookie. Google has confirmed that it can provide search terms if given an Internet address or Web cookie, but has steadfastly refused to say how often such requests arrive.'
"In October 2003, police armed with a search warrant showed up and seized his computer (PDF)."
Ouch, this brings back memories of Hackers. As cheesy as it was, that movie hit close to home because I had gotten in trouble so many times in the past all through my earlier years in school, being banned from a total of four or so different school computer labs (three different schools) by the age of 13... One of the better stories: I was snooping around on the computer's hard drive using Netscape by browsing "file:///", which was apparently "hacking". Curiosity killed the cat, I guess.
Anyway, with all that past experience in mind, based on how amateur this guy seems to be (searching on how to execute his attack *on the target's network*) I can easily imagine how freaked out he was when police showed up at his place and took all his computer hardware.
Of course, I don't really feel bad considering how bad a job he did of covering his tracks and maintaining anonymity and so on.