If you use the PlayStation Network, it's time to change your passwords everywhere

After days of outage, Sony is finally coming clean regarding exactly what the "external intruder" gained access to during their hack attack on the gaming giant. And the news is not good. Sony has essentially given up all information about their customers except their credit card numbers... they think.

As Seybold lays it out, the hacker — or “unauthorized person” to be specific — managed to obtain pretty much every bit of information you might’ve given the company, which I’m listing below:

- Name
- Address (city, state, zip)
- Country
- Email address
- Birthdate
- PSN / Qriocity password and login
- PSN online ID / handle
- Purchase history
- Billing address
- Password security answers

The biggest issue here is that most people use the same information to log into their game networks as they use to log into their banks and other financial companies. Thus, by simply reusing the usernames, personal info, and "personal security answers" here, the hacker may be able to steal money from many PSN users without having to touch Sony's network again.

If you're a PSN user, please change your username, password, and security answers at any financial services website that used the same info as Sony's system. Don't wait for the hackers to sell this info to criminals.

Human greed knows no bounds... but shame is there right behind it

This story doesn't require much commment.

A British father faked a burglary at his home and claimed his daughter’s Christmas presents were stolen in a bid to get more gifts from sympathetic neighbors, local media reported Monday...

Unemployed Wood then posed for photographs for his local newspaper with his two-year-old daughter Abbey, saying Christmas was ruined.

However, he admitted the scam to police hours after the newspaper story was published, saying he could not live with the shame of using his little girl.

Crimes like this are always found out, whether thru good police work or thru good old feelings of shame. If you're in a tough spot, don't go to the low road. Ask for help. You can usually find someone willing to step up.

AT&T leaks personal information for iPad 3G owners

Every day, the choice of AT&T as exclusive partner for Apple seems like a worse and worse decision. Not only have they dropped the unlimited data plans for iPhone and iPad, but now they have leaded personal information for iPad 3G owners. This is a very serious security breach, and affects many, many powerful people. It is time for Apple to take AT&T to the woodshed, or else open up the deal to other providers.

The breach, which comes just weeks after an Apple employee lost an iPhone prototype in a bar, exposed the most exclusive email list on the planet, a collection of early-adopter iPad 3G subscribers that includes thousands of A-listers in finance, politics and media, from New York Times Co. CEO Janet Robinson to Diane Sawyer of ABC News to film mogul Harvey Weinstein to Mayor Michael Bloomberg. It even appears that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's information was compromised.

It doesn't stop there. According to the data we were given by the web security group that exploited vulnerabilities on the AT&T network, we believe 114,000 user accounts have been compromised, although it's possible that confidential information about every iPad 3G owner in the U.S. has been exposed.

Stupid Criminals

My mother loves the "stupid criminals" features on Jay Leno's show, so she is sure to enjoy this story. An Ohio man had his car stolen, along with his cell phone. A friend, on a whim, sent a text message to the stolen phone pretending to have "hot chicks and drugs". He then sent an address to meet at, which the criminals rushed to reach. The police were there instead. The following has to be my favorite line from the story...

And to make things easier for the officers, the suspects showed up in the stolen car.

People Ignore Hit and Run Victim

Some Mod-Bloggers know that my wife was the victim of a hit-and-run accident when a pickup truck rear ended her car. Thankfully, there was a concerned citizen who followed the pickup truck and contacted the police. Since then, I have found that hit-and-runs are on the rise in the U.S. In an age where we teach our children that it's "me first" and no one is responsible for their actions, this is the logical conclusion. Well, even more disturbing is this recent hit and run in Hartford, CT. An elderly man walking across the street is hit by a car and not only does the car keep driving, but NINE other cars passed right by him. Bystanders on the sidewalk waited over 40 seconds before even getting close enough to stop traffic. When asked why no one would help, one person responded "This area here is hot, a lot of bad stuff." When asked why people wouldn't call for help (though four people did call 911) he responded, "If you want to, but you're involved then." While I understand people fearing for their life in a high crime area by being labeled a snitch, it appears it's more than that... people value their time as too important to "waste" it on getting involved. Chief Daryl Roberts summed it up best by saying, "We no longer have a moral compass."

Warning: The link is to the story. On the story is a video that contains the actual surveillance tapes of the hit-and-run. The video is disturbing, but in my opinion, worth watching to see what a heinous act this was.

A New Trend in Crime Fighting

I think a new trend will begin in the post-9/11 world. I think victims will be more likely to fight back against those who are committing a crime. An example of this is a recent situation where some guys who were playing basketball behind a church were attacked by a guy with an AK-47. They rushed him and subdued him until the police could get there. Also, I heard on the radio on my way home from work today that a convenience store manager in Bridgeport, CT was approached while closing his store and threatened with a gun. He pulled out his own gun and shot the guy. The robber fled the scene and later tried to claim he was a victim of s drive-by shooting. He was arrested at the hospital.

"Weekend at Bernies" as street theater

Sometimes crime is a social problem related to poverty, education, or perceived injustice. Sometimes, it is a problem related to stupidity. I saw a local news report about this, and the witness could hardly keep from laughing.

When Virgilio Cintron, 66, died at his apartment recently, his roommate and a friend saw an opportunity to cash his $355 check, the police said.
They did not go about it the easy way, the police said, choosing a ruse that resembled the plot of "Weekend at Bernie's," a film about two young men who prop up their dead employer to pretend that he is alive...The roommate, James P. O'Hare, and his friend, David J. Dalaia, both 65 and unemployed, placed Cintron's body in the chair and wheeled it around the corner Tuesday afternoon, the police said. The men parked the chair with the corpse in front of Pay-O-Matic, a check-cashing business that Cintron had patronized...The two men started to bring the chair inside, but it was too late. Their sidewalk procession had already attracted the stares of passers-by who were startled by the sight of the body flopping from side to side as the two men tried to prop it up, the police said...A police detective eating at a nearby restaurant saw the crowd and notified police. Police officers and an ambulance arrived as the two men were trying to maneuver the corpse and chair into the check-cashing office.

Somehow, I doubt this one is going to be made into another George Clooney, Brad Pitt caper movie. Sigh.

Did Unleaded Gas lead to the crime reductions of the 1990s?

A new study is claiming that the removal of lead from gasoline may have more to do with the crime reductions we saw in the 1990s than any other factor. The theory goes that even small amounts of lead in the bloodstream can cause brain damage in the parts of the brain dealing with aggresion and impulse-control. Thus, by removing it from the environment, it was (demonstrably) reduced in American bloodstreams. The children born since the end of leaded gasoline would have grown up and reached their most aggressive years in the 90s. The years when crime dropped, despite the coming of teenhood of a baby boom that greatly increased the teenaged population.

At first glance, I am almost tempted to view this as an attack on Rudy Giuliani's run for president, since much of his run is based on the crime reductions he accomplished as Mayor of New York. But reading deeper, it seems like a serious study. Especially when they show that States with slower declines were those States which took longer to phase out leaded gas. At the very least, it makes you wonder what else may be out there influencing our behavior.

One Reason to Not Play RPG's in Brazil

The top player in a role playing game called GunBound was kidnapped and held hostage by a gang for his account password. The gang planned to sell the password to make some quick cash. Even though they held a gun to his head for FIVE HOURS, the guy would not give up his password. When do you know that you're too into a game and too far removed from real life? When you're willing to bet your life on it.

This *HAS* to be a hoax, but it is too funny not to post

FYI, filing a false police report is a crime, too.