Online security reporter Brian Krebs published an article Wednesday about “a Web site that sells access to consumer credit reports for $15 per report,” perhaps illegally. His popular Krebs on Security site was then targeted by hackers and …
On Thursday, he became one of the first journalists to be on the receiving end of a vicious hoax that prompted a raid on his Northern Virginia home by a swarm of heavily armed police officers. The tactic, known as “swatting,” has long been a favorite of depraved hackers. They use computers or special phone equipment to make emergency calls that appear to come from their target’s phone number. When a 911 operator answers, they report a life-threatening, sometimes horrific crime in progress. Police, often armed with assault rifles, descend on the target’s home, sometimes breaking down doors in the mistaken belief that their lives are on the line by gun-toting criminals carrying out home invasion robberies or drugged-out maniacs committing multiple homicides.
It was around 5pm. Krebs, 40, had just finished preparing his home for a small dinner party he had planned for later that evening. While vacuuming his home, his phone rang a few times, but he decided not to answer since he didn’t want to get held up. When he finished, he realized there was still some tape at the entrance of his house where Christmas lights had been. He thought it made sense to remove it before his guests arrived.
“As soon as I open the front door, I hear this guy yelling at me, behind a squad car, pointing a pistol at me saying: ‘Don’t move. Put your hands up,’” Krebs, who is a long-time friend and colleague, told me. “The first thing I said was: ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’”
In all, there were at least a dozen officers with pistols, shotguns, and assault rifles pointed at him. They had police dogs circling his house and cruisers had sealed off a nearby street. Krebs, who was dressed in just gym shorts and a T-shirt, complied. …
Read the rest of the story at Ars Technica. The issue of SWATting made headlines last year when Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) and 85 House Republicans called on Attorney General Eric Holder and the Department of Justice to investigate a series of SWATtings against conservative bloggers, including Mike Stack, Patrick “Patterico” Frey, Aaron Walker and Erick Erickson. Patterico advises Krebs that federal law enforcement appears either incompetent in solving SWATting hoaxes or indifferent to the problem:
My advice, Mr. Krebs: don’t put too much stock in the feds, unless you’re in Dallas, where they have a track record of solving such crimes. Here in California, I think I would have been better off with the locals, since Orange County Sheriffs have solved a similar crime, and so has LAPD, while the FBI doesn’t seem to care much about my case. I don’t know how things are in Virginia, but I am saying: don’t be too quick to assume the feds are always more knowledgeable and/or diligent.
The article states:
"They use computers or special phone equipment to make emergency calls that appear to come from their target’s phone number."
You don't even need "special phone equipment". If you know what you're doing, you can hijack your victim's own phone line to make the call to 911, using nothing more than a regular household telephone set.
And no one would be a wit the wiser.