PatrickPretty.com

Tag: Metropolitan Police Service

  • As Part Of Counter Terrorism Awareness Week And Prevention Campaign, New Scotland Yard Says ‘Vulnerable People Are Being Brainwashed Through Social Media’

    Hamza Nawaz. Source: Metropolitan Police Service.
    Hamza Nawaz. Source: Metropolitan Police Service.

    British police nationwide are calling “upon communities to help tackle terrorism” in the wake of the arrests and subsequent convictions of two brothers accused of attending a terrorist training camp in Syria and returning to the United Kingdom, the Metropolitan Police Service said today.

    Mohommod Hassin Nawaz, 31, was sentenced to four and a half years in prison. Younger brother Hamza Nawaz, 23, was sentenced to three years. The brothers, the service said, were stopped at Dover port in Southeast England at 3 a.m. on Sept. 16, 2013, after traveling on a ferry from Calais in Northern France.

    A search of their silver Peugeot, the service said, resulted in the discovery of :

    • Five rounds of 7.62mm ammunition “suitable for the use in a range of rifles and assault rifles.”
    • Numerous mobile phones and a SIM card, containing “images, video clips and text messages relating training camps.”
    • A “balaclava and heavy duty clothing,” including boots covered in dust.
    • A total of £2,400 in cash.
    • Travel documents identifying their movements.

    “Officers found communications on their phones indicating that they had attended a terror training camp located in the Latakia province of Syria,” the service said. “Detectives believe that the brothers had cultivated an extremist mindset over a period of months prior to their travel.”

    The Internet is being used to poison thinking, the service said.

    Mohommod Nawaz. Source: Metropolitan Police Service.
    Mohommod Nawaz. Source: Metropolitan Police Service.

    “As more vulnerable people are being brainwashed through social media, police call for parents, carers, friends and colleagues to be alert to the signs of extremism,” the service said.

    Said Chief Constable Sir Peter Fahy, national policing lead for the Prevent Programme: “The police cannot be in every mosque, college or other community venue monitoring what is discussed and the doctrines which are promoted. Nor would we want Britain to be such a society.

    “We need parents, schools, partners, friends and colleagues to be aware of the signs that someone is being influenced by extremist messages and have the confidence to report any concerns to the police,” he continued. “Look out for notable changes in behaviour and mood; those vulnerable may begin to express extreme political or radical views, or appear increasingly sympathetic to terrorist acts; their appearance may change along with the friends that they spend time with or they may start to spend excessive time on their own or on the internet.”

    Also see report/video on BBC.com.

    The Metropolitan Police Service also is known as New Scotland Yard.

  • TERROR IN LONDON: Horrifying Scene Unfolds On Busy Street As Man Believed To Be British Soldier Hacked To Death

    From ITV News
    From ITV News

    Prime Minister David Cameron called a meeting of the United Kingdom’s emergency co-ordination group (COBR) today after a man believed to be a British soldier reportedly was hacked to death on a public street near a military barracks.

    “I’ve been briefed by the Home Secretary about this absolutely sickening attack in Woolwich in London,” Cameron said in a statement.  “It is the most appalling crime. We are urgently seeking, and the police are urgently seeking, the full facts about this case. But there are strong indications that it is a terrorist incident. Two people at the scene of the murder were wounded by the police, and they are being treated as suspects.”

    A video from ITV News has emerged of a man holding a bloodied meat cleaver and apparently taking credit for the attack.

    Home Secretary Theresa May called the attack “sickening and barbaric.”

    Said Commander Simon Letchford of the Metropolitan Police Service (italics added):

    At approx [2:20] pm (local time) we were called to reports of an assault in John Wilson Street, Woolwich where one man was being assaulted by two other men. A number of weapons were reportedly being used in the attack, and this included reports of a firearm. Officers including local Greenwich officers arrived at the scene. Shortly afterwards firearms officers arrived at the scene. On their arrival at the scene they found a man, who was later pronounced dead. At this early stage I am unable to provide any further information about the man who has died.

    Two men, who we believe from early reports to have been carrying weapons, were shot by police. They were taken to separate London hospitals; they are receiving treatment for their injuries.

    I can understand that this incident will cause community concerns, and I would like to reiterate that we are investigating what has taken place today. The MPS will investigate the circumstances that led a man to lose his life and the IPCC, as is routine, will investigate the circumstances in which police discharged their weapons.

    There will continue to be an increased police presence in this area, and the surrounding areas this evening. That presence will continue as long as is needed. I am asking people to remain calm, and avoid unnecessary speculation. I will update you again as soon as I am in a position to do so.

    From the BBC.

    From ITV:

    From MailOnline.

    From The Guardian.

