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NYPD Detective Accused of Hiring Email Hackers
An anonymous reader writes "Edwin Vargas, a detective with the New York City Police Department, was arrested on Tuesday for computer hacking crimes. According to the complaint unsealed in Manhattan federal court, between March 2011 and October 2012, Vargas, an NYPD detective assigned to a precinct in the Bronx, hired an e-mail hacking service to obtain log-in credentials, such as the password and username, for certain e-mail accounts. In total, he purchased access to at least 43 personal e-mail accounts belonging to 30 different individuals, including at least 19 who are affiliated with the NYPD."
$50 - $250 for an NYPD Detective's email login and password? Ack!
When I was hired as a fireman, one of the things my new chief told me was that when you accept that badge, people have a certain level of expectation for trustworthiness, and anything you do - illegal or not - will no longer be reported as "man" or "suspect" in the arena of public opinion, but now it becomes "fireman cut me off on the highway" or "Firefighter acts like a douchebag in grocery store". And then it reflects on all firemen, no matter how unfair that can be.
This cop has just done the entire law enforcement profession a great disservice, but the public trust of law enforcement is wearing thin as it is at this point...
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
Once again, a woman is to blame. It's usually either that, or money.
The reason for the digital snooping appeared to be personal, law enforcement officials said: Detective Vargas, 42, suspected a former girlfriend — also an employee of the Police Department, an official said — had started a new relationship with a fellow officer.
So... it's the woman's fault that the pig she dumped turned out to be a stalker?
Wow. Just.... just wow.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Some people claim that there's a woman to blame
But Jimmy knows it's his own damn fault
Don't feed the trolls, geez.
From TFA:
"Of all places, the police department is not a workplace where one should have to be concerned about an unscrupulous fellow employee." commented FBI Assistant Director in Charge George Venizelos.
Hmm, let me fix that for you, Mr Venizelos:
"Of all places, the police department is the workplace where one should be most concerned about an unscrupulous fellow employee."
Glad I could help.
"Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
wonder what the username and passwords for electrical grid employees are going for...
My guess, is she ignored the warning signs or had enough self esteem issues. These things typically just "happen" in a vacuum.
This is (one of the reasons) why I tell my daughters that they should be very careful when dating. Because if you sleep with a stalker, they will stalk you.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
> Once again, a woman is to blame. It's usually either that, or money.
It's all, all of it, about women. Every male congressman, every president, every mayor, dictator, mafia boss or lackey, all of it.
Even meek scientists are driven by internal desires to excede, tied to alpha male behavior and feathering one's nest.
Even downmods here, of the "I disagree!" butthurt type, are males defending their online social tribal group, subconsciously, you guessed it! Feathering their mental emotional nest to appear more alpha, like some bushman coming proudly back to camp with a warthog on his spear.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Don't feed the trolls, geez.
Sadly, I'm fairly certain AC wasn't trolling - he actually believes that shit.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
> Once again, a woman is to blame. It's usually either that, or money.
It's all, all of it, about women. Every male congressman, every president, every mayor, dictator, mafia boss or lackey, all of it.
Even meek scientists are driven by internal desires to excede, tied to alpha male behavior and feathering one's nest.
Even downmods here, of the "I disagree!" butthurt type, are males defending their online social tribal group, subconsciously, you guessed it! Feathering their mental emotional nest to appear more alpha, like some bushman coming proudly back to camp with a warthog on his spear.
So... gay dudes have no motivations?
Public-restroom-foot-tapping-congressmen may disagree (but not publicly, lordy no).
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
- I looked in that mailbox just now. There wasn't anything there.
- I know how you feel.
- Do you?
- It's only human you'd want to come to the defense of your fellow countryman. Vargas, don't worry. Go right ahead and say anything you want to. Folks'll bear your natural prejudice in mind.
- I saw that mailbox ten minutes ago, Captain. The mailbox was empty.
- Yeah, maybe you didn't notice.
- I opened it on my own tablet. I couldn't very well have failed to notice two thousand pirated MP3s.
- Tell any story you want to, Vargas. Go on sayin' it was empty. Folks'll understand.
- I'm sayin' more than that, Captain. You framed that boy. Framed him!
.
