4 ms·

Spanish police has a history of struggling with technology. For instance, a hacking group was able to expose the personal data of 5400 police officers a few yea

by mkl95 6y ago

Spanish police has a history of struggling with technology. For instance, a hacking group was able to expose the personal data of 5400 police officers a few years ago, including password hashes, with some weak passwords among them [1] [1] https://www.cybersecurity-help.cz/blog/131.html https://www.cybersecurity-help.cz/blog/131.html

throwaway0a5e 6y ago
A "lie detector" isn't "technology" it's an interrogation technique masquerading as technology. It's basically just a means of saving money because the guy who would be playing the bad cop can be out doing other cop things.
- mkl95 6y ago
  "Veripol works by identifying words and phrases that linguistic studies have shown to be identifiers of possible lies, Ms Queralt said. For example, using many adjectives or refusing to describe a scene are considered hints that a complainant is lying." The article is about a sentiment analysis application used by Spanish police, and how trusting it as a lie detector could be a bit of a stretch. It could be argued that sentiment analysis and related techniques are not 100% bonkers, but it seems to be unclear at the moment.
  - wongarsu 6y ago
    From my experience humans currently perform much better at sentiment analysis and related techniques than computers. Computers have the advantage of scale, but this seems like a field where training actual humans on similar techniques would create much better results.
  - corpMaverick 6y ago
    In recent years, I have been conditioned so that every time I hear the words "Believe me" I know the persons is lying.
Hokusai 6y ago
Spain has a history of struggling with technology. Even with a very strong tech professional community the country has problems figuring out what to do with that incredible resource. The reasons are economic. To build vacation apartments for locals and foreigners is a big business and the tourism industry is easier to understand and has less risk (until 2020 I guess) than the tech industry. So, politic and industry leaders are not interested in tech. Luckily that is changing with many international companies creating offices in the country to take advantage of the existing talent and, as a side effect, inspiring more locals to work in the tech industry. I love the country's easy tax collection system, and many other public technologies. But, there is still too many misconceptions. I will not get into the historical reasons (also related to agriculture and politics) that made tech difficult to penetrate in Spain. Anti-intellectualism also has been rampant in the arts. Many people equated being educated to understand art (literature, painting, wine tasting) and despise technology. I am hopeful with a new generation growing to understand better technology, and if the current circumstances should have a positive side, to be wary of a tourism focused economy. That police struggles with tech, is just on of many situations that older generations still struggle with a technology that learned to see as a lesser subject than others.
- raxxorrax 6y ago
  Since western states were mostly hostile to such tech groups, the willingness to cooperate might be inhibited. On the other hand there are quite a few reasons to despise tech in its current state because it is connected to larger predatory companies.
- yokaze 6y ago
  I think, that doesn't do Spain totally justice, or maybe it depends on the region. Not to say that you are wrong, and a lot certainly can be improved, but a couple of things that impressed me (not being from Spain): - Use of x.509 user certificates to access many government services online. - Getting a government ID right away at the appointment (from the police of all places) - FTTH 600Mbit/s symmetrical. Three days after ordering it. - Digital health record (At least in some regions) But then, Spain has also some of the poorest regions of Europe. And from what I heard, aristocrats own large areas of land.
boomboomsubban 6y ago
This is hardly unique to Spain, we just saw BlueLeaks expose the password hashes of 29,000 Northern California police employees alone, other targets may have exposed more.
eznzt 6y ago
Spanish police has a history of struggling with technology because someone once hacked an insurance cooperative for police officers? Now that's a leap
- mkl95 6y ago
  Other examples of cyber incidents are: The time Anonymous hacked some unofficial Spanish police forums, leaking up to 11k records. [1] The recent incident where a Zoom event called "Cybersecurity and online privacy" attended by Spanish police and civil guard members was hacked. After taking over, the attackers streamed child pornography. [2] [1] https://www.abc.es/tecnologia/redes/abci-hackean-policia-nacional-y-comunidad-madrid-como-protesta-despues-201710031222_noticia.html https://www.abc.es/tecnologia/redes/abci-hackean-policia-nac... [2] https://www.elespanol.com/omicrono/software/20200514/conferencia-llena-policias-hackeada-proyectar-pornografia-infantil/489951322_0.html https://www.elespanol.com/omicrono/software/20200514/confere...
  - eznzt 6y ago
    1 and 2 were, once again, not managed by the Spanish police. 1 is an independent forum, 2 was a contractor that offered online courses to everybody who asked. Show me an incident where the police were actually hacked. (I am not saying it has not happened, just that your proof is not proof of anything)
    - mkl95 6y ago
      Spanish bodies rarely manage their information systems themselves - this is not just related to police, all public servants work with applications built by private companies. Usually, consulting firms such as Indra and Deloitte build and maintain them after getting publicly available contracts. You make a good point because Spanish public servants have probably never had their own systems hacked, since pretty much all the stuff they use has been built by consulting firms or contractors.
dontcarethrow2 6y ago
Phineas Fisher had a nice video* around that time. Wonder if same leak. * https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oI_ZhFCS3AQ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oI_ZhFCS3AQ
- mkl95 6y ago
  This is another leak. Some or all autonomous communities in Spain have their own police (similar to state police in the US), with Catalan police being one of the largest. This leak reminds me of the time a Russian group launched a bot campaign to destabilize Spain and support Catalan independence, with enough success to be called out by the Spanish defence minister [1] [1] https://www.voanews.com/europe/spain-warns-russias-catalonia-hacking-efforts-could-intensify https://www.voanews.com/europe/spain-warns-russias-catalonia...

