Cops Who Started 'Hackers Are Us' Service Convicted

from the no-surprise-there dept

Fri, Jun 29th 2007 4:57pm — Mike Masnick

A few months back we wrote about a private investigation firm in the UK that had a separate "computer hacking" division called "Hackers Are Us." It seemed like the sort of thing that you wouldn't necessarily want to name a company that clearly was breaking computer fraud laws -- but no one ever said criminals were smart. A court has now convicted the two guys who set up the service... and it turns out that both were actually on the police force at the time (though one was on leave for depression). Yes, "Hackers Are Us," a private investigation firm that would illegally install keyloggers on anyone's computer was run by two moonlighting cops. For future reference, though, if you're setting up a business to do illegal stuff, it's probably not a good idea to advertise it in your name. It may help for marketing purposes, initially, but sooner or later it seems likely to come back to bite you.

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34 Comments

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charlie potatoes, 29 Jun 2007 @ 5:37pm

organized crime
In Texas we make the Narcotics Officers wear badges, even undercover...or else they sell to each other. the Police are the ones who make Organized Crime seem organized. jesus...
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GoblinJuice, 29 Jun 2007 @ 5:41pm

ROTFLMAO.
Oh, God, I can't think of anything to say.... The story speaks for itself. =)
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Tex, 29 Jun 2007 @ 6:25pm

Re: organized crime
Folks, I've lived in Texas all my life and have known more than one narcotics officer. Let me tell you, charlie potatoes is full of it.
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charlie potatoes, 29 Jun 2007 @ 8:40pm

Tex: the name says it all...
You likely think Bush is a Texan. What can I say? I was joking, but in all seriousness, you Neocon Bubbas have pretty much ruined Texas. You and the Republican leadership have given us third rate schools and Mississippi highways...except for the toll roads which you're building and assigning to the corportions to run. You've taken your scam lottery game and sucked all the profits out and now are trying to sell it to private industry. When you get your carpet bags full you can move on up to Connecticut or Maine where hopefully DimeBag Bush will retire to.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jun 2007 @ 9:08pm

It might help if people would stop confusing the terms hacker and cracker. For guys who spend as much time trying to highlight the fine distinctions between innovation and invention, and the music industry vs. the recording industry (just to give two examples), I'd expect this site, more than most, to understand the fine distinction between the two. You could always argue that common culture has made the cracker/hacker terms largely synonymous, but that sort of contradicts, to some extent, the arguments you've been making in the previous two examples for ages.
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Jacob Buck, 29 Jun 2007 @ 10:20pm

Re: organized crime
If they're all wearing badges, how do they catch people selling drugs? I wouldn't sell to anyone with a badge, but maybe you don't see anything wrong with that.
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freddy, 30 Jun 2007 @ 12:59am

Re:
The distinction between the two terms is dumb. Cracker= bad guy who illegally accesses a program or network. Hacker= a clever programmer (not a bad guy) who enters circumvents a security, often as a way to improve or find holes in a security system.

The distinction was artificially created as a way to "redefine" the term hacker as something more positive. The actual community of hackers does not really embrace the stupid distinction. The term 'hacker' has an undeniably negative connotation that cannot be taken away by trying to change the definition.
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Ray, 30 Jun 2007 @ 2:05am

Meaning of 'Hacker'
Actually, freddy, the positive definition of the word hacker predated the negative one. However, when the media stated reporting on stories where a computer expert, or 'hacker', broke into a system, people misunderstood the term, and the new meaning stuck.

I personally would love to see a return of the original, positive meaning of hacker, but doubt it will ever happen. Language is a dynamic thing. If the bulk of users think a word has a certain definition, then it does, regardless or it's original meaning. 'Nice' used to mean "foolish, stupid, or senseless" in the late 1200's; it meant "precise or exact" in the 1500's, and changed to "kind or thoughtful" by the mid-1800's.

Probably in 500 years, hacker will mean someone that plays flute, or some-such.
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Biz Man, 30 Jun 2007 @ 4:56am

So I guess........
I should change the name of my business from "Smoke 'N Toke" to something else?
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Cixelsid, 30 Jun 2007 @ 5:04am

Re: So I guess........
I submit "Smokin' Coke"
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Comicfan, 30 Jun 2007 @ 1:57pm

Perhaps "Crackers R Us" would have been more the correct term. Then Nabisco would sue. Smart move, how about they go from "HAU" to "We were hackers". Most likely, they had no clue anyway. A five year old could install a key logger or do much of what they claimed was hacking anyway. As the term goes, no, hacking was not a bad term when started. Matter of fact still to this day,if you go on Cisco "Not Crisco", you will see hackers' comments and they will fix issues due to them. They are more welcome than you think. The two yahoos claiming to be hackers probably couldn't use a root kit tool. How smart can you be naming a business that anyway? No wonder one is depressed.
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Jun 2007 @ 3:28pm

Re: Tex: the name says it all...
bonehead
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Jun 2007 @ 7:04pm

Re: Tex: the name says it all...
testy much?
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Jun 2007 @ 7:07pm

Re: Meaning of 'Hacker'
I shall bake a cake for you with my 1337 hax0r skillz.
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tash, 30 Jun 2007 @ 7:32pm

Re:
Which these guys were neither. Right? Social Engineering I could see, but not hacking or cracking. But then again, the article didnt really explain it either.
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explodingpickle.org, 30 Jun 2007 @ 7:59pm

Re: Tex: the name says it all...
Yeah, but still "hacker" sounds better to everyone else.
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dsafsa, 30 Jun 2007 @ 8:08pm

asdsdfs
"CUNTS ARE US" die dumb fuckers
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Guido, 30 Jun 2007 @ 8:19pm

Interesting Article
I cordially invite you to check out my website - Rent-A-Hitman.com and let me know what you think about it.

