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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.

10 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.)

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

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

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

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

  4. 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.

  5. 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 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.