How hackers' spiteful squabble ended in a Scotland Yard raid

Excellent overview of what's going on with high-profile hacktivism

LulzSec: the members and the enemies

Guardian correspondent seems to have got a lot more info than the independent piece yesterday.

Inside the secret world of the geeks with the power to unleash anarchy

Sort of interview with a sort of hacker...from the Independent

FBI targets cyber security scammers

Yippee! Scareware shut down! Latvia involved in the scam. [and in closing it down...credit where it's due!]

Battle against car crime being won

Reads rather like a press release. Its about vehicle thefts, not car crime. Generally agreed that theft of vehicles was replaced by theft from vehicles. Figures?

British student: my ordeal at hands of Greeks over trumped-up death charge based on "lies"

Very unpleasant story about the Greek police and the Greek criminal justice system...

Merchant ships could be armed to tackle pirate threat

Includes a "privacy fact graphic"...Private security firms offering protection, so UK government likely to allow merchant ships to arm themselves. I cant remember why they didnt allow this in the past, but they used to claim there were very good reasons!

The war on drugs' bitter blowback

Mexico...and tales of the ATF selling guns to cartels, allegedly knowingly. Your blogger complained at the start of this insanity, but the role of US agencies turns out to be worse than his wildest imaginings

Drugs barons accused of destroying Guatemala's rainforest

I'd love to see empirical research comparing drug barons and US beef barons for fast food companies. But read and be outraged greenies!

Turkish arrests intensify global war between hacker activists and police

Yet again, abuse of conventions against organised crime to arrest dpmestic dissidents. 32 members of Anonymous in Turkey? Yeah sure there are

Anna Raccoon's post on the Steven Neary saga

I referred to the role of bloggers in an earlier post about the Steven Neary case. Here's One of them, with loads of links explaining the case in more depth.

Spanish police website hit by Anonymous hackers

They claim it was in retaliation for the arrest of three Spaniards alleged to be "core" members of the group

Phone-hacking scandal: Jonathan Rees obtained information using dark arts

This is the article I referred to in the previous posts. Some astonishing allegations in it about what a private detective may or may not have done for journalists...

Police investigating a wider timescale for hacking scandal

This story continues to expand. This is a fairly tame version of the allegations now beginning to emerge. It's not just the timescale that is changing, but the nature of the hacking, too. A new name has entered the frame as well...I'll see if I can dig out the story from the Guardian.

Muslims call for action against hate crimes

Unpleasant stuff, but all part of the criminal picture. Report coming out in September by Bob Lambert.

Machete wielding bank robbers jailed

Sorry about the ad in this link. The story reminds us that bank robbers are still robbing banks. Organised crime still does the simple stuff as well as everything else.

Chief's war on 'jobsworth' police

Quotation from the article in the Telegraph:
"The Home Secretary, Theresa May, recently blamed police chiefs for creating most of the red tape that swamps their officers.
“A great deal of the day-to-day bureaucracy that police officers encounter is actually generated by their own force,” she said.
“Every single senior police officer should be asking themselves what they personally are doing to rid their officers of red tape.""

Stop blaming everybody else and change your culture, boys and girls in blue!

Mark Neary: victory over autistic son, 21, 'trapped in care'

This has been a nasty little story, and opens up a new area for criminologists: crimes of the bureaucracy. There has allegedly been a great deal of abuse of power, partly because councils and social services have been able to use confidentiality as a means to prevent public scrutiny of their actions. There are many more cases in the pipeline, affecting the vulnerable, be they single mums, the separated, the sick or the elderly. A number of bloggers have fought against this in the UK and deserve congratulations, especially if this now causes a change in behaviour on the part of public servants...some hope, eh?
This is another aspect of the superinjunction scandal. Its not just celebrity shagggers who use superinjunctions. It's "civil servants"...Our employees.

Four men jailed over global paedophile ring

Thought to have made £2 million over 7 years. Not a lot of detail about how the crime was organised.

IMF cyber-attack led by hackers seeking 'privileged information'

Probably a state-run effort, or even state-sponsored. At least somebody thinks the IMF is still important. There's a lot going on in cyberspace.