Policer officers use PS3s to catch child pornographers

But some federal officers are using the gaming console to protect children and catch predators in real life.

"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."

C3 focuses on transnational Internet crimes, including child pornography that has crossed national boundaries. Those illegal images typically originate in Third World or developing countries, Davenport said. But when the child pornography enters the United States via placement on U.S. computer servers, it also enters C3's jurisdiction.