Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Amazon Ring cameras used in nationwide ‘swatting’ spree, US Justice Dept. says

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 275 posts

Re: Amazon Ring cameras used in nationwide ‘swatting’ spree, US Justice Dept. says

#61

Post by acdha »

sowbug wrote: post #44
teeray wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The question is: why is it possible to place a 911 call without all that information being laid bare before the dispatcher and logged. There are extraordinary regulations on carriers for E911, and thus a means to impose that requirement.

I'm hearing "let's block or delay 911 calls for [a reason]." Not sure that'll get a lot of traction. It's an awful problem that will exist as long as people suck.

This is a problem created and continued by phone companies. It wasn’t a huge problem before VoIP because the phone company networks didn’t allow everyone to forge sender info (SS7, not CallerID). When VoIP came along they didn’t put strict authentication in because it would have cost more, and that really opened things up.

Right now, you could have extra caution for 911 calls which originate from VoIP. Pass a law that in five years telco CEOs are charged as assisting murder the next time a SWATing happens and they’d magically discover that egress filtering is easy to implement once you’re not looking at the revenue generated by spammers.

Re: Amazon Ring cameras used in nationwide ‘swatting’ spree, US Justice Dept. says

#62

Post by hprotagonist »

https://twitter.com/ppathole/status/1116670170980859905

  Tech enthusiasts: My entire house is smart. 

  Tech workers: The only piece of technology in my house is a printer and I keep a gun next to it so I can shoot it if it makes a noise I don't recognize.
The only modification i'd recommend is replacing the gun with something simpler, like a sledgehammer. Can't be too careful.

Re: Amazon Ring cameras used in nationwide ‘swatting’ spree, US Justice Dept. says

#63

Post by bestcoder69 »

reducesuffering wrote: post #48
Someone1234 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Swatting" isn't a significant problem in other parts of the world because the result is super boring: The police knock on the door, ask some questions, and then leave. It is only a problem in the US because the response itself is terrifying and often dangerous. Multiple people have died from "swatting" in the US[0]. "Swatting" should carry a jail term for sure. But police reform is a large component in solving the p…

Is the rest of the world loaded up to the gills with weapons? There's 1.2 guns per citizen...

Well, that's because we have to protect ourselves from SWAT teams!

Re: Amazon Ring cameras used in nationwide ‘swatting’ spree, US Justice Dept. says

#64

Post by vel0city »

cthor wrote: post #30
idiotsecant wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you proposing a mechanism by which this decision can reliably be made? If not I'm not sure you're asking for something reasonable. The first person who dies because the police were too slow or too weak to respond will cause as much outrage as what you express here.

Every officer on the scene at Uvalde knew there was a shooter in the classroom. Gunshots had been heard by people on the scene. Eyewitnesses on the scene had seen a shooter entering with weapons. Children in the classroom were calling in from their phones. If the only information police had was a phone call from an anonymous VOIP number, then they'd be comparable.

The police were following a shooter as he entered the school. The police knew there was a shooter in the school the second the shooter walked through the door.

Re: Amazon Ring cameras used in nationwide ‘swatting’ spree, US Justice Dept. says

#65

Post by SpeedilyDamage »

reducesuffering wrote: post #48
Someone1234 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Swatting" isn't a significant problem in other parts of the world because the result is super boring: The police knock on the door, ask some questions, and then leave. It is only a problem in the US because the response itself is terrifying and often dangerous. Multiple people have died from "swatting" in the US[0]. "Swatting" should carry a jail term for sure. But police reform is a large component in solving the p…

Is the rest of the world loaded up to the gills with weapons? There's 1.2 guns per citizen...

Switzerland is, yeah. No such issue there, however.

Re: Amazon Ring cameras used in nationwide ‘swatting’ spree, US Justice Dept. says

#67

Post by jacquesm »

reducesuffering wrote: post #48
Someone1234 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Swatting" isn't a significant problem in other parts of the world because the result is super boring: The police knock on the door, ask some questions, and then leave. It is only a problem in the US because the response itself is terrifying and often dangerous. Multiple people have died from "swatting" in the US[0]. "Swatting" should carry a jail term for sure. But police reform is a large component in solving the p…

Is the rest of the world loaded up to the gills with weapons? There's 1.2 guns per citizen...

That's a solvable problem it would seem? It's either that or more discipline.

Re: Amazon Ring cameras used in nationwide ‘swatting’ spree, US Justice Dept. says

#68

Post by OnlineGladiator »

bestcoder69 wrote: post #63
reducesuffering wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the rest of the world loaded up to the gills with weapons? There's 1.2 guns per citizen...

Well, that's because we have to protect ourselves from SWAT teams!

Indiana just enshrined that right into law.

https://theweek.com/articles/474702/indiana-law-that-lets-ci...

Re: Amazon Ring cameras used in nationwide ‘swatting’ spree, US Justice Dept. says

#69

Post by mattwilsonn888 »

xoa wrote: post #18

> prompted the FBI to issue a public service announcement in late 2020 urging users of smarthome security cameras to use unique passwords From a tech point of view, first in the medium term I first look forward to the long, long, loooonnnng awaited day when this entire class of attacks finally vanishes along with the madness of shared symmetric authentication in favor of proper public key systems. A solid decade and…

Thanks for writing that. I just wanted to add on to your last point and better justify it.

> A certain degree of paranoia isn't unreasonable because a certain percentage of humanity really is out to get us. And the internet means that a tiny percentage can reach out and affect other humans far away.

It is true that better systems will make rare but terrible incidents less likely, but in this case, better IoT which is easier to secure and remain self-sovereign over actually expands what people are willing to use IoT for. I imagine there are a swath of compelling avenues ready to be developed if not for the warranted hesitancy of anyone managing the security of these systems. Sure, the security now isn't terrible or problematic if used right, but when the security is robust, simple and dead-easy then the innovation up top gets uncapped.

Re: Amazon Ring cameras used in nationwide ‘swatting’ spree, US Justice Dept. says

#70

Post by 20after4 »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #45
olliej wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. If I drive to a random house and start shooting at it, I don’t get to call that reckless endangerment. If I kill someone I sure as hell don’t get to call it an accident. It does not matter if you think how is police operate is unreasonable, what matters is that what they do is well known and established, and the outcome is foreseeable. Also, if your best defense is “this isn’t attempted murder, it’s just terroris…

Surely if the caller is getting charged with attempt to murder, then the SWAT doing the swatting should be charged with the same crime? How can the caller be more culpable than the one actually commiting the crime? This literally never happens in the history of crime.

Because cops are (mostly) above the law.
Post reply on HN