Playstation 3 Used by Feds to Bust Pedophiles

[Osiris]

Playstation 3 Used by Feds to Bust Pedophiles

Federal officials have been buying up the old-style PS3 (the fat ones) and loading up Linux on them because they're highly effective at cracking passwords on confiscated computer equipment from alleged pedophiles. They say there's no after-hours Street Fighter 4 going on though because there are no controllers attached. Riiiight.

"Bad guys are encrypting their stuff now, so we need a methodology of hacking on that to try to break passwords," Claude E. Davenport, an agent in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Cyber Crimes Center, told the Scripps reporter. "The Playstation 3 -- its processing component -- is perfect for large-scale library attacks."
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[Tech-Kid]

dang. Thats good i guess

 

[CPierce]

heh another selling point of the ps3

 

[35g700]

I doubt that's true because when you install an OS on a PS3 it runs like crap. Plus you could get way more power using a new desktop processor.

 

[patonb]

Nope, cracking encryption is best cracked in cloud type settings. Well last I read anyway.

What you also are forgeting is they aren't running full os's, but probably just lite versions with just the cracking software. Each would take a section of the encryption, and crunch. This is one of the dangers security folks are worried about as if hackers could bot a ps3, they could run effgicient cracking of stolen passes.

Also If you read, they could do it with 11,000 dollar setup, but the ps3s are 1/4 the price.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Up until very recently clusters were the best option for brute forcing passwords but gpgpu has started to make a lot of headway in that area.

Overclock3D :: News :: ElcomSoft releases GPGPU based WiFi cracker