Burglar logs into MySpace on store computer

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March 19th, 2010 - Posted by Kent

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," said George Santayana. Nowhere is this more true than in Kennewick, Washington where a 17-year-old burglar was apprehended because he logged in to to his MySpace account at the scene of the crime. After all, it was only last September that a Martinsburg, Virginia man was arrested after he logged into Facebook using the victim's computer during a burglary. In the Kennewick case, the crook spent about five hours on the computer, not only checking his MySpace account but "looking at pornography and trying to sell stolen items."

Law-abiding citizens love a good "dumb crook" story. These stories not only make us feel better about our own mistakes, but seem to carry a kind of cosmic justice. They also give us a sense of false security, or at least a hope that all criminals will be so easily apprehended.

While our two social-network addicts were arrested because of their computer use, a number of criminals avoid detection precisely because they use computers in the commission of their crimes. We refer, of course, to hackers. Hackers learn to disguise their tracks by going through proxies. They work long distance, often from other countries. And the goods that they steal are account numbers and identities, not the kinds of things you sell on eBay. They find their customers on the Internet's black markets. And if they do log into MySpace, I bet they use a computer that's not tied to their hacking activities.

Alter all, when was the last time you heard a good "dumb hacker" story?  Exactly.