back to article Kiwi hacker 'menace' pops home detention tracker cuffs

Christchurch bus hacker William Turner has demonstrated how to trick home detention ankle monitors used in New Zealand. The monitor hack meant the location of criminals could be falsely reported to contractor G4S, triggering alarms. The feat was a tool of mischief makers and blackmailers, Turner said, but importantly could …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    Alright, who's the dim-bulb who thought that attaching an electronic device to a criminal hacker would remain uncracked?

    1. PleebSmash
      Black Helicopters

      err

      William Turner was never convicted of a crime, he just wanted to hack ankle monitors...

      1. Sir Sham Cad

        Re: err

        And now he's guaranteed that, should he ever be convicted of anything, he'll never be given ankle monitors.

        Seriously, guys like this should be on the books of .gov agencies, especially Law Enforcement, to test these systems to failure before they're used in anger to monitor the whereabouts of potentially dangerous crims on licence.

  2. Cliff

    Systems work on bluster

    Having seen the poor quality of most government outsource companies, I would be far from surprised if the devices and the monitoring thereof went anywhere beyond the bare minimum. Instead, there will be proprietary code, homespun standards, black boxes with blinkenlights, smoke, mirrors, handwaving, and a sharp salesman at city hall offering free conferences in Bermuda for every 10 systems bought/leased

    They should be fun to hack.

  3. Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
    WTF?

    " Aluminium foil Faraday-cage attack"

    That seems to suggest the "hack" involves some physical intervention; blocking signals from the ankle bracelet or whatever receives those.

    1. Cliff

      Re: " Aluminium foil Faraday-cage attack"

      Hacking existed long before computers!

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Now is the time

    ...to punish those who circumvent these devices. Prison may not look like as much fun as hacking.

    1. PleebSmash
      FAIL

      Re: Now is the time

      If you outlaw hacking (Turner hasn't done anything illegal) then only outlaws will hack. And they won't publicize their findings at conferences.

    2. Notas Badoff
      Megaphone

      Re: Now is the time

      ... to punish those who build and sell devices so easily circumvented! Poverty and prison may not look so clever as proper development and testing. Oh at least make the sentences twice longer than the skipped development time.

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