Slashdot Mirror
Collar-Bomber Tracked By Gmail Accesses
RockDoctor writes "Reports indicate that a suspect has been arrested in the Australian 'collar bomb' hostage/extortion case. The allegation is that the suspect had set up a Gmail account, through which he (allegedly) planned to communicate with the extortion victims and arrange delivery of the payment. Unfortunately for him, records were kept showing the location and time the account was set up, and also for a number of accesses. This information, combined with 'CCTV footage and motor vehicle records,' allowed the police to put an identity to the suspect, and arrange for his arrest. So, if you're planning an extortion scheme, don't drive your car to the internet cafe, don't set up the account from an airport, wear anonymous clothes (like Jason Bourne does?) and do all your accesses through hacked shell accounts somewhere in Outer Mongolia. But, this being Slashdot, everyone knew that already."
Always work through people's unsecured access points.
A proxy node that has wireless access through an unsecured AP in one part of the world allows you to access it from another part of the world, and having a proxy set up inside a major company network can be a benefit too. And use TOR too just to make things even trickier.
Then access the entry AP from a long distance away using a Cantenna.
Of course - all data traffic needs to be encrypted except for the last hop. Add random time delays in the proxies to mess with data correlation too. Mail enters proxy, waits for a few minutes up to an hour and then bounce to the next proxy to finally arrive at destination. Patience is a virtue.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
Being in a position not to get caught and punished for their crimes does not make them not criminals.
Korma: Good