Coppers raid Hacker of the Year's houseThe road to jail is paved with good intentionsBy Nick Farrell: Friday, 16 November 2007, 8:15 AMINSPECTOR Knacker of the Swedish Yard has swooped on the home of a hacker who found holes in encryption systems used by world-wide embassies.Dan Egerstad, a security consultant, intercepted data carried over the Tor network and obtained access to 1000 sensitive email accounts. He warned various government bodies about the hole in the system but could not get anyone interested until he published details on his webpage. Egerstad also told members of the press.According to AP, it seems that the authorities were not amused and rather than giving him a medal for showing how hackers from other countries could be reading their mails, they sent the plod around with a warrant.A week after the news broke, four agents from Swedish National Crime and the Security Police searched his apartment, confiscated his computers and bundled him into a car for questioning.Egerstad said that he suspected he was being watched because blue and grey Saabs had been parked outside his house for a while.The coppers left no stone unturned, they broke his wardrobe, short circuited his electricity, pulled out speakers, phone and other cables having nothing to do with the offences and even had a look at his accounts.He said that once they got him to the police station they tried every trick they had seen on bad US cop shows including "good cop, bad cop" and " crazy mysterious guy in the corner not wanting to tell his name and just staring ."They tried to say Egerstad was involved in a theft ring because he had eight PS2s in his flat, but he happens to run a company that sells PS2s so that went nowhere.In the end the coppers had to let him go without charging him although they are hanging onto his computers, meaning that his business is suffering.