It is similar in nature to this article --- minus the cop part.
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noone, 30 Jun 2007 @ 10:52pm

Re: Re: Tex: the name says it all...
All Crackers are Hackers.
But not all Hackers are Crackers.

Crackers = Hackers;
Hackers != Crackers
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Jesus, 1 Jul 2007 @ 1:32am

Re: Re: Re: Tex: the name says it all...
%aol = getwindow("AOL_Frame25", 0)

sike...
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Politicians First, 1 Jul 2007 @ 10:07am

Who really cares.....
about two people whether they are cops or not. Maybe the UK should use them to crack an hack into there politicians computers an see how corrupt they are. Then they should do the same here in the states. Basically LETS CLEAN OUT THE SH!T an get a whole new government, starting with the House of Reps, then the Senate. I'm tired of reading about the little man getting caught an being punished. If a politician created the website the monster would get free campaign advertising, an the politican in charge would get support. In the rare occassion he/she could'nt pay anyone off under the table, then they'd get a smack on the wrist by the speaker of the house, an it'd go like this.... "Bad politician, very bad, I cant believe you did this, how about you revise your idea an get back to me on how we can make a profit"... doh!
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Jul 2007 @ 10:55am

Re: Re:
I would vote for "script kiddie"
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Real Texan, 1 Jul 2007 @ 1:55pm

Texas HAS been ruined by conservatives. Bunch of Nazi's that came down from the Northeast in the 30's and 40's cause they thought they could make more money out west in oil. I'm 6th generation Texan... yes, back to the republic, and I'm more sick of retarded Kenebunkport cowbows than anyone, including Cindy Sheehan.
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clearush, 1 Jul 2007 @ 2:51pm

Re: Tex: the name says it all...
For the record the Texas Lottery was a Demoncrat/Libs scam, the "neocons" fought against it.
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Steve Austin, 1 Jul 2007 @ 3:15pm

No, the NeoCon-Men turned it into a scam and now want to privatize it. Ann Richards and Molly Ivins, now those were real Texans.
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anonymous archaic coward, 1 Jul 2007 @ 9:39pm

hackers
Just to throw this out there, but I think one of the original definitions for 'hacker' had nothing at all to do with computers. If memory serves, hackers and typists were synonymous early on, before personal computers were on the market. But then, again, 'gay' used to mean happy.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Jul 2007 @ 12:42am

Re:
just shut the fuck up about hacker vs cracker already. "Hacker" has been hijacked, move on with your life.
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Tex, 2 Jul 2007 @ 3:54am

Re: Tex: the name says it all...
charlie potatoes,
If you somehow think that you can divine my political leanings from what I wrote you must really be nuts. Spuds for brains?

You almost make me ashamed to be anti-bush. But maybe you're actually a neocon troll masquerading as some kind of anti-bush idiot and make the rest look bad by association.

I was joking
Oh yeah, sure you were. But in that case then, so was I.
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a texan, 2 Jul 2007 @ 8:43am

Maybe im missing something here, but....

..so what if they privatize the lotto? Or the toll roads? Is this supposed to be bad? I think you could find plenty of folks that arent corporate shills who don't mind the idea.
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floyd, 2 Jul 2007 @ 2:17pm

ann richards
ann richards was cool--she was the embodiment of texas ideals in her time.
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marry, 1 Dec 2008 @ 5:37am

Re: ann richards
It might help if people would stop confusing the terms hacker and cracker. For guys who spend as much time trying to highlight the fine distinctions between innovation and invention, and the music industry vs. the recording industry (just to give two examples), I'd expect this site, more than most, to understand the fine distinction between the two. You could always argue that common culture has made the cracker/hacker terms largely laptop AC adapters synonymous, but that sort of contradicts, to some extent, the arguments you've been making in the previous two examples for ages.
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ICORP Investigations, Inc., 25 Feb 2009 @ 6:50pm

Thanks for the post...As a private investigator on long island, its very important to know the laws. The 'information business' has a lot of gray areas. People should seek out answers for matters they aren't sure about.
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Emma, 12 Jan 2010 @ 9:41pm

Re: Re: We are Ausies
We are aussies and we have more fun than you do we work at bank and make big money we infact are in the security software aspect of it so loads of fun you guys have to get a life.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Feb 2011 @ 6:51am

Re: ROTFLMAO.
yes it do girl we cant say nun bout this
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