FBI using PS3s to catch paedophiles

By Ellie Gibson Published 16 November, 2009

By disguising them as kids, perhaps?

The FBI has found a new secret weapon in the war on paedophiles - the PlayStation 3.

As reported by AXcess News, investigators are using Sony's consoles to perform password-cracking calculations. "Bad guys are encrypting their stuff now, so we need a methodology of hacking on that to try to break passwords. The Playstation 3 - its processing component - is perfect for large-scale library attacks," said special agent Claude E. Davenport, who works for C3 - the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Cyber Crimes Center. Awesome.

Under US law, it's legal for federal agents to seize and search computers if they have a warrant. However, they can't force suspects to reveal their passwords because of the Fourth Amendment.

So the agents are left trying to break the encryptions, which would probably even stump Vorderman. For example, the number of permutations for a six-digit password is 281,474,976,710,656, for example.

Which is where the PS3 comes in - software company AccessData Corp. has discovered it's brilliant at cracking codes. "You take the ability of a single person to throw a few passwords at it a minute to a few million a second," said AccessData's Neil Condon. In fact the FBI's 20 networked PS3s can process 4 million passwords per second, to be precise.

Other consoles could technically be used for the same purpose - but the advantage of using the PS3 is it allows users to install Linux. It's "slightly more efficient" than the $8000 Tableau/Dell setup in use previously, according to Skinner, and of course much cheaper.

The PS3 Slim is no good to the FBI, however. "The newer PS3s have been restricted, locked down, so you can't put Linux on them," Condon said. They're hoping to buy another 40 old ones off eBay.

And no, they don't use the PS3s to play a bit of FIFA during lunch breaks - "There's no controllers hooked up," apparently. Hang on, aren't the controllers wireless?

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (47) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • phatb0y #1 2 years ago

    Straight out of Brasseye.

  • Sunyavadin #2 2 years ago

    "Security footage shows one paedophile disguised as a school, we must catch that man, he really is a shit."


    Are they using HOECS games on the PS3?

  • SeesThroughAll #3 2 years ago

    What??

    so we need a methodology of hacking on that to try to break passwords.

    Wouldn't the FBI br better off buying dedicated workstations, with hardware that is custom designed for that case?
    The new PS3 models don't even allow installing Linux any more...

    This kind of marketing might have worked in the 90s, but not anymore...

  • bad09 #4 2 years ago

    Oh so it does more than a media player...

    / runs

  • nuanimal #5 2 years ago

    I read the headline and for a minute there, it reminded me of "that" Brass Eye Special... especially Richard Blackwood's warning of the dangers from PC Keyborad vapours luring children...

  • Zomoniac #6 2 years ago

    20 of them is over $6,000. Not that much cheaper.

  • Spanky #7 2 years ago

    Well i guess the Saddam Using PS2's to power Nuclear Arse headlines of yesteryear worked so why not pull another giant scam lie. Oh yeah and the new star wars trilogy was being powered by PS2... also can't take a ps2 through customs, it's a supercomputer and would result in the end of life as we know it. Something something bullshit.

  • PearOfAnguish #8 2 years ago

    That's nonce-sense.

  • el_pollo_diablo #9 2 years ago

    Can anyone smell hammers?

  • youhavenomail #10 2 years ago

    Games console, Blu-ray player and now paedophile catcher. The PS3 truly is the console that keeps on giving.

  • WiseGuy #11 2 years ago

    All these people who are afriad of peadophiles really need to grow up!

  • bad09 #12 2 years ago

    "All these people who are afriad of peadophiles really need to grow up! "

    Yeah grow up, they are just people. Sure a little devious but great with kids.....



    Sorry, that was bad taste, the minus is the little red one just up there.
    Edited by 1 at 16/11/09 @ 10:19

  • KayJay #13 2 years ago

    ICECCC not exactly CTU is it... :)

    I bet Jack uses a Wii to kill all the baddies in Day 8. A Wiimote to the temple. "Wiiiiii Chop!!"

  • DDevil #14 2 years ago

    I'm feeling more suggestible already!

  • HermitArcader #15 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • Retroid #16 2 years ago

    They've got the CELLs ready for them. Interrogation will be done by the (boys in) blue(-ray).

  • Chaser #17 2 years ago

    Very random.... you can buy Cell chips in rack mount severs from IBM. Why on earth are they using standard PS3s????

  • The-Bodybuilder #18 2 years ago

    My keyboard is making me even more suggestible.

