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Call Us Immediately if Your Child Uses Kali Linux, Squawks West Mids Police

posted by martyb on Saturday February 15 2020, @12:27PM   Printer-friendly
from the can't-be-too-secure... dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/02/14/silly_police_infosec_parental_advice_poster/

The UK's National Crime Agency has publicly distanced itself from a poster urging parents to call police if their child has installed Kali Linux, Tor or – brace yourself – Discord.

Issued by the West Midlands Regional Organised Crime Unit (WMROCU) via local area councils, the poster in question lists a slack handful of common infosec tools – as well as some that clearly have nothing to do with computer security.

Should your child install Kali Linux, virtual machines (the image on the poster looks like Virtualbox) or internet privacy tool Tor, West Midlands Police wants to know immediately. And if – Heaven forfend – your sprog installs Metasploit to learn how to secure code, uses free chat service for gamers Discord, or gets a Wi-Fi Pineapple for research, you may as well report straight to your nearest prison and abandon your tainted offspring forever.

Here is a link to the poster in question.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by theluggage on Saturday February 15 2020, @02:48PM

    by theluggage (1797) on Saturday February 15 2020, @02:48PM (#958513)

    Be alert if you find your local law enforcement official, or one of their assistants or advisors, is using any of the following on their computer:

    • Word processing software such as MS Word
    • Presentation software (including MS Word, Publisher and Powerpoint)
    • Other so-called "Desktop publishing" tools
    • Colour printers (look out for discarded "ink cartridges" which can be a sign of printer use)
    • "Microsoft Windows" or "Mac OS" which are common "operating systems" used to run the above.

    These tools can be used to create "posters" including convincing-looking "graphics" and "logos" that may fool innocent and vulnerable morons into thinking they were produced by people who know what the flying fuck they were talking about. Being taken in by one of these can lead parents to have their children permanently stigmatised by a "non-criminal incident record" (a.k.a. creepy 'pre-crime' policing theatre) as well as wasting the time and damaging the reputation of the majority of police officers (at least in the UK) who actually give a shit about doing a good job.

    If you think your local law enforcement official may be using these tools - or if you're just paranoid because you've read this scary warning - please tell someone immediately so that they can be re-directed to getting on with their fucking job.

    Remember - you wouldn't believe these notices if they were written in crayon, so why do you believe them when they're written in MS Publisher or posted on Tw@tter?

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