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
You, sir, have just won this thread.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
I presume he meant that it was "over a woman", as opposed to being her fault. If he meant that, it would make perfect sense. A top reason for a man to act like a moron is his relationship (or lack thereof), with a woman. That would still be his fault, however.
My guess, is she ignored the warning signs...
Wait. She dumped crazy guy and that's ignoring the warning signs? Huh?
I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
/nod
Where are were the hacked email accounts hosted?
Were they on some dedicated police email server or were they webmail accounts (Gmail etc.)? How did the hackers get in so easily, apparently? Inquiring minds want to know.
"This cop has just done the entire law enforcement profession a great disservice, but the public trust of law enforcement is wearing thin as it is at this point..."
Oh come on, don't be silly. This cop hasn't done anything. The entire law enforcement profession can't be brought any lower in my eyes, because they are all scum. OK, so this cop did do something, he re-enforced a perfectly valid view point.
ACAB.
Now where's my damn, "post without karma bonus" check box?
HELP MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN HACKED BY AN ILLIBERAL ART STUDENT SET TO DESTROY THE INTERWEBZ!
I'm offtopic here (wish the 'no bonus' buttons worked), but I just wanted to say that you fellows have my thanks. IMO you're the most important of all city employees, and I say that as the son of a retired lineman that worked for CWLP (the city owns the electric company here). I've had need of paramedics more than once and you fellows do great work. Thank you.
And you're right about perception, one bad apple does spoil the whole barrel.
Free Martian Whores!
First initial, last name, password is either their kid's birthday, or their favorite sports team followed by the number "1". I'm guessing fifty cents each.
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
TFA said nothing of his religion, and the guy didn't look Arabic. So WTF does the tenets of Islam have to do with it?
Free Martian Whores!
>So WTF does the tenets of Islam have to do with it?
The widespread oppression of women in Islamic societies and families.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
OK, so this cop did do something, he re-enforced a perfectly valid view point.
Valid? Ok, so stereotyping is good just as long as it is a negative stereotype about someone you don't like. Got it.
Hate to break it to you, but painting all cops with the same brush is as bad as painting all "hackers" with the same brush or all Chinese people or all ... Yeah, some cops are douchebags. Not all of them are, despite your valid viewpoint otherwise.
This hasn't changed my opinion of the NYPD at all.
I'm not convinced that increased background checks are the answer. They only seem to give the agency hiring them the ability to claim due dilligence was done. The end result has not been an increase in public perception of the trustworthiness of the law enforcement community, and perhaps it's just the increase in technology making it easier to report nationally on local problems, but it seems that gross abuse of position by cops is much more common than it once was in this country. And that's not including the disconcertingly increased militarization of law enforcement agencies.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
I feel like I'm getting a far more credit in these responses than I deserve. I merely wanted to communicate something my old chief said that resonated with me as an important fact about being in the public service, and by extension, the public eye. But thank you.
On an unrelated note, I can't remember why I disabled my karma bonus, but I don't miss it. The setting to change your default is somewhere if you don't like using it.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
He does raise an interesting point, though. As bad as the perception of law enforcement has become in the course of their duties, it's not helping matters to be doing these ones outside them.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
It hasn't been Jimmy's fault for a long time... Now it's generally Utley's fault.
His point was that you can't hurt the perception because all cops are scum and that this global opinion is "valid". He's wrong. It's doing the same kind of thing that the media does to hackers when some script kiddy pulls a lameass stunt that makes the news, and we'd be right to complain that this was an invalid stereotype.
If you want people to try to differentiate between the script kiddy destructive hacker and what we want to think of ourselves as hackers, you really do need to grant other people the same differentiation when one of "them" does something bad.
To protect and serve, as the motto goes ; this is why all public servants must be held to a stricter code of ethics with harsher penetalties. It goes for police, judges, politicians. So much power and trust is given to them that to dishonor that trust should carry a very stiff fine: your pension, house, finances and freedom for a very long time.
The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
Syn-Ack!
And on that theme, what's my motivation?
Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
Yet, everyone says you're needlessly paranoid and delusional because you have concerns about your data and your privacy...
On this, we agree. However, his impression does fit into a valid sampling of public opinion. Often, public opinion trumps reality when it comes to how well-received public servants and their cut of local, state, and federal budgets are, as well as in policymaking and in cases that reach trial involving, in this case, police officers.
