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posted by cmn32480 on Tuesday September 06 2016, @08:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the sniffing-out-technology dept.

CNN reports that URL, the porn-sniffing dog, is the newest crime-fighting tool at the Weber County Sheriff's office with a nose that could help put away some of the country's most predatory and dangerous criminals. URL (pronounced Earl) sniffs out electronic storage media. Still just a pup, the 18-month-old K-9 is one of fewer than two dozen such dogs in the United States that hunt the unique chemical compounds emitted from flash drives, memory cards, cell phones, iPads and other similar devices. While dogs like URL can't tell detectives if a device has electronic evidence on it, they are able to find devices that humans might otherwise miss.

Detective Cameron Hartman points to the high-profile case of former Subway spokesman Jared Fogle, who was convicted on child pornography and other charges last year. A K-9 named Bear, who was trained by the same man who trained URL, led investigators to hidden thumb drives inside Fogle's home. The US Attorney's office for Southern Indiana confirmed those devices contained evidence against Fogle. URL has found evidence relating to pornography during the execution of search warrants for the task force in several investigations of child sex crimes and child trafficking. "He actually found a USB that was in this jar that was closed, and the jar was in a box, and the box had stuff in it. The jar itself had stuff in it."


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  • (Score: 2) by jimshatt on Tuesday September 06 2016, @12:45PM

    by jimshatt (978) on Tuesday September 06 2016, @12:45PM (#398068) Journal
    I love the IoT! Soon I can store my porn collection on my lightbulbs.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday September 06 2016, @01:26PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 06 2016, @01:26PM (#398077)

    It'll be a deniability issue. When dude has a flash drive in his desk drawer with his fingerprints on it, that proves something. But when half of Russia and China and NK pown every IoT lightbulb and everyone knows is, having something on a lightbulb in your house proves very little.

  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday September 06 2016, @05:04PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday September 06 2016, @05:04PM (#398199)

    I wanna see the face of the cop who has to take every bulb and appliance out of the house because everything has a microcontroller or a flash chip, even the kids toys and the stinky pair of running shoes.
    "What's that Rex? The A/C and water heater, too? Come on boys, get the hacksaw! We gotta take everything that stores data!"

    (incidentally, if you understand that's absurd, have skills and something to hide, just store it in your furnace's controller)