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Help needed to trace London rioters communications

Discussion in 'Serious' started by AcidJiles, 9 Aug 2011.

  1. AcidJiles

    AcidJiles Minimodder

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    I have along with most people in the UK been disgusted by the scenes in London over the last 3 days. I sort of feel I should go to London to in some way confront/protest against their actions. However I don't have that sort of friendship groups and wouldn't know the first way to go about doing that responsibly that didn't put myself and others in more danger. I am however a very experienced internet user and so perhaps I could help the situation by trying to help the police through following the communications of these criminals (They may mostly be kids but their actions are unacceptable and criminal).

    I was going to start looking through twitter logs, facebook and other social networking sites to see if I could discover anything that might be useful in anyway. It probably will come to nothing but I have some free time and feel like I should do something. Now BBM (blackberry messaging) seems to be one of the primary modes they are using to organise.

    My primary question for this whole post is, is there anyway to view BBMs on the web in any form in the way you can view twitter or facebook? I understand alot of it is P2P but I have heard that there seem to be alerts of some sort going to larger groups. Are these accessible anywhere? If they is not then I will have to keep my focus on the sites I do have access too. If anyone else has any other ideas about the best way to go about collecting any information please comment. If there are any groups already doing this please mention it and maybe I could help them in some minor way.

    Thanks. For those affected stay safe.
     
  2. AstralWanderer

    AstralWanderer What's a Dremel?

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    Blackberrys communicate via RIM's servers using encryption. Unless someone posts copies of their messages somewhere public, there's no way for an Ordinary Joe to view them - legally.

    Even if you did have the skills, experience and motivation - the best advice for anyone would be to leave well alone. If the police need extra skills, they'll hire them in - anyone going in on their own initiative could affect the credibility of evidence collected, potentially allowing those responsible to escape justice.

    By all means contact your local station if you have first hand knowledge of someone involved, but other than that, keep clear for your own safety and be patient - the wheels of justice do turn slowly but, with high-profile cases (and short of a terrorist attack, this can hardly be any higher), most often the perpetrators get caught.
     
  3. SMIFFYDUDE

    SMIFFYDUDE Supermodders on my D

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    Where's Glenn Mulcaire when you need him?
     
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  4. sp4nky

    sp4nky BF3: Aardfrith WoT: McGubbins

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    If there is a way to do this, you can bet your bottom dollar that the Security Services will be doing it already.
     
  5. identikit

    identikit Minimodder

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    Blackberry have already said they're going to work with the police to track down those who organise riots and looting with BBM.
     
  6. wyx087

    wyx087 Homeworld 3 is happening!!

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  7. thehippoz

    thehippoz What's a Dremel?

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    looked at that link

    hope your government can figure it out.. looks like a free for all from those pictures.. don't you have cameras all over london? or did they get taken out already

    wouldn't be a bad idea to put some boots on the ground if it's bad..

    ledit oh well they took it down

    http://gawker.com/5828806/london-rioter-flashes-arse-on-live-tv
     
    Last edited: 9 Aug 2011
  8. Jumeira_Johnny

    Jumeira_Johnny 16032 - High plains drifter

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    Perhaps off topic, but private Blackberrys and Corporate Blackberrys use two different levels of encryption. Most countries have quietly and, in the case of the UAE and India, not so quietly required RIM to provide them with a back door to consumer communications. RIM has, so far, publicly been able to negotiate that the corporate clients remain encrypted since they offload the server side to the client who maintains the keys. No large corporation would use the service if any parastatal could get confidential information from a security service. China being a major threat in this sense.

    But rest assured, the private BBMs are easily monitored by the UK security services, and they have no need for people volunteering their help. They really don't want you to see how exactly they are able to acquire encrypted communications nor do they want you to see the extent to which they do so. They want Blackberry users to remain blissful of the fact that their encryption is easily and often breached since like Skype, it's in rather widespread use. The idea that RIM is "helping" is laughable, since it's all open to the security services anyway and has been for years. That part is just a PR flag to explain how they were able to find all the BBMs so quickly.

    Fact: ANY wide spread service that crossed borders and claims to be encrypted is lying to some extent. Unless you're using a peer reviewed client, have control over the method of encryption and the generation of the keys for it; you can bet your behind there is a back door built in. TrueCrypt is a classic example.
     
  9. MiT

    MiT Don't feed me after midnight!! nom

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