Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Europol Predicts First Online Murder By End of This Year

Posted by Soulskill on from the need-a-sherlock-to-go-with-watson dept.

An anonymous reader sends this story from The Stack: The world's first "online murder" over an internet-connected device could happen by the end of this year, Europol has warned. Research carried out by the European Union's law enforcement agency has found that governments are not equipped to fight the growing threat of "online murder," as cyber criminals start to exploit internet technologies to target victims physically. The study, which was published last week, analyzed the possible physical dangers linked to cyber criminality and found that a rise in "injury and possible deaths" could be expected as computer hackers launch attacks on critical connected equipment. The assessment particularly referred to a report by IID, a U.S. security firm, which forecast that the world's first murder via a "hacked internet-connected device" would happen by the end of 2014.

25 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. Self fulfilling prophecy by GigaplexNZ · · Score: 5, Funny

    Challenge accepted?

    1. Re:Self fulfilling prophecy by gl4ss · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't know why it needs "hacked".

      many bombs have been detonated for almost two decades with network connected means.

      USA routinely kills people via network connected flying devices that shoot missiles on network commands..

      oh well I guess they're referring to only networked devices that weren't meant to kill in the first place..

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    2. Re:Self fulfilling prophecy by Tom · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Mod parent up. The first "online murder" happened the day they put weapons on a drone. TFA is just the usual news-that-try-to-scare-you bullshit.

      --
      Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
    3. Re:Self fulfilling prophecy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is talking about the premeditated killing of a civilian by another civilian ("murder") occurring as a cause of specific data transmissions on the public TCP/IP-based internet ("online").

      If you're going to count radio-control systems and military systems then you can go back a LOT further than armed drones, but that's not what this story is about.

    4. Re:Self fulfilling prophecy by jafiwam · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This is talking about the premeditated killing of a civilian by another civilian ("murder") occurring as a cause of specific data transmissions on the public TCP/IP-based internet ("online").

      If you're going to count radio-control systems and military systems then you can go back a LOT further than armed drones, but that's not what this story is about.

      Does "Swatting" count?

      If so, then yeah I believe it could or has happened already. Skype is being used to call local police forces on the other side of the planet to send the cops to peoples' houses over trivial shit like rivalries in video games.

      Given the nature of many police forces, it won't be long before (or has already occurred) someone gets shot by police over it, or police shot by home owners (if in some states. Not you Texas, your gun laws suck.)

    5. Re:Self fulfilling prophecy by Translation+Error · · Score: 2

      As swatting ultimately amounts to manipulating humans to do the deed, I'd classify it as social engineering, personally.

      --
      When someone says, "Any fool can see ..." they're usually exactly right.
    6. Re:Self fulfilling prophecy by RailGunner · · Score: 2

      Not you Texas, your gun laws suck.

      As someone who lives in Texas, our gun laws are pretty good with one notable exception -- we need an Open Carry law for hand guns. Otherwise, we can own / carry just about any gun.

  2. Are they saying... by flu1d · · Score: 5, Funny

    That monitor mounted, usb powered (web) gun wasn't the best purchase?

    1. Re:Are they saying... by Artifakt · · Score: 2

      The two likeliest methods, in a very general sense, are by medical device and by starting a fire. This is not including what some posters are speculating about - planting false data to trigger police SWAT raids and similar things, because that isn't really within the scope of what European Law enforcement is postulating. (and really, making a false police report by computer is not that distinct from making a false police report by other means).
              Without going into detail which might encourage someone to actually try something, you might consider the CPAP machine - a little looking at product lines and I was swiftly able to find CPAP designs that use USB networking and can at least send regular data summaries to an e-mail account, so I think it's safe to assume they are running some OS internally and at least connect through a gateway PC to the internet. A similar situation applies to some heartbeat and respiation monitors, plus some of these include Cat-5 or wireless connections, or both. Sometimes, the product descriptions for both of these devices don't mention any networking uses, and the only way to tell it has them is to look at the pictures of back panels and such to spot the various ports.
                  For some reason, people keep mentioning tampering with pacemakers, but pacemakers actually seem pretty far down the list of gadjets becoming part of the internet of things. I don't see any wireless equipped morphine pumps or similar items for sale from hospital supply sources either, but even if I haven't just missed those, some idiot will probably try to make one soon.
                I would say such a device fits your definition - "internet connected equipment that has the ability to kill". A CPAP machine isn't a terribly reliable method of killing someone, but it's certainly a possible one. I don't guarantee that any CPAP machines are running a really unsecure OS, or in particular something like Windows CE, but t's something I would watch for, and avoid using, at least unless the physician prescribing has some good reasons to want a nettable version of the machine in a particular situation.

