With all the controversy and flack that video games receive, it seems that they can be used for good. Federal Agents are using the Playstation 3’s processing capabilities to catch child pornographers. Senior special agent at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Cyber Crimes Center, also know as “C3″ had this to say,
Bad guys are encrypting their stuff now, so we need a methodology of hacking on that to try to break passwords, The Playstation 3 – its processing component – is perfect for large-scale library attacks.
While the perverts might be captured and their computers seized, by law (the fourth amendment of the US constitution) they do not ever have to give up their passwords or personal information or any of that jazz to authorities. An ICE computer forensic agent, Douglas Skinner said that a 6 character password has 281,474,976,710,656 different possibilities as to what it could be.
This is where the PS3 comes in. Networked PS3s can process 4 million passwords per second, greatly improving the time taken to crack passwords of the perverts. The PS3 is more economical for them to use because at a $300 price tag per console, it sure beats paying around $800 more for the “Tableau/Dell server combination” they were using before. Unfortunately though, they said they are unable to use the new slim PS3s because of the lack of ability to install another OS like Linux. Way to go Sony.
The ICE is hoping to buy 40 more original PS3s via ebay and such on top of the 20 they already have being used for this. Despite the temptation, the agents at ICE have resisted playing the consoles and continue to only use them for this serious task. I admire them, I would have probably ended up playing Uncharted 2 or the God of War III demo on one of them and then in-turn gotten fired.
Federal Officers use Video Game Console to Catch Child Pornographers [AxcessNews]
kreyg…take a seat right over there
where are they located? i have alot of ps3’s to steal there.. lol
To be honest they couldn’t hack a vending machine never mind a password but this whole child pornographer stuff is just not right!! I think its quite ironic that the very people who blame gaming for problums across the world are now using consoles themselves lol, those crazy guys when will they learn?
Here in Louisiana, they are using a bunch of Ps3’s to crunch large numbers for an astrological space time continuem thing that will go along with the new LHC project in the Alps, which btw, they will be turning on in a few days/weeks. I can’t wait to see what happens with that, because one wrong number in their calculations and…..BLACK HOLE!! Woot!
Chris Hansen will start strapping a ps3 to his back and he shall call himself….. Pervert Buster!!!!!
What, and carry around a vacuum wand that sucks in the sexual predators? OO’ Scary…
Yep, that’s the Idea. lol
very interesting. I wonder what is next. Skynet? Robots? or maybe tanks
Wow that’s smart and stupid at the same time.
i knew that really wasn’t a 14 yr old girl on home xD LMAO good thing i didn’t accept those pics
PS3 slim and Sony are helping child pornographers. tisk tisk.
Ohh no, Chris Hansen, lol
damn Kreyg! It’s sunday lol take a break
First they were used to help cure cancer,Now the ps3 is used to catch pedos,What will they think of next?
ok, one question, how will this work, i mean if it fails….it phailz