Feds Want Way to Hack Xboxes and Wiis for Evidence

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/04/game-console-hack/

By Kim Zetter
Threat Level
Wired.com
April 9, 2012

Think twice if you live outside the U.S. and plan to sell your used 
gaming console.

The Department of Homeland Security has launched a research project to 
find ways to hack into gaming consoles to obtain sensitive information 
about gamers stored on the devices.

One of the first contracts for the project was awarded last week to 
Obscure Technologies, based in California, to devise a forensic tool 
that will siphon data from the Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 3 and other 
consoles.

The $177,000 contract requires the company to create new hardware and 
software tools that can extract data from gaming consoles, and to 
purchase used gaming consoles outside the U.S. to determine what data 
was left on them by previous owners that can be extracted, including 
information about communications with other gamers, according to Foreign 
Policy magazine.

Gaming consoles can store sensitive information such as passwords, 
credit card numbers and addresses. Newer systems also allow users to 
communicate with one another via messaging and chat systems, and the 
government is interested in knowing what data is stored in the systems 
and can be siphoned out of them. But the systems often employ 
anti-tampering technologies that can make extracting data from them 
difficult.

[...]


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