      --
      Who is John Cabal?
    2. Re:Are they saying... by Zorpheus · · Score: 2, Informative

      I don't know about other countries, but in Germany drive-by-wire is not allowed. This became law long ago because they were worried about an electronic failure, not hacking. Though hacking also is a type of electronic failure, so it is actually widely covered by that approach.

  3. Bash.org by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    The day is near when we can finally stab people in the face over the internet.

  4. Note to self: by Ignacio · · Score: 4, Funny

    Do NOT Internet-enable the wheeled stabbing machine I am currently working on...

  5. Dear doc... by Kekke · · Score: 4, Funny

    Please use TOR when fetching My ventilator's new firmware.
    And while yer add it, pls remove the rootkit from the darn Dialysis machine. My granddaughter charged Her iPhone from it's usb port.
    My blood salts have been through the roof ever since....

    PS:
    My wheelchair threatens to ran me off cliff, if the payment isn't complete in three days.

  6. Bring back the WinNuke! by Cito · · Score: 2

    Give whole new meaning to the famous mid 90s exploit instantly blue screening all Windows and locking up Linux 2.0.30 and below kernels by popping port 139.

    Make it literal :-P

  7. It'll be a vehicle by chrism238 · · Score: 2

    If it's sanguine to place bets, my money's on an Internet accessible, or controlled, car killing its driver or targeting a pedestrian.

  8. More fear mongering. by seoras · · Score: 3, Interesting

    F.U.D http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt

    Anyone else getting a bit fed up with all this fear BS?
    I'm I alone in feeling like our governments are treating us like a herd of sheep using fear to herd us and control us?

    Only earlier today we had a post about giving up freedoms so we can be better protected.
    http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/10/07/0235241/brits-must-trade-digital-freedoms-for-safety-says-crime-agency-boss

    Now another article where we are again being told that a free internet is a physical threat to us and we can be murdered online. ...."found that governments are not equipped to fight the growing threat of "online murder", ..".
    The solution - give up our freedom online.

    How long until a post like this is blacked out as "unsafe".
    Who is it really unsafe for?

  9. Mod parent up by Prune · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Ah, a deliciously nerdy reference to the famous IRC quote, one of the top-rated ones on the quote database:

    <Zybl0re> get up
    <Zybl0re> get on up
    <Zybl0re>get up
    <Zybl0re>get on up
    <phxl|paper>and DANCE
    * nmp3bot dances :D-<
    * nmp3bot dances :D|-<
    * nmp3bot dances :D/-<
    <[SA]HatfulOfHollow>i'm going to become rich and famous after i invent a device that allows you to stab people in the face over the internet

    --
    "Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."
  10. No, lying headline by pjt33 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The first link in the summary is to a news report with the headline "First online murder to happen by the end of 2014, warns Europol". When you read the story, what it actually claims is

    The study, which was published last week, analysed the possible physical dangers linked to cyber criminality and found that a rise in ‘injury and possible deaths’ could be expected as computer hackers launch attacks on critical connected equipment.

    The assessment particularly referred to a report by IID, a US security firm, which forecast that the world’s first murder via a ‘hacked internet-connected device’ would happen by the end of 2014.

    And the reference that it mentions is right here and says

    With more objects being connected to the Internet and the creation of new types of critical infrastructure, we can expect to see (more) targeted attacks on existing and emerging infrastructures, including new forms of blackmailing and extortion schemes (e.g. ransomware for smart cars or smart homes), data theft, physical injury and possible death [188], and new types of botnets.

