Google Helps Convict a Hacker
This post was published 2 years 10 months 24 days ago and its content may not be valid anymore.According to Privacy Digest, Google search terms help convict a hacker accused of illegally accessing a wireless system.
The queries the hacker performed [on Google] were introduced into evidence at court, where Matthew Schuster was charged with disrupting his former employer’s wireless network and imitating other users’ MAC addresses to obtain access. Court documents are ambiguous and don’t reveal how the FBI discovered his search terms. That could have happened in one of three ways: an analysis of his browser’s history and cache; an Alpha employee monitoring the company’s wireless connection; or a subpoena to Google from the police for search terms tied to his Internet address or cookie. But Google has confirmed that it can provide search terms if given an Internet address or Web cookie, but has steadfastly refused to say how often such requests arrive.
