MySpace Predator Caught by Code

[<rms () bsf-llc com>]

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/1,71948-0.html

MySpace Predator Caught by Code 
By Kevin Poulsen
02:00 AM Oct, 16, 2006

Yaphank, NY -- The computer crimes unit of New York's Suffolk County Police
Department sits in a gloomy government office canopied by water-stained
ceiling tiles and stuffed with battered Dell desktops. A mix of file
folders, notes, mug shots and printouts form a loose topsoil on the desks,
which jostle shoulder-to-shoulder for space on the scuffed and dented floor.

I've been invited here to witness the end-game of a police investigation
that grew from 1,000 lines of computer code I wrote and executed some five
months earlier. The automated script searched MySpace's 1 million-plus
profiles for registered sex offenders -- and soon found one that was back on
the prowl for seriously underage boys.
 
That's something that MySpace has said it cannot do. Rather, it is seeking
new laws that would make it easier to ban sex offenders from the site
through an e-mail registry.

MySpace busts are rare in this unit. About half the work done by the eight
detectives here is aimed at online predators, but the networking site poses
challenges that open chat rooms -- a dying social scene among today's youth
-- never did. "It's a dangerous place for kids," says Frank Giardina, a
good-natured, 49-year-old detective with salt-and-pepper hair and a matching
mustache. "It's also difficult for law enforcement."

That's because much of what happens on MySpace unfolds outside public view.
The computer crime unit has erected bait profiles registered to fake
underage teens, but so far the tactic has netted only one arrest.
Proactively scouring MySpace pages is futile: The smarter sexual predators
stick to private messages, and diligently prune their public comment boards
of any posts from young friends that hint at what's happening behind the
scenes.

Today's investigatory target, 39-year-old Andrew Lubrano, has been less
careful, and now he faces his fourth arrest for a sex crime. Lubrano was
sentenced to three years probation in 1987 for sexual abuse against a
7-year-old boy, according to police. In 1988, he got another probation term
for second-degree sex abuse. In 1995, he earned a 3 to 9 year prison term
for sexually abusing two boys he'd been babysitting, one 11, the other 9.

The parole board turned Lubrano down three times, and he was cut loose in
September 2004 largely unsupervised, having served every day of his
nine-year max. By November 2005 he was on MySpace, making friends.

...

_______________________________________________
Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts.
https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec
Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.