    On a serious note, many of my friends have just realised one new "friend" on facebook may in fact be a profile set up by the police to snag peados. I tell you, I'm amazed the police actually catch any peados if that profile is anything to go by, its so bloody obvious its the police.

  • Chazmeister #19 2 years ago

    @bad09

    Read Wiseguy's comment again, can you not see it was a joke? Obviously it was too subtle for you.

  • Bigglesworth #20 2 years ago

    The FBI have only just discovered brute-force pasword cracking? Hum.

  • davisorle #21 2 years ago

    When i read the article I didnt think about the CPU usage.. What came to mind is that about a month ago a friend of mine text me on the cell, asking desperately to call her needing help. In few rods she knew someone (online and for a couple of years or so ) that worked for Sony ( I guess in the PS3 online service or someth9ing and you will understand why.. ) and that after an arguement she had with him he started threats. I told her that its probably usual bs that online kiddos or tards, like i thought in his case that in RL dont show their faces even, was just words and not to wory. The threats was him using her IP, full name and whatever included in her account etc. Well she ended up proving me that he wasnt all words when she practically told me that when she logged on PSN with another account he found her new account instantly. Meaning he had already, from the old account, kept trck of her IP name and address and instantly connects the older with any other new account, capable to identify you instantly.

    anyways.. I told her to call Sony instead of being scared and tell them to fire him before she sues them. If i were her I admit i would make big bucks from them. Not only I dont know how they are allowed to have track of all those but specially access from their staff instantly and so easily, capable to use them against you. I dont remember if she told me about Credit cards etc. She is a 3D designer and a good one. She prefered to only have him fired aftre talking with Sony and no big deal. It is a big deal but anyhow..

    On Topic:

    @SeesThroughAll
    Its form the only times i agree fully with you, cause i remember a few times having different opinions, but reading posts like "Games console, Blu-ray player and now paedophile catcher. The PS3 truly is the console that keeps on giving" and getting high rated, unfortunately, proves the opossite. Minds are weaker even if methods develop. They are using PS3s instead of workstations... lol Blondes are lame when it comes to anecdotes anymore.

  • Excors #22 2 years ago

    Pfah, only 20? Doesn't even compare with the people who broke HTTPS - they had 200, PS3s.

  • Xerx3s #23 2 years ago

    I wonder if they are able to bruteforce something like truecrypt.

  • Xerx3s #24 2 years ago

    "Very random.... you can buy Cell chips in rack mount severs from IBM. Why on earth are they using standard PS3s???? "

    PR?

  • the_mtfr #25 2 years ago

    @bad09 ...but if the kids grow up... ah nevermind.

  • Sunyavadin #26 2 years ago

    Paedophiles have more genes in common with GIANT ENEMY CRABS than they do with you or me. And that is a scientific fact. There's no actual evidence for it, but it is scientific fact.

  • Kryon #27 2 years ago

    So, in conclusion the PS3 whilst no use for gaming it does cure cancer and catch paedophiles? Well, that makes me feel much better about wasting £400 on one.

    Edit: a -1? Impressive. Release your anger. Only your hatred can destroy me.
    Edited by 1 at 16/11/09 @ 13:31

  • IneptPercy #28 2 years ago

    Day 8 - 24

    Jack "Whats the password!!!"

    evil terrorist " I will never tell you"

    Jack gets a PS3 out of his bag...

    evil terrorist "Noooo anything but that"

    I can't help but think there is better hardware for the job, surely an i7 965 will murder the cell at this, if not I am sure there is some 6 Core HT beasties coming.

  • dr_faulk #29 2 years ago

    PS3 Linux is only decent on CLI mode. GUIs crawl like dying (yellow) dogs.

  • Ergates_Antius #30 2 years ago

    "For example, the number of permutations for a six-digit password is 281,474,976,710,656, for example"
    "In fact the FBI's 20 networked PS3s can process 4 million passwords per second, to be precise."

    So, it would only take the FBI 2.2 years to crack a single 6-digit password then. Amazing!.

    Though thats actually the number of permuations of an 8 character password (assuming allowed chars and upper and lower case letters, digits and _ and - ).

    Still, any paedo worth his salt is going to be using something far more robust! Even a 10 character password would up that solution time to 9000 years. The 14 character passwords we use to access live systems at work? 150 billion years!

    Nice one FBI, bet the pervs are really shitting themselves now.

    Go back and start again...