by mkl95 6y ago

throwaway0a5e 6y ago

A "lie detector" isn't "technology" it's an interrogation technique masquerading as technology. It's basically just a means of saving money because the guy who would be playing the bad cop can be out doing other cop things.

mkl95 6y ago
"Veripol works by identifying words and phrases that linguistic studies have shown to be identifiers of possible lies, Ms Queralt said. For example, using many adjectives or refusing to describe a scene are considered hints that a complainant is lying." The article is about a sentiment analysis application used by Spanish police, and how trusting it as a lie detector could be a bit of a stretch. It could be argued that sentiment analysis and related techniques are not 100% bonkers, but it seems to be unclear at the moment.
- wongarsu 6y ago
  From my experience humans currently perform much better at sentiment analysis and related techniques than computers. Computers have the advantage of scale, but this seems like a field where training actual humans on similar techniques would create much better results.
- corpMaverick 6y ago
  In recent years, I have been conditioned so that every time I hear the words "Believe me" I know the persons is lying.

Hokusai 6y ago

Spain has a history of struggling with technology. Even with a very strong tech professional community the country has problems figuring out what to do with that incredible resource. The reasons are economic. To build vacation apartments for locals and foreigners is a big business and the tourism industry is easier to understand and has less risk (until 2020 I guess) than the tech industry. So, politic and industry leaders are not interested in tech. Luckily that is changing with many international companies creating offices in the country to take advantage of the existing talent and, as a side effect, inspiring more locals to work in the tech industry. I love the country's easy tax collection system, and many other public technologies. But, there is still too many misconceptions. I will not get into the historical reasons (also related to agriculture and politics) that made tech difficult to penetrate in Spain. Anti-intellectualism also has been rampant in the arts. Many people equated being educated to understand art (literature, painting, wine tasting) and despise technology. I am hopeful with a new generation growing to understand better technology, and if the current circumstances should have a positive side, to be wary of a tourism focused economy. That police struggles with tech, is just on of many situations that older generations still struggle with a technology that learned to see as a lesser subject than others.

raxxorrax 6y ago
Since western states were mostly hostile to such tech groups, the willingness to cooperate might be inhibited. On the other hand there are quite a few reasons to despise tech in its current state because it is connected to larger predatory companies.
yokaze 6y ago
I think, that doesn't do Spain totally justice, or maybe it depends on the region. Not to say that you are wrong, and a lot certainly can be improved, but a couple of things that impressed me (not being from Spain): - Use of x.509 user certificates to access many government services online. - Getting a government ID right away at the appointment (from the police of all places) - FTTH 600Mbit/s symmetrical. Three days after ordering it. - Digital health record (At least in some regions) But then, Spain has also some of the poorest regions of Europe. And from what I heard, aristocrats own large areas of land.

boomboomsubban 6y ago

This is hardly unique to Spain, we just saw BlueLeaks expose the password hashes of 29,000 Northern California police employees alone, other targets may have exposed more.

eznzt 6y ago

Spanish police has a history of struggling with technology because someone once hacked an insurance cooperative for police officers? Now that's a leap

mkl95 6y ago
Other examples of cyber incidents are: The time Anonymous hacked some unofficial Spanish police forums, leaking up to 11k records. [1] The recent incident where a Zoom event called "Cybersecurity and online privacy" attended by Spanish police and civil guard members was hacked. After taking over, the attackers streamed child pornography. [2] [1] https://www.abc.es/tecnologia/redes/abci-hackean-policia-nacional-y-comunidad-madrid-como-protesta-despues-201710031222_noticia.html https://www.abc.es/tecnologia/redes/abci-hackean-policia-nac... [2] https://www.elespanol.com/omicrono/software/20200514/conferencia-llena-policias-hackeada-proyectar-pornografia-infantil/489951322_0.html https://www.elespanol.com/omicrono/software/20200514/confere...
- eznzt 6y ago
  1 and 2 were, once again, not managed by the Spanish police. 1 is an independent forum, 2 was a contractor that offered online courses to everybody who asked. Show me an incident where the police were actually hacked. (I am not saying it has not happened, just that your proof is not proof of anything)
  - mkl95 6y ago
    Spanish bodies rarely manage their information systems themselves - this is not just related to police, all public servants work with applications built by private companies. Usually, consulting firms such as Indra and Deloitte build and maintain them after getting publicly available contracts. You make a good point because Spanish public servants have probably never had their own systems hacked, since pretty much all the stuff they use has been built by consulting firms or contractors.

dontcarethrow2 6y ago

Phineas Fisher had a nice video* around that time. Wonder if same leak. * https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oI_ZhFCS3AQ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oI_ZhFCS3AQ

mkl95 6y ago
This is another leak. Some or all autonomous communities in Spain have their own police (similar to state police in the US), with Catalan police being one of the largest. This leak reminds me of the time a Russian group launched a bot campaign to destabilize Spain and support Catalan independence, with enough success to be called out by the Spanish defence minister [1] [1] https://www.voanews.com/europe/spain-warns-russias-catalonia-hacking-efforts-could-intensify https://www.voanews.com/europe/spain-warns-russias-catalonia...