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Hackers have broken into a GPS tracking system used by the German police to track down suspects of terrorism and other serious crimes. The potential fallout from the hack is huge. In the worst-case scenario, hundreds of confidential investigation documents could be released on the Internet, giving hundreds of criminals the tip they need to stay out of the reach of the law. The results of such an information breach can only be imagined, but certainly among them would be more serious crimes that could have been prevented.

The group who hacked the system calls themselves the “No Name Crew.” Their beef, apparently, is “constant monitoring” by the police, and they wanted to turn the tables. Unfortunately, what might be just computer games for them is potentially deadly for police officers and innocent citizens alike.



The hacked system, called “Patras,” collects information from GPS units in cars and on cellular phones. State, federal, and customs officers use the data to locate suspects. This is a vital part of modern police investigation. Of course, if the information they have is published, all the data they have so far on each case will be moot. They will, in many cases, be back to square one.



Already, the No Name Crew has published a document of classified communications information, including phone numbers and email addresses of state offices.The police claim the document is outdated, but the No Name Crew says they have more. They say they’ve seen “every dirty detail” of communication from email to confidential data. Police have made one arrest of a 23-year-old man, after the hacking group threatened to release more information if anyone was arrested.



The group first hacked into the system in September 2010, but they remained undetected until early 2011. During that time, they injected a claimed 42 trojans into the system and used the spyware to collect the data they now hold hostage. Police had used a cheaper, standard version of XAMPP Apache that was known to be less secure than needed, easy for the hackers to get around. The software package warned that its default settings were not good for “security” or “production.”



Lesson learned: vital data calls for greater protection. If the bad guys know that you know where they are, it doesn’t do you much good.

Article Written by Kadence Vyra