The federal government wants to obtain the capability to hack into video game consoles, all in the name of thwarting terrorism and pedophiles.

 

Obscure Technologies, a small San Francisco-based company that performs computer forensics, has received a $177,000 contract from the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Navy to create software that can penetrate the Microsoft Xbox 360, the Sony PlayStation 3, the Nintendo Wii and other game systems.

 

The contract is part of the “Gaming Systems Monitoring and Analysis Project” that began in 2008 when law enforcement discovered pedophiles used video game consoles to find victims.

 

Since then, national security officials came to the conclusion that terrorists may also use online games to communicate. Presumably the developed technology would allow the FBI or CIA to follow chat between players and access other information stored on the game systems.

 

The contract was signed by the Naval Postgraduate School, but the tools will be delivered to Homeland Security.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

Spy Games (by Michael Peck, Foreign Policy)

Feds Want Way to Hack Xboxes and Wiis for Evidence (by Kim Zetter, Wired)