I guess Sony was absolutely right, the PS3 “It Only Does Everything”. Definitely not an exaggeration according Axcess News, who are reporting that federal officers have now started utilizing the PS3 to protect children from child predators.

“Bad guys are encrypting their stuff now, so we need a methodology of hacking on that to try to break passwords,” said Claude E. Davenport, a senior special agent at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Cyber Crimes Center, known as C3. “The Playstation 3 - its processing component - is perfect for large-scale library attacks.”

The information points out that the Playstation 3 can process 4 million passwords per second, cutting down on the time necessary to find the correct combination.

What other systems don’t have, however, is adaptability. Condon said that, unlike its fellow next-generation gaming machines, the PS3 lets users install Linux, a free, open-source operating system.

KEY REASON FOR PS3 USAGE:

The PS3 is also slightly more efficient and - at $300 each - $8,000 cheaper than the Tableau/Dell server combination the agents were using before, Skinner said.

Of course today the new PS3 Slim models no longer allow Linux installation. Regardless, if the PS3 is your console of choice it is great  knowing that it can probably do anything. By the way, please don’t throw your PS3’s out of the window to see if they fly. Sony has yet to offer a firmware update allowing that feature.

source