This would be particularly useful where a suspect's face is obscured by a "hoodie" or hat but a distinctive piece of clothing can be seen.

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When Brocious and I tested his hack at three New York hotels prior to his Black Hat presentation, his device was a messy two-piece contraption, with a circuit board wired to a separate battery pack, and it only worked on one of three rooms we tested.

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In a presentation at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas on Thursday, Patton explained how a piece of free software he'd created can automatically comb social networking sites, collecting and aggregating data based on keywords or other information like contact information, friends, and personal history.

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Riley Hassell and Shane Macaulay, two researchers with mobile security-focused Privateer Labs, plan to present two theoretical attacks on Android at the Black Hat security conference next month, both demonstrating new ways that a piece of mobile malware downloaded to a phone can surreptitiously exploit unexpected functions to gain control of the device, steal data, or make expensive phone calls.

FORBES: Researchers Show Android Vulnerable To App-Hijacking Attacks