Rush to put death records online lets anyone be 'killed'
Rush to put death records online lets anyone be 'killed'
AFP By Glenn Chapman 8 hours ago
Las Vegas (AFP) - Hackers at an infamous annual Def Con
gathering in Las Vegas got schooled in how to be online killers.
A rush to go digital with the process of registering
deaths has made it simple for maliciously minded folks to have someone who is
alive declared dead by the authorities.
"This is a global problem," Australian computer
security specialist Chris Rock said as he launched a presentation titled
"I Will Kill You."
The process of having someone officially stamped dead by
getting a death certificate issued typically involves a doctor filling out one
form and a funeral home filling out another, according to Rock's research.
Once forms are submitted online, certificates declaring
the listed person legally dead are generated.
A fatal flaw in the system is that people can easily pose
as real doctors and funeral directors, Rock demonstrated to a rapt audience.
Doctors practising general medicine often don't bother
setting up accounts at online portals for filling out information for death
certificates.
An aspiring online assassin can step into that void, and
borrow the identity of a doctor.
Setting up accounts requires a doctor's name, address,
and medical license number. A basic Internet search will turn up that
information, which is publicly available for the well-intended purpose of
letting people check that physicians are legitimate before seeking care.
Drop down boxes containing illness categories and online
guides are available for filling in "doctor speak" on forms and
avoiding medical causes or circumstances that might trigger needs for autopsies
or investigations, Rock's demonstration showed.
- No one off limits -
Borrowing a funeral director's identity to establish an
online account for death certificate purposes was shown to be simple as well.
Required information about legitimate funeral directors is posted on the
Internet, and one could even claim to work at a funeral home.
In Rock's case, he made a website for a bogus funeral
home and used that to back his application for an account as director. He got
an automated call days later saying he was approved.
With both online accounts in place, deaths can be
registered in the real world.
"You could kill anyone you want," Rock told AFP
after the presentation. "No one is off limits."
A humor-infused list of scenarios included killing
oneself off to get life insurance cash or going after others for vengeance.
Someone targeted might not even know they were declared
dead until doing something official like trying to renew a passport or driving
license.
Rock began digging into the death industry a year ago
after an Australian hospital accidentally declared 200 patients dead.
- Virtual babies -
Getting birth certificates for virtual babies was
demonstrated to be even easier than killing off people in the digital world,
because registering births online only involves doctors and parents.
"Once you log on as a doctor, not only can you kill
someone, you can actually birth someone," Rock said.
Given the time it takes for even a make-believe baby to
grow into adulthood, he saw that as more tempting to crime gangs who could
invest in the future by creating legions of virtual people for shady doings
involving loans, stock trading, imports or other activities.
"You could even make fake identities for your
children, so when they grow up they have burner identities," Rock said.
He dove into virtual birth and death in his book titled
"The Baby Harvest: How virtual babies become the future of terrorist
financing and money laundering."
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