PS3s used to capture child pornographers

The PlayStation 3 has been used for a variety of altruistic tasks following its launch in 2006. Perhaps the most high-profile of these ventures is theFolding@home project, which uses spare processing power from idling, networked PS3s to undertake the arduous task of simulating protein folding in order to study the causes of various diseases.

The latest effort to harness the PS3's processing power for good comes from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Cyber Crimes Center. As reported by Axcess News, the Cyber Crimes Center (C3) is using networked PS3s to capture sexual predators by cracking passwords on computers suspected of containing child pornography.

The report notes that while law enforcement agents can execute a warrant to secure the physical computers, the Fourth Amendment protects suspected predators from surrendering passwords and other encryption material. As such, the agency attempts to crack the passwords by using a program that tries all possible key combinations. The report notes that a six-digit password has nearly 282 trillion possible permutations, and the networked PS3 can attempt 4 million guesses per second.

The fight against kiddie porn has a new ally.

"Bad guys are encrypting their stuff now, so we need a methodology of hacking on that to try to break passwords," said C3 senior special agent Claude E. Davenport. "The PlayStation 3--its processing component--is perfect for large-scale library attacks."

Davenport went on to note that while other gaming consoles could technically also accomplish the task, the agency also needs to install software using the open-source operating system Linux. However, C3 must use pre-PS3 Slim units, as new restrictions introduced with the latest iteration of the console prevent the agency from installing the open-source operating system.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6240562.html?tag=latestheadlines;title;3 original link off gamespot

"it only does everything" theres no reason to be shocked anymore they said it it's their slogan what more? lol

It only does everything does seem appropriate right about now.

so, does that mean, if your PS3 is hooked up to the internet, and it is running, Somebody is stealing your processing power??? Or did I miss something here?

wow it really does do everthing

Why don't they manufacture and sell Phat PS3s, but charge at a higher price that would make it sell for a gain rather than a loss?

it only does, capture of child pornographers
and cures cancers =O

No they just got a bunch of physical ps3s that they bought together.

ok, because they do that with PCs...but the owner of the PC has to agree to let the process happen (yes this can happen over the internet.)

I wonder how this type of software would run on a GPU.

$ony to the rescue!!! PS3 Does Everything!!!!!