South Korean Police Raid the Google Offices

[ssddx]

I'll agree that a visit is nowhere near a raid. The title is misleading. As for the wifi issue: anyone with a laptop can do the same thing driving around in a town. The only reason this is getting any attention at all is the fact that now there is a formal "list" of all these hotspots. If I remember correctly wasnt the whole google wifi issue stemming from their desire to create a list of all the free wifi locations in an area?

 

[Guest]

Governments only make this noise to cover up the data they have collected. Make no mistake it is depending on your location more or less extensive. If your wifi network is unprotected I am quite entitled to record it's existence, just not access your network.

 

[mikem_90]

[citation][nom]Simonetti[/nom]Accidentaly my butt!These things don't happen accidentaly. You don't create a wifi wardriving software by accident.I hope google gets shafted this time. Don't get me wrong, I like Google, but they are getting kind of out of boundaries, they are forgetting what their limit is.[/citation]

Actually, if you look at the nitty gritty information about it, they cobbled the stuff together with off the shelf software. they didn't write the software they were using. They captured snippits, fragments, changing Wifichannels repeatedly.

If you actually go into the independent reports, it shows conclusions that fit with Google's explanation. The software they used collected not just the data they wanted, but as probably a backup and log, the data fragments that were scanned. This is consistent with the type of tools needed to do what they were looking for.

Saying it was not an accident is pretty ignorant since there is very little value to these fragments. Sure you might come across a PLAINTEXT password here(who doesn't use SSL these days??), a few usernames there, but still the signal to noise ratio is extremely high.

If anything was done wrongly, it was configuring the tools wrong and not dumping the packet logs to /dev/null. Or thinking packet fragments that would be of little to no use would be a non-issue.

But, because we have sensationalist media, Spotlight hungry politicians looking to make a name taking out a big privacy evil... we get this.

 

[Darkmatterx]

It all makes sense now!

The achievement 'Hurry up it's raid night.' was always meant for the Koreans and had nothing to do with WOW...

 

[Guest]

I’ve read the reports, am an active member of a handful of user groups, visit their campus bi-monthly.

So they came up with an idea, allocated budget for it, requisitioned WiFi scanners, had engineers added them to each of the vans, had engineers program the WiFi hoppers, had PM's draft consolidation procedures, prepared storage servers, logged the data locally, consolidated that data regionally, forwarded it to their headquarters, stored terabytes of this data, and this was all done by complete and total accident?!?!?!

When was the last time you used your camera and it accidentally collected WiFi data? I am going out on a limb here, but would guess your answer is . . . . wait for it . . . NEVER!!!!

There are companies/groups that would spend millions to do this if they could. There is inherent industrial value in knowing every open hotspot in the world, where its geospatially located, how its configured, what IP block its utilizing, etc etc. Basically a digital blueprint on how to use and potentially exploit that access point.

Regardless, this was all an unintentional and convenient accident. I’m sold. I agree that Google is totally innocent here, no one at Google had a clue this was going on. Corporate has 100% plausible deniability and a strong argument for innocence.

I can guarantee that if this information was collected and exploited by some international hacksquad, this story would have garnered international attention and spurred a serious discussion about data security & privacy violations. Odds are, that hacksquad would have been moved to the top of numerous terrorist watch list, and would have been vigorously pursued multiple international agencies.

So because Google is a Corporation, were safe?

 

[Shadow703793]

[citation][nom]the last resort[/nom]i think we're forgetting the data that they collected was in no way illegal. they were collecting data from free, unproteted Wi-FI hotspots. No hacking, etc. I could do the exact same thing. Its not my or Google's fault that people are too retarded to secure their networks.[/citation]
Well said! Another thing is that people need to stop using WEP! Any one with decent PC knowledge can break WEP using Backtrack and WEPBuster.

 

[figgus]

The governments don't like Google doing surveillance like this and streetview because it is muscling in on THEIR territory. Your government is the only entity allowed to violate your privacy like that, and DON'T YOU FORGET IT!

 

[fayzaan]

[citation][nom]figgus[/nom]The governments don't like Google doing surveillance like this and streetview because it is muscling in on THEIR territory. Your government is the only entity allowed to violate your privacy like that, and DON'T YOU FORGET IT![/citation]

Obama can go shove it!