    No mention of 2014. No assertion that it will happen: just that it might.

    TL;DR: Europol isn't predicting an online murder in 2014. That's just a subeditor who either didn't understand the plain English of the reporter or who chose to outright lie when writing the headline in order to sensationalise it.

    1. Re:No, lying headline by Beamboom · · Score: 2

      Please /., gimme a handful of points to share. I need to throw some at this guy. More often than not, what's found behind a fantastic headlines are usually so much more sober that it becomes almost the opposite of what the headliner claims.

    2. Re:No, lying headline by Whibla · · Score: 4, Informative

      Informative? Not so much...

      If you're going to go to all the effort to read the article, you might like to spend the extra 3 seconds to follow the linked reference (quoted in your post as [188]).

      IID ... today issued a midterm report on its cybersecurity predictions for 2014, revealing we are on our way to seeing many of these prognostications become a reality. Last year at this time, IID boldly envisioned that by the end of 2014:

        We will witness the first ever public case of murder via hacked Internet-connected device.

      The article goes on to say:

      There has yet to be a proven case of murder via Internet. However, former Vice President Dick Cheney revealed in October 2013 that he underwent surgery to turn off the wireless function on his pacemaker, to prevent it from being hacked.

      You end with:

      TL;DR: Europol isn't predicting an online murder in 2014. That's just a subeditor who either didn't understand the plain English of the reporter or who chose to outright lie when writing the headline in order to sensationalise it.

      A headline has to be short, and unfortunately in that shortening some information is lost. Sure, it would have been more accurate to say "Europol reports that a security firm predicts the first online murder by the end of this year", but removing the bolded part strikes me as an acceptable precis of (that small section of) the article. Complaining that editors sensationalise headlines in order to encourage people to read the full article is akin to complaining that advertisements are designed solely to get you to buy a product. Well, duh!

      As for lying, you're as guilty as a lie by ommission as they are of any lie by commission.

    3. Re:No, lying headline by pjt33 · · Score: 3, Informative

      I quoted the part of the article where the reporter states that the security firm made that forecast. But as often happens, the headline makes claims which don't match either the truth or the body of the article. It's far from unknown for reporters or opinion writers to get a nasty shock when they see the headline which the subeditor chose to put on their copy.

      If the issue were the length of the headline, a 20% saving could be made and the accuracy improved by rewriting it to "Online attacks could lead to deaths, warns Europol".

  11. Hackers can turn your home computer into a BOMB by GroeFaZ · · Score: 3, Funny

    http://i.stack.imgur.com/sgctZ...

    --
    The grass is always greener on the other side of the light cone.
  12. Re:Opcode for this has been around for long by bluescrn · · Score: 2

    Making a laptop/smartphone 'halt and catch fire' is potentialy a real threat. Not by overheating the CPU, but by targeting the battery charging system. Lithium-based batteries can 'explode' (burn very violently) - if mistreated - e.g. overcharged. If the battery charging system has elements of firmware control, that might be a real risk?

  13. Speaking of... by sootman · · Score: 2

    The book Daemon by Daniel Suarez was pretty good. Started out just the littlest bit cheesy -- someone was killed by the Internet! -- but I'm glad I stuck with it because it quickly became really good. The sequel, Freedom (TM), did nothing for me.

    --
    Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
  14. Re:This was predicted ages ago. by tehcyder · · Score: 2

    My plan, I would data mine you to figure out what fast food outlets you like and if you have any addictions.
    Then send you free bacon cheeseburgers, cigarettes, venti coffee that's pure espresso shots. Whatever you have trouble saying no to the most.
    It would kill you, eventually, unless you started exercising, eating right, and maybe a trip to a detox clinic.

    Can I volunteer to be your enemy?

    My death/wish-list:

    Kobe beefburgers
    That coffee that's made from cats shitting out beans, whatever it's called
    Single malt scotch
    Cuban cigars

    --
    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it