Hackers Find Missing People For Fun

It all started when Rob Sell, a professional search and rescue tracker who also worked in computer security, became frustrated at how nobody was looking for many of the thousands of missing people. He decided to found Trace Labs, a project which uses crowdsourcing to enlist the efforts of hackers worldwide to find them. They select missing persons cases and then award hackers points for finding information on the missing people, creating a computer forensics competition for a cause. One great opportunity is going to hacking conferences like BSIDES and DEFCON and holding events where hackers there try their hand at finding the whereabouts of missing people. It's part of a new movement towards OSINT, or Open Source Intelligence. The primary tool is searching online and using the dark web for digital fingerprints - pictures, activity, or other digital fingerprints. When successful, hackers can find information the families and law enforcement have never had before - helping their quest to track down the person, or even finding them directly.

This is the first video in Freethink’s new series Digital Detectives. In it, we meet Nathalie St-Louis, a French Canadian woman whose father disappeared 30 years ago. She heard about Trace Labs and is hoping they can provide her information or hope on his whereabouts. We then follow Rob Sell as he sets up shop at a hacking conference and recruits a team of hackers to trace Nathalie’s father and other cold cases.

What do you think? Are these amateur sleuths helping a great cause or playing a silly true crime game? Let us know what you think in the comments!

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[freethink]

What do you think of the idea of open-source intelligence?

[mike]

Hacker 1: “Dude you suck at finding people”

Hacker 2: “Then 1v1 me you noob”

[faunaria]

Some hackers even took down child pornography sites. Honestly, the media should give them a bit of praise.

[lilporky]

If I die, delete my search history.



But if I go missing, send it to these guys.

And *then* delete it.

[nsacyber]

As someone who works in the cyber security field professionally, this is the kind of person we really all aspire to be. Not just protecting large corporations, but helping innocent people as well.

[xjbmiqc]

imagine the missing person being like
"You saved me.. But why?"
"Points."

[whooshwhoosh]

Its an interesting thing to realize, that when you're out in public and you're passing by hundreds of people walking through stores and at the park or wherever, some of those people are probably a missing person. But they're only a missing person to those who once knew them, to us they are just another random face in the crowd. You don't really ever think about how the guy standing in line in front of you might be somebody's child that missing years ago and about how badly someone wants to see them again but maybe never will.

[hellyeah]

Now it’s time for rainbolt to unite GeoGuessers and collaborate with TraceLabs. Their power will be unstoppable.

[peudtej]

"What's your job?"
"I'm a hacker for fun."

[_JustAnotherKid__]

“Hey Ferb, I know what *we’re gonna do today”*

[niranwashere]

I’m glad to see that people with this much skill are using it to do good in the world, when a lot of them could easily do a lot of evil for their own gain.

These are good people right here.

[-liittle-_MOVEDlikemonthsago]

imagine being so badass that you try to find missing people for fun

[frog_grotto]

“Can you help me?”

“Yes.”

What a compelling conversation

[nintonintendo]

"Hackers find missing people for fun"

Chaotic neutral at his finest.

[tanyaredfieldkelley]

This is RE my husband, Tim Welch we are separated. He is missing. It's over 2 months now. Police are not helping. It's a horrible situation, he was living on property in a 5th wheel. The lady who allowed him to move there, has a convict son. The son was out of prison, on that property on Friday and Tim went missing the next Monday.
I don't see that I can share his Missing poster.
He was broadcasted on Bakersfield CA news days ago. The police finally posted him as officially missing in under 2 hours before the broadcast. They let that guy run when he had stalled opening a U-Haul on the land, that he'd said had Tim's belongings. The cops did nothing when he ran. The cops confirmed there was another murder on that property. I'm told the suspect had told an autistic relative he would kill the relative's mother, if he didn't tell police he did the murder. He (autistic relative not understanding) plead guilty. He hung himself in prison.
The police knew the name of the guy we hear was bragging that he killed Tim and knew his address, said that he's known for crime and theft.
We've done 2 extensive grid searches.
His truck was being driven by the suspect and he also moved into the rv. It's in my name, so I went with others and retrieved it. We need help. His mother has paid someone with no detective background or real resources, $1500 a week for nearly 2 months. He is still missing.
This is so sad because we have no help from Kern County Sheriff's Department at all. He was living between Mojave and Rosamond, CA.
Note: his truck was found trashed, the police had it impounded into a regular impound yard, not held as crime evidence.

[hamarana]

I think schools should be a video game with nice rewards at each phase gone through

[giga_noob]

Saitama: "Just a hero for fun"

Hackers: "Just a hacker for fun"

[devinchrishaun]

*"Who ever finds her gets a free subscription of nord vpn"*

[Joan-phes]

Long time ago, in the 1950s, my Grandmother had a brother go missing. He was a farmer, married with a child who was chronically ill, and disappeared after taking a truckload of cattle to sell at market. No one knew if he'd been murdered for the cash he got or took off and was living somewhere unknown. Even into her eighties, she always wondered what happened to him.

He was found in the early 2000s (unfortunately after my Grandmother had passed) through an online genealogy site. He had moved to another town in the next state over, remarried, with a new family -- he hadn't even changed his name. Evidently it was easier to just disappear and start over then. But eventually, what had happened was found out.

[krystalMtn]

This is great for the genuinely missing person, but very scary in that there are those who will abuse the system claiming they are seeking a missing person. When in reality they are stalking that person, possibly with the intent to do harm.