  • Ace_McCloud #31 2 years ago

    ^Ha. Great post.

  • Retroid #32 2 years ago

    "Still, any paedo worth his salt"

    Such a dodgy, dodgy turn of phrase.

  • butler` #33 2 years ago

    encryption technology is impossibly far ahead of decryption, and probably will be until the next round of cpu technology (google quantum computing)

    this guy kept the fbi out for a year with some off the shelf crap

    http://td caa.infopop.net/2/OpenTopic?a=t...

  • Xerx3s #34 2 years ago

    "So, it would only take the FBI 2.2 years to crack a single 6-digit password then. Amazing!. "

    That assumes that they know how many digits are in the password anyway.

  • Zander #35 2 years ago

    i'd best switch to xbox then

  • dr_faulk #36 2 years ago

    If some Chinese dude could hack my 8-digit Gmail password (hint hint), then the FBI should be able to do this with ease.

  • Skurmedel #37 2 years ago

    Wouldn't NSA be quite up to this task? They have a rather enormous supercomputer. I thought Bush made it possible for NSA to monitor American citizens? Or maybe it's only if they are deemed a terrorist threat?

  • bad09 #38 2 years ago

    @ Chazmeister

    Yeah I know, I guess I was too subtle for you ;)

  • Korpers #39 2 years ago

    Don't diss the Vorderman, man.

    She'd have that shit tied up in 15 seconds.

    She's a super Calcu- milf......I'd solve her conundrum..et al, etc etc.

  • KDR_11k #40 2 years ago

    So, make sure you use a sufficiently secure password.

  • flechett3 #41 2 years ago

    Ok, so a 6 character password can have 281,474,976,710,656 permutations. 20 ps3's can do 4 million passwords a second. It'd take 70368744 seconds to go through all of those permutations. That's 1172812 minutes. Or 19547 hours. Or 815 days. Or 2.2 years.

    So we're supposed to be impressed by a gaming console taking 2.2 years to crack a 6 character password? Let's say it finds it halfway through the total time taken, that's still a fricking year.

    Not very impressed by this.

    edit: Ergates_Antius already said this, I just missed the last page of comments.
    Edited by 1 at 16/11/09 @ 17:29

  • Bander #42 2 years ago

    "Very random.... you can buy Cell chips in rack mount severs from IBM. Why on earth are they using standard PS3s???? "

    Maybe the PS3s work out cheaper, as IBM would need to make a profit on the hardware while Sony can rely on software sales.

    It certainly helps to explain the PS3 Slim not being able to run Linux though. It would lose Sony money if organisations continue to buy thousands of PS3s and absolutely no software!

  • Optyk #43 2 years ago

    BALTIMORA

  • el_pollo_diablo #44 2 years ago

    Basically if you buy eyepet you're going to make THE LIST.

  • Arwin #45 2 years ago

    You can probably buy about 50 PS3s for the price of one Blade server. That means you have 25x the computing power for the same price, and each PS3 has its own dedicated 1Gbit network adapter. Sure the best IBM Server right now has 4Ghz, optimised for double precision floats Cells and has just about the best power-to-performance ratio of anything currently out there, but at the end of the day you only need simple, single precision integer work and the PS3's Cell is good at that.

    It's easier to get up and running than you think by the way. I installed Linux on my PS3 (latest Yellowdog has all the Cell stuff included) and downloaded a VMWare with Linux and the Cell emulator and devkit stuff, and a few settings later I could run one of the included demonstrations either on the emulator on my PC in VMWare, looking at exactly what happens when in what register, or compile and execute over the LAN on my PS3 remotely, just by selecting a different target. Very cool stuff, and I wish I had more time to actually do something with it.
    Edited by 1 at 16/11/09 @ 22:50

  • persus-9 #46 2 years ago

    I think a lot of people are missing the point here. The reason they use PS3s isn't because they're really good at this kind of thing, it's because they're fairly okay at this type of thing and they're really bloody cheap for what you get. I mean they're about the same price as a netbook so comparing them to a i7 or IBM rack really isn't fair.

    Also the 2.2 years thing for a 6 digit password in on the assumption they use pure brute force and there's no way they'll be using a pure brute force. They'll be using dictionaries that'll crack most passwords in hours/days because paedophiles are people and people are dumb/lazy.

  • Sunyavadin #47 2 years ago

    Speak for yourself, I keep all my child porn encrypted with 16-digit alphanumeric gibberish.