back to article Flight sim site turns over hacker evidence to UK cops

A US-based flight simulator site targeted by a debilitating hacking attack back in May has reportedly tracked its attackers back to the UK. Avsim has forwarded a dossier that provides what it reckons is “incontrovertible evidence" about the hacker's identity to Scotland Yard, the BBC reports. The May attack against Avsim …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Given the state of UK cybercrime policing...

    ...I'd be surprised if they even managed to receive the dossier, let alone act on it - especially since it doesn't involve any copyright music/movies etc!

  2. Tom Chiverton 1

    Look at that !

    Quick ! The horse has bolted, lock the doors !

  3. The Vociferous Time Waster
    Paris Hilton

    Here's a question...

    If it's costing them £50k to restore the site then they might claim a £50k material loss against the people who wiped their stuff (let's set punitive damages aside). If they'd been doing their job properly and had tape backups then the whole restore would have cost them a matter of a few hundred pounds.

    Which would a court be likely to award?

    Icon because Paris is clearly looking quizzical on the same issue.

  4. Grease Monkey Silver badge

    Who'd like to bet...

    ...that this evidence does not meet the standards set by PACE?

  5. Fluffykins Silver badge

    If it's anything ike their handling of Phorm

    It'll all be too complicated

  6. Dave Bell

    Complications

    I see PACE has already been mentioned.

    If it's a problem with not meeting a standard satisfactory to UK courts, which may be a matter for the CPS to decide rather than the Police, then lets have it clearly explained rather than left to rumour.

    But if the UK legal system can't handle this sort of case, we're going to see more extraditions.

    (Note to The Vociferous Time Waster: you're correct about civil liability, but there's also the Computer Misuse Act 1990, and this would seem to be a criminal offence under Section 3.)

  7. Owen Sweeney
    Black Helicopters

    Codswallop...

    The scumbag caused a lot of issues for users of the site. It was a great resource for flight-sim add-ins.

    Comments such as "doing their job properly" shouldn't be in the discussion. He was contacted before the matter was referred to the men in blue and had his chance which he chose to ignore - the prick is a criminal, and he deserves to get his come-uppance.

  8. Jonathan Lancaster

    Where'd the crime take place?

    I'm interested to see how this one turns out- does the Gary McKinnon case not establish that cross border computer crime is under the jurisdiction of the victim's country and not where the perpetrator was, at least in the minds of the British authorities? If they do prosecute this guy over here, I reckon Gary would be fairly justified in feeling hard done by.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Proxy

    Who bets that the information captured. Is just the information of a proxy they where using.

    Thus some poor person in the UK will be raided and have no connection to it.

  10. RichardB
    Flame

    nick a car

    and cause thousands of pounds of damage - typical punishment?

    Do it on a computer system and you nearly destroyed the world and deserve to be hung from your toenails for eternity.

    Balance?

  11. Will Shaw
    Black Helicopters

    Gary McKinnon: The Truth Is Out There

    Huh. I've always half-suspected that the real reason Gary McKinnon has been pimp-slapped by the Yanks the way he has is actually because the "prison cell" that awaits him is in actuality a reasonably well-appointed apartment in a nice, deniable NSA compound somewhere in Virginia, patrolled by friendly guards called Chip and Buck who can quite cheerfully kill you with a fingernail. Then maybe I watch too many movies.

  12. call me scruffy
    Megaphone

    Hmmm, yeahright.

    "Please Mr Policeman arrest this person because we found these numbers in a file."

    Is this data from their ISP, or data from a machine run by a bunch of guys who have already seen two of their machines rooted, and didn't have backups of crucial data.

    I want to see the perps screwed, but the brutal fact is that there are some scenarios in which forensic evidence is going to be hard to come by.

  13. Mike007 Bronze badge

    @zerofool2005 S

    it doesn't matter because they will find something on the random innocent persons computer to prove they were guilty of something, i'm sure someone has given them a link to tubgirl/goatse/something at some point, so extreme pornography it is!

  14. Reinhard Schu
    WTF?

    Dream on

    "We fully expect that the criminal complaint...will result in the perpetrator spending some time behind bars - under UK law."

    They clearly have a vastly optimistic view of the UK police and Crown Proscecution Service. Don't they know that they only people prosecuted in the UK are (1) those that commit minor infractions such as not closing their bin lids; (2) teenagers who download pirate copies of music and movies; and (3) those that fight back against burglars or muggers.

  15. Aaron Em

    One wonders...

    ...whether a sysadmin insufficiently competent to take ONE BACKUP IN TEN YEARS is sufficiently competent to "preserve forensic evidence" in such a way that it can be used in a criminal prosecution.

    Somehow I do not think it likely!

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    They'll fall foul of "thick pig" issues

    After all, Phorm was just too complex for them. The pompous yank would do well not to hold his breath.

    Paris, less thick than the Met

  17. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    probber protection

    If there lag of protection is reason enough not to prosecute the offender or cause for them not to revive any damages compensation. Does that mean that if i stab someone its there fault for not protecting them self?

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    re: probber protection

    "If there lag of protection is reason enough not to prosecute the offender..."

    No because most people do not expect to be stabbed at any point in their life so protection is moot.

    However ANY sysadmin with an IQ above room temperature knows that discs WILL fail occasionally so he or she should always have a reasonably current backup of some description.

    Paris, she knows the value of proper protection.

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