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

201–210 of 275 posts

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

#201

Post by Xylakant »

scottlamb wrote: post #114
OnlineGladiator wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indiana just enshrined that right into law. https://theweek.com/articles/474702/indiana-law-that-lets-ci...

Good? As a Californian who doesn't own a gun and hasn't fired one in 20 years, I'm unlikely to take advantage of that law, but I appreciate that it exists. A SWAT assault that isn't preceded by presenting a valid warrant is just a heavily-armed home invasion, and home owners absolutely should be able to respond to those. That was presumably already legal, but if "enshrining" it into law as you put it makes it pointed…

If you think about it in practical terms, I don’t think this is a good law. What’s going to happen if a house owner is opening fire at a heavily armed police team that is conducting an illegal raid. Is the police going to stand down and reassess the legality of their entry? Or are they going to shoot back? And what’s the likely outcome? Dead owner and dead police. Great.

Now, if you’d really want to dissuade the police from making illegal raids, make them liable for all damages, slap on penalties and put the burden of proof on them. Police entered and cannot prove it was legal? Pay fine, repair damage. At the same time lower the bar for personal liability for the officers: Can’t demonstrate that they did at least the basic due diligence? Pay out of their own pocket.

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

#202

Post by subroutine »

lrem wrote: post #195
ericmcer wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In other parts of the world the police get a call saying there is an armed individual threatening to hurt hostages and they send a single unarmed officer to knock on the door?

There will be a well proportioned response, but it won’t be an actual SWAT team. There’s typically one such team per five to ten million people and they won’t move for a joke call. But more importantly, with an order of magnitude rarer killings, there is much less of a “we’re at war with the bad guys” culture. In some countries discharging a weapon brings automatic suspension for the investigation, even if nobody get…

> with an order of magnitude rarer killings, there is much less of a “we’re at war with the bad guys” culture.

...(assuming EU) apart from hosting some of the deadliest wars in modern history.

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

#203

Post by saiya-jin »

schoen wrote: post #192
jasonhansel wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously the answer is to buy a smart fire extinguisher, so you can remotely put out the flames from your hacked smart printer. Until someone hacks the fire extinguisher and makes it spray chemicals at you. Then you'll need to add a smart fire extinguisher extinguisher.

There was apparently a recurrent Wikipedia hoax based on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar_detector_detector where someone asserted that there was a radar detector detector detector (so that you could tell if authorities were positioned to detect your use of a radar detector). Some versions of this hoax are described in https://rationalconspiracy.com/2016/06/02/radar-detector-det...

we need to go deeper... cat and mouse game running through multiverse

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

#204

Post by zootboy »

jasonhansel wrote: post #125
hprotagonist wrote: post #62

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.

Careful about that printer: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2011/11/hp-pr...

The version I've seen specifies that the printer is from 2004:

> Tech Enthusiasts: Everything in my house is wired to the Internet of Things! I control it all from my smartphone! My smart-house is bluetooth enabled and I can give it voice commands via alexa! I love the future!

> Programmers / Engineers: The most recent piece of technology I own is a printer from 2004 and I keep a loaded gun ready to shoot it if it ever makes an unexpected noise.

> Security technicians: takes a deep swig of whiskey I wish I had been born in the neolithic.

No idea where the original version came from, but here's one from ~1.5 years prior to @PPathole's tweet:

https://notcaycepollard.tumblr.com/post/167952829352/tech-en...

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

#205

Post by flask_manager »

WalterBright wrote: post #193
cortesoft wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, I have been a professional software developer for 15 years, and my whole house is smart. The trade offs are worth it to me.

I still have no idea why anyone would want automated light switches. Unless they are bedridden. The conventional light switches never fail. The dimmer switches go out every 5 years or so, and I eventually get fed up and just replace them with a conventional switch. I've had programmable thermostats, but the user interfaces on them are so terrible I eventually replace them with one with a simple dial and thermostat.

I prefer waking up to a light turning on than a noisy alarm; but also like having a normal switch the rest of the day.

I have also used them to relocate a switch to a more useful place for much cheaper/in a rental. (Automatic switch in the out of reach or inconvenient location, battery switch in reach of where I want it).

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

#206

Post by katbyte »

WalterBright wrote: post #193
cortesoft wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, I have been a professional software developer for 15 years, and my whole house is smart. The trade offs are worth it to me.

I still have no idea why anyone would want automated light switches. Unless they are bedridden. The conventional light switches never fail. The dimmer switches go out every 5 years or so, and I eventually get fed up and just replace them with a conventional switch. I've had programmable thermostats, but the user interfaces on them are so terrible I eventually replace them with one with a simple dial and thermostat.

Motion on, auto off, turn on at dusk, turn off at midnight, turn off when I’m not home. Turn on when I come home. battery-less switches that can go anywhere and trigger anything.

Smart lights and outlets are the only smart thing in my home and they really are great imho

It was sorta a pain to set up, over half a decade ago, now it’s small tweaks now and then but otherwise just works.

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

#207

Post by katbyte »

phpisthebest wrote: post #136
hprotagonist wrote: post #62

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.

As a sysadmin of many decades, I have not owned a printer in 15 years, and no self respecting tech worker I know would ever have one of them in their home. I do have an enterprise grade network, next gen firewall, a homelab, and a host of vlans with home automation segmented off to a dedicated network with zero internet access

Have a cheap laser printer wired on lan. Use it maybe every 2-3 months. Useful when you don’t have an office to print things at (I got it the year I started working at home)

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

#208

Post by midoridensha »

ericmcer wrote: post #122
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…

In other parts of the world the police get a call saying there is an armed individual threatening to hurt hostages and they send a single unarmed officer to knock on the door?

In other parts, citizens generally don't have guns, so the idea of an "armed individual" by itself is already hard to believe.

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

#209

Post by formerly_proven »

someweirdperson wrote: post #196
hef19898 wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The equivilant to SWAT in Germany is run by state police. They are used in specific situations, and most of those are never covered by the press. Statiscally, they are have on average around one deployment per day. The big difference is, those units in Europe are a professiobally trained force and part of a professionally trained police force. And not somw wannabe commandos recruited from ill-trained police officers…

> The equivilant to SWAT in Germany is run by state police. Federal.

No?

SWAT ~= MEK, SEK

FBI HRT ~= GSG-9

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

#210

Post by welder »

hprotagonist wrote: post #62

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.

Tech worker here: For real, just use a good password manager with random passwords unique per account. This whole smart vs dumb is moot, tech workers aren't even part of the conversation because we don't get our Yahoo! email accounts hacked.
Post reply on HN