crime

There are some jobs offered on Craigslist that some people would kill for, but this one may have asked a bit too much.

A Michigan woman is accused of using the popular bulletin board site to try to hire a hit man to kill the wife of a man with whom she had had an affair. Ann Marie Linscott, 49, was arrested Thursday at her home in Grand Rapids, after allegedly posting an ad in November for a "freelance" job, according to a report by the Associated Press.

Respondents to the ad were offered $5,000 to "… Read more

On Thursday, Japanese authorities announced the arrest of a college student and two associates who are alleged to have written and distributed a Trojan horse via a popular peer-to-per network.

Because Japan currently lacks computer crime laws, the three (whose names were withheld) were instead arrested on copyright violations. Between October and November of 2007, the author of a Trojan known as Harada used images of a popular anime character to entice users of the Winny P2P network to download the malware.

Computers infected with one strain of Harada displayed a message saying, "You're already dead. Come here. … Read more

The FBI has teamed up with Phoenix-based Clear Channel Outdoor to air mug shots of most wanted criminals on 150 digital billboards in 20 cities nationwide, the Associated Press is reporting.

The effort follows a successful test run in Philadelphia that led to several arrests.

Read the full AP story via Google, among other places: "FBI mug shots to hit digital billboards."

New Jersey acting Gov. Richard Codey signed a bill into law Thursday that prohibits anyone convicted of using a computer to commit a sex offense from using computers or accessing the Internet for part or all of their parole, according to Information Week.

Makes sense, in a very parental sort of way. Abuse your privileges and they'll get taken away. But such punishment will no doubt be viewed by some as a civil rights violation.

Read the full story at Information Week: "New Jersey bars some sex offenders from Internet."

The murder trial of Hans Reiser, the 43-year-old Oakland, Calif., computer programmer accused of killing his wife, is scheduled to begin Tuesday in what the San Francisco Chronicle predicts will be one of the most sensational local trials in recent memory.

Among the circumstances driving the likely media circus are Reiser's prominence in developer circles as the founder of the ReiserFS file system software available for Linux; the fact that the body of his estranged wife has never been recovered; and the national TV coverage, including a recent spot on ABC's 20/20.

Also fueling the frenzy are … Read more

A woman in the town of Pontarlier, France, saw a little boy steal some goods from a supermarket and slip out the door undetected thanks to a faulty alarm system.

That was in 2004. Nearly every day since, the woman is accused of walking out of the store with stolen goods that she later sold on auction site, eBay, according to a story in Thursday's edition of LeParisien.

Before being apprehended, the woman hauled in the equivalent of $120,000, according to the story. Some of the stuff she pilfered included video games, CDs, DVDs and razor blades.

In … Read more

Surveillance cameras are everywhere. Every ATM snaps your mug, and each time you get into a taxi your photo is recorded as well. According to the BBC, our images are captured an average of 300 times each day. While we've grown used to these security cameras in our malls and at stoplights, the influx of surveillance cameras in our public spaces should be of great concern to everyone.

As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago has 560 crime cameras that are actively monitored for criminal activity. In London there are more than 10,000 cameras. These so-called "crime cameras" have multiple roles: they are intended to provide evidence of crimes when they occur, they are meant to deter criminals, and they are a reminder that Big Brother is watching.

… Read more

At this rate, we'll all be doing our own CSI-style investigations as technology becomes increasingly mainstream. The latest example is a "briefcase DNA analysis system" that can reportedly do a complete test at crime scenes in 25 minutes, as opposed to typical lab time of one day to a week.

The system, developed by Japan's NEC and Aida Engineering, combines several functions in one device and dramatically speeds the heating and cooling processes required for DNA testing. "The compact unit can be used to: (1) take cell samples, (2) extract the DNA, (3) perform polymerase … Read more

First, we admit to some potential bias here: We're not huge fans of CSI, in whatever location--Miami, New York, Vegas, Walla Walla--so perhaps we're missing something here. Still, we can't help but think that this product is an indication that some people might be getting a wee obsessed with the whole forensics craze. (The fact that forensics can constitute a craze is disturbing enough as it is.)

Digital Intelligence's "Forensic Recovery of Evidence Device," or FRED to its friends, and its related "On Location" equipment are designed to accompany you to the … Read more