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

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

#221

Post by themagician »

claytongulick wrote: post #182
kneebonian wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Own a musket for home defense, since that's what the founding fathers intended. Four ruffians break into my house. "What the devil?" As I grab my powdered wig and Kentucky rifle. Blow a golf ball sized hole through the first man, he's dead on the spot. Draw my pistol on the second man, miss him entirely because it's smoothbore and nails the neighbors dog. I have to resort to the cannon mounted at the top of the stair…

And yet those same people you mock, using only the tools you described, threw off the yoke of the largest world power at the time. Amongst the reasons they did, were situations eerily similar to what we call "swatting" (and no-knock warrants), which were some motivations behind the fourth amendment. An amendment that we have, through twisted legal interpretations and arguments for expediency, managed to largely de-fa…

He graduated top of his class in the Navy Seals and was involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, with over 300 confirmed kills. I think he knows what’s up.

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

#222

Post by zingmars »

phpisthebest wrote: post #148
tommica wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you're screwed if you need to print something :(

Like what? Everyone should be paperless these days. What exactly do you still need to print?

Shipping labels, tickets etc. Printers suck, but I can rely on paper being suitable for its purpose. Can't say that about most alternatives (mostly phone apps).

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

#223

Post by kelnos »

welder wrote: post #210
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.

Also tech worker here: I don't trust any of the smart home vendors to secure either the devices or their cloud services well enough to protect me from someone being able to reach into my home and do stuff.

These days I only buy local-network-only devices (mostly Z-Wave) that I connect to a RaspberryPi-based hub, running software I control, with a remote-access component that I control (and secure) as well. At least if someone gets into my smart devices from the outside, I have no one to blame but myself.

Unfortunately, this sort of setup is just complicated enough to set up and manage that it's beyond most non-technical (or even moderately-technical) people. I really wish it was easier and more accessible.

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

#224

Post by kelnos »

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

That's... a little extreme. I have a printer, and it's... fine.

> 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

You're not a typical tech worker.

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

#225

Post by welder »

kelnos wrote: post #223
welder wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Also tech worker here: I don't trust any of the smart home vendors to secure either the devices or their cloud services well enough to protect me from someone being able to reach into my home and do stuff. These days I only buy local-network-only devices (mostly Z-Wave) that I connect to a RaspberryPi-based hub, running software I control, with a remote-access component that I control (and secure) as well. At least i…

Actually, you're right I use some exterior smart home things but not any interior cloud based connected devices... except for Google Nest.

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

#226

Post by kelnos »

phpisthebest wrote: post #148
tommica wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you're screwed if you need to print something :(

Like what? Everyone should be paperless these days. What exactly do you still need to print?

I resisted having a printer for many many many years (part because I didn't want to lose the space it'd take up, part because I don't want to deal with the toner cartels, and part just because I didn't think I needed one and it was fine to make a trip to FedEx Office when I did), but finally caved in a couple years ago. I'm surprised at how often I use it and find it useful, and how little a hassle it's turned out to be. (It is also a scanner, which I've found just as useful as the printing aspect.)

"Everyone should be paperless" -- either you live in a country with a unusually advanced, tech-minded government, or you're just completely out of touch with a normal person's needs in a place like the US.

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

#227

Post by shubrich »

rsj_hn wrote: post #116
sasattack wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ammunition is tightly controlled in Switzerland as far as I understand. Having guns is not that helpful without some ammunition. Most people are not going to be prepared to produce ammunition

You need a permit to buy ammunition in Switzerland, just as you need a permit to buy guns. But the permit is available if you do not have a criminal record. Ammunition is not more tightly controlled than guns, both are controlled, but not as tightly as in places like New York or California in the U.S. There are also government subsidized shooting ranges that do not require these permits.

Buying guns requires a permit (and a background check and maybe a chat with the local police department) but to buy ammunition in Switzerland you don't need a permit. Just a clean background check that you can request online.

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

#228

Post by kelnos »

Semaphor wrote: post #94
acidburnNSA wrote: post #88

I love my on-prem ip cams, my on-prem server that does the YOLOv5 image recognition and long-term storage, my Home Assistant that triggers alerts and sends emails to my self-hosted e-mail server and blinks all my lights, my OpenVPN-on-the-openwrt router remote access technique, my self-hosted Seafile cloud, my self-hosted CalDAV/CardDAV calendar and contacts, my mopidy/snapcast whole-home audio with local MP3s, my on…

> But I don't recommend any of it to anyone who doesn't want to make a serious hobby about of it. Just to expand, it’s a scale ;) It’s very easy to have a few lights, maybe some presence detection and motion sensors, and make some automation for those without venturing into hobby territory.

Hobby or not, it's just a shame that these sorts of setups, even the simple kinds that you describe, are too complicated to set up for most people. I wish it was more the norm that people could run things this way.

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

#229

Post by ngcc_hk »

At least USA can charge USA hacker. Imagine it is chinese or Russian hackers. Yes you can push to national security level etc etc. but at the end of the day can you push charge to a firm there or hacker there in most cases.

For security related matter like it or not it has to be traceable to USA or worst EU or UK.

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

#230

Post by 29083011397778 »

vba616 wrote: post #171
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…

There are estimated to be thousands of swatting incidents in a given year, so the "super boring" result evidently happens the vast majority of the time in the US too. It's also not always that boring in other countries. Here is an example that involved more than some questions and leaving: https://www.wjhl.com/news/local/18-year-old-arrested-in-cana...

From your linked article:

> An 18-year-old has been arrested in Canada after investigators traced “swatting” calls at Volunteer High School in Hawkins County and Watauga High School in Boone, N.C. to him.

Note that the caller was in Canada, but the swatting and presumably violent police response was in North Carolina. Swatting is as American as apple pie and baseball, IMO.

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