Wednesday, April 29, 2015

How the police can break your password

Threaten to throw you off an 18th floor balcony:
After a few hours of this, which involved an attempt to lure one of Cascioli's suppliers to his building, the officers focused on Cascioli's Palm Pilot, which they (correctly) believed contained the information they wanted. But Cascioli wouldn't provide the password. He claims that police then tried to extract the password through intimidation.
Cascioli says [Officer Thomas] Liciardello asked him a question: "Have you ever seen Training Day?"

When Cascioli said yes, Cascioli says Liciardello looked him in the eyes and said: "This is Training Day for f—ing real," and then instructed officers Norman and Jeffrey Walker to take him to the balcony.

According to Cascioli and the indictment, Liciardello told them to "do whatever they had to do to get the password."

Out on the balcony, Cascioli says officers Norman and Walker lifted him up by each arm and leaned him over the balcony railing.
One of the cops involved has confirmed the story.

2 comments:

  1. Lead pipe cryptography for the win!

    https://xkcd.com/538/

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  2. One of my all-time favorite XKCD comics - had it posted up in my cube for several years.

    There was some "what is this country coming to!" type commentary on the Ars article - but this really isn't new behavior. This type of thug like intimidation has existed as long as positions of authority have existed. How society and the government move to address these incidents is what really matters.

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