Don't get me wrong, I know a lot of cops, I'm friends with a lot of cops. I was on a sports team made up of over 50% cops. Great bunch of guys. But as long as people's experiences are limited to the ones who pull them over and ruin their day and the ones who make the news with negative events, there will be people who firmly believe all law enforcement officers are the lowest form of human (if they admit to that much) life found on this planet.
So he is incorrect about his view's global scope. However, he is correct that his view is not an uncommon one. It's definitely not a black and white issue, but the grey is getting ever darker it seems.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
I was surprised to see the choice of words "Hacking Service." Do you just go to the YellowPages or Google Hacking Services? ;-)
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
+1 if i had mod points today... Unfortunately the right-wing, pro-police-state idiots have already modded you down.
I think that the fire department is a great public service, and I don't condemn their service, but show me ONE that has ever in their lives stood up for what is right and testified against ANYONE with a badge who has abused their power.
Every fireman I have ever met has been a self-absorbed prick who thinks he's a at the same level as a cop and therefore above the law, and better than everyone else on the planet.
As far as Impy is concerned...staying out of the kitchen?
Now sudo go and make him a sandwich...
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
It's simple. In the vast majority of cases, bad cops are protected. By "good" cops. Ergo, the "good" cops aren't.
This guy got done because he went against his team. If he had merely hacked (or paid someone to do so) some outsider's emails, then the NYPD would have slapped him on the wrist, and given him time off (with pay).
We've seen this happen many other times before. Even if a "bad" cop kills someone, the "good" cops all circle the wagons. The fact is, "good" and "bad" when it comes to cops are unnecessary adjectives. Because all cops are bad/bastards.
OK, I'm exaggerating slightly. It's 99% of cops give the rest a bad name. The cops that actually are not bastards either leave, or become bastards.
HELP MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN HACKED BY AN ILLIBERAL ART STUDENT SET TO DESTROY THE INTERWEBZ!
Then it would be "us" vs "them". See, most law enforcement thinks they're above the law. Think Judge Dredd.
These are the people that most citizens depend on
A good portion of the citizenry have already realized that the only difference between police and any other organized crime gang is that the former is backed by government while the later are viewed as competition. The others will catch up after they have their first interaction with the police.
This view will not change until members of the force are at least as accountable as the average Joe.
Well, were you a public-restroom-foot-tapping-congressmen, I would probably respond with a single word: Penis.
I think I'll refrain from further speculation, as I have a nasty habit of unintentionally offending the ladies-who-love-ladies.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Good reason why the government needs stricter background/personality checks. Also monitoring their employees and keeping them on a short leash would probably help too. Too many cases of police brutality, corrupt judges, and what not that seems to be on a continuous rise.
Actually, I'd guess that government employees are about average with all other employees. More monitoring just means more ways to evade monitoring. Better prescreening and established policy is really what's needed.
As for the continuous rise of police brutality and corrupt judges... I take it you are under the age of 30? Things have been getting continually better over the past 60 years or so; part of that "continually better" is that more of these cases are being reported to the public. Even 30 years ago, a case like this would have been handled by the local precinct, maybe appeared in a local paper (but probably not) and that would have been the end of it. 100 years ago, the entire precinct would have been on the payroll of some local gang boss.
I have no sons, you insensitive clod.
But if I did, I would.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
YEah. Seems more like
As usual it's a man who couldn't accept that he's not the master of the universe, or cope with the fact that a girl just might not be into him...
You're too modest. You guys have a hard job, mentally and physically. You save lives.
As to the karma bonus, I don't want to permanently disable it, just when I have an offtopic comment to a single slashdotter, like giving you and your fellow firefighters a pat on the back.
Free Martian Whores!
This isn't an Islamic country and that wasn't an Islamic family. Islam has absolutely nothing to do with it.
Free Martian Whores!
I actually left the fire service four years ago with a hereditary medical issue after a bit over two years professional and several years volunteer service. Landed back in IT.
My time serving definitely changed my view of what constitutes heroism though. The threshold seems to have become much lower than it once was, reserved for the Davy Crocketts and William Wallaces of the world. Now it seems to be applied to practically everyone in one way or another.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!