  • KABOOM! 16 Arrested In Alleged DDoS Attack Against PayPal; FBI Executes 35 Search Warrants ‘Throughout The United States’ In Cybercrime Probes

    EDITOR’S NOTE: Having experienced DDoS attacks that crippled our ability to publish and inform readers, researchers and victims of Ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes and other forms of fraud about investigations, arrests and court cases, the PP Blog is not sympathetic to the points of view of the attackers and their apologists.

    Readers and researchers have come to rely on the PP Blog as an important information source. Victims and persons affected by various schemes visit the Blog daily, as do financial institutions performing research on potential trouble spots and law-enforcement agencies at the local, regional, national and international levels.

    The PP Blog, whose monthly costs have increased more than tenfold owing to sustained DDoS attacks beginning last fall, frequently writes about the incongruities that often accompany Ponzi and other fraud schemes. Hackers, DDoSers and cyber bullies use the same type of illogical and incongruous “explanations” to rationalize their particular brand of crime.

    DDoS attacks, cyber intrusions and cyber bullying chill speech and threaten domestic and international security, thus putting both commerce and the free marketplace of ideas at risk. Period.

    It is simply untrue that hackers, cyber bullies and DDoSers are the modern-day equivalent of freedom fighters. Simply put, they are anarchists who do not respect private and public property, rules of decorum, the rights of sovereign nations and the rights of people living free or yearning to live free. Nor do they respect the rights of merchants, information purveyors and their customers, clients and readers to have access to the marketplace of commerce and ideas.

    Many of the attackers and cyber bullies, though, would have you believe the opposite — that they’re serving a higher good by bringing down a server, by harassing people and companies on the Internet and even cackling about it, by subjecting their targets to economic and potentially even physical danger, by forcing their will on individuals and entities with whom they have political or philosophical disagreements.

    Here, now, the story of yesterday’s arrests . . .

    The FBI arrested 16 individuals and executed more than 35 search warrants “throughout the United States” yesterday in a coordinated response to cyber attacks, including last year’s DDos attack on PayPal and intrusion attacks on AT&T and on InfraGard in Tampa Bay.

    InfraGard is an FBI-led, public-private partnership that shares information on terrorism, intelligence, criminal and security matters.

    Separately, authorities in Europe rounded up five more individuals for alleged cyber crimes.

    Although some of the alleged attackers apparently see themselves as advocates for a free exchange of ideas and modern avengers for societal injustices, the U.S. Department of Justice described them as free-wheeling marauders who attacked two famous companies and the FBI-led public-private partnership.

    After WikiLeaks “released a large amount of classified U.S. State Department cables on its website” last year, members of the Anonymous hacking group retaliated by executing a “coordinated”  DDoS attack on PayPal, which had blocked WikiLeaks’ ability to collect donations for a Terms of Service violation, U.S. officials said.

    Anonymous, according to the Justice Department, even had a name for its PayPal assault: “Operation Avenge Assange.” Beyond that, WikiLeaks itself declared that PayPal was trying “to economically strangle WikiLeaks,” the Justice Department said.

    Julian Assange, who is under investigation in Sweden for alleged sexual assaults, is the founder of WikiLeaks. He has denied wrongdoing.

    In bringing the attacks, members of Anonymous compromised the ability of legitimate PayPal users to access the PayPay website, the Justice Department said. Fourteen people were charged in a federal indictment brought in San Jose, Calif., that alleges a conspiracy to damage protected computers at PayPal.

    Named in the San Jose indictment were Christopher Wayne Cooper, 23, aka “Anthrophobic”; Joshua John Covelli, 26, aka “Absolem” and “Toxic”; Keith Wilson Downey, 26; Mercedes Renee Haefer, 20, aka “No” and “MMMM”; Donald Husband, 29, aka “Ananon”; Vincent Charles Kershaw, 27, aka “Trivette,” “Triv” and “Reaper”; Ethan Miles, 33; James C. Murphy, 36; Drew Alan Phillips, 26, aka “Drew010”; Jeffrey Puglisi, 28, aka “Jeffer,” “Jefferp” and “Ji”; Daniel Sullivan, 22; Tracy Ann Valenzuela, 42; and Christopher Quang Vo, 22.

    One individual’s name was withheld by the court, the agency said. The reason was unclear.

    Charged in the Middle District of Florida in the alleged InfraGard attack was Scott Matthew Arciszewski, 21. The Justice Department described him as a hacker who uploaded files without authorization and provided instructions “on how to exploit the Tampa InfraGard website.”

    Meanwhile, in a complaint in federal court in New Jersey, Lance Moore, 21, of Las Cruces, N.M., was charged with stealing information from AT&T and posting it on a public file-sharing site.

    The Metropolitan Police Service in the United Kingdom also made a cyber-crime arrest yesterday, and the Dutch National Police Agency made four arrests, the Justice Department said.