Accused of hacking by cops. need some expert thoughts.

[DanielVG]

Hi,

One of my friends has been accused by the police for hacking.
He went to a hearing and they told him a shop's agenda (-50km from his location) had been hacked, appointments changed etc, and it's coming form his IP.
I know him very well and i'm sure he doesn't have the technical ability to pull something like this off.
But the cops seem to be sure he's guilty.  He has not a single link to the shop or motivation why he should do this.
He suggested them his WIFI got hacked but the IP is coming form his personal computer.

Any thoughts about how this is possible?

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[DodoB]

If he realy didnt do antything you have nothing to worry about.... just stay calm 

[DanielVG]

yes, i told him the same.  
I just want to do some research to see how this is possible.

[DodoB]

yes, i told him the same.  
I just want to do some research to see how this is possible.

It is possible his computer was hacked and the hacker used his computer to break into that store. Things like that are likely to happen if you dont secure your PC from viruses malwares etc...

[Lethn]

if he's got wireless then that's stupidly easy to hack and very common, just seems to me that the police can't find the real hacker and they're looking for a scapegoat to me.

[DanielVG]

He has wireless, but the cops said if that was the case, when the wifi gets hacked, then the IP would be different.

[Lethn]

lol I think they're talking bullshit but you'd have to get an expert to confirm whether what they're saying is true because I.P addresses are completely unreliable when it comes to identification and they should know that, they're sounding more crooked by the minute

[nachius]

It is possible to spoof both IPs and MAC addresses to make traffic look like it is coming from elsewhere this is very common and could be the case or as mentioned if they compromised his actual computer it would be his computer MAC Address and his network's real world IP causing the issue.  Either way a professional IT type auditor can investigate to determine the likelihood of the 3 possible outcomes.

1.  He actually did it
2.  His computer is compromised
3.  The information is spoofed to look like his

[Stuff4BitcoinsM]

The wifi is likely to have one external IP... If he is using a router and has NAT setup then the outside world has little to no way to know which computer/device within his home network was or wasn't responsible. There might be various pieces of metadata logged (such as what browser the device was using) but the external IP alone isn't enough to determine which device was responsible.

Do you or your friend know any half decent network engineers? Or is there a college nearby with people doing their Cisco certifications? They should be able to help sort out the technical information needed to get your friend cleared (Assuming of course that he is innocent ).

[u9y42]

If he realy didnt do antything you have nothing to worry about.... just stay calm  

Sorry to say, but that's the worst advice ever...  

Anyway, as others have said before, IP alone can't be used to identify someone; see for example the following case (from 2011) http://www.zdnet.com/blog/networking/court-rules-internet-ip-addresses-are-not-people/1022.

As Judge Baker wrote, "In this case, not a single one of the plaintiff's 1.017 potential adversaries has been identified. … Moreover, VPR ignores the fact that IP subscribers are not necessarily copyright infringers." He also said that even when the ISP does provide an IP address' subscriber information that the subscriber may not be guilty of any crime.

EDIT: Added a quote of the relevant part, from the linked site.

[CoinGeneral]

Is it Target that he hacked?

I saw on the news lately that Target had been hacked and every customer's credit card information and other personal information have been compromised.

Vote for your first Cryptocoin here:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=418450

[Haidang1796]

don't worry dude, real gold doesn't afraid of fire. If your friend didnt do it then everything is gonna be fine

[hilariousandco]

Hi,

One of my friends has been accused by the police for hacking.

Oh one of your "friends". Nice try, hacker  .

He has wireless, but the cops said if that was the case, when the wifi gets hacked, then the IP would be different.

If they're telling your "friend" stuff like this then I wouldn't worry too much.

[BitcoinBarrel]

Your friend could have very easily been the victim or a backdoor virus or malware. It happens all the time. 

[E.exchanger]

Isn't these kind of news freaks anyone of you up i mean even if someone haven't done it but think about the problems one has to face by going to the court answering cops etc ahhhhhhhh disgusting i hope my norton is enough to keep me out of this mess !!