Turkish Hacker Depletes 10000 Bank Accounts
Zaman Online, Turkey - Dec 20, 2006
A criminal enterprise comprised of 10 individuals who drained the accounts of 10580 customers by sending virus-infected e-mails was busted in Istanbul. ...
This is old, from attritions , going postal, i love those guys ....But its making news. Rehberg aide fired over failed grade hack
Great Falls Tribune, MT - Dec 23, 2006
"I need to urgently make contact with a hacker that would be interested in doing a one-time job for me," Shriber wrote to the computer-security Web site ...
There are several interesting scams listed in the UK in this story.
Of the many techniques described, my personal favorite is this:
"The bugging of cash machines with an MP3 player was master-minded by 41-year-old computer expert Maxwell Parsons, from Gorton, Manchester.
He secretly attached portable MP3 players at the back of freestanding ATMs in bars, bingo halls and bowling alleys so he could illegally tap into telephone lines used by customers during transactions.
As bank details and PIN numbers were punched in, data was recorded onto Parsons' MP3 players as it was transmitted down phone lines.
He then used computer technology to "translate" the tones from the transactions and used the stolen data to clone new credit cards.
The stolen data was used by accomplices to buy £200,000 worth of goods. "
It's incomprehensible to me that they are sending the PIN in the clear down the phone line, yet that must be the case or else the phone tap would not recover it. Or at least, that must be what is functionally happening, perhaps via a very weak hash of the PIN or some other ineffective system.
Now there's a way that the NSA could self fund. Just think of the budget relief!
More seriously, this technique would work by monitoring VOIP traffic, if the ATM's phone line is VOIP. So now the wheels are turning...
"Men entrusted with power, even those aware of its dangers, tend, particularly when pressured, to slight liberty." - , The Church Committee, April 26 (legislative day, April 14), 1976
So I was deciding on if I should post this, but they arrested the little 16 & 17 year old "hacker" vixens...That will teach em! There is a buzz so...
The female students are accused of hacking into their school district's Web site and scheduling a Snow Day. The district had originally published notification of a one-hour delay, but as the two students knew the system's password, they were able to adjust the notice to a full Snow Day.
Too bad they got caught. It's certainly more inventive than forging a note from mom and dad, but I do encourage these little rapscallions get some community service.
Amsterdam, Netherlands (AHN) - A 17-year old was arrested by the police for stealing virtual furniture from the "rooms" of users of the popular social networking website, Habbo Hotel.
During questioning at the station, the police "played every trick in the book, good cop, bad cop, and crazy mysterious guy in the corner not wanting to tell his name and just staring at me."
However, the arrest of Roberto Preatoni, reportedly on charges related to a well-publicized Italian spying scandal, has not affected the organization's day-to-day operations, according to a statement released by the Switzerland-based group.
WabiSabiLabi confirmed in the statement that Preatoni had been arrested, but said it could not comment on the case. According to press reports, Preatoni has become involved in a corporate spy scandal along with a group of penetration-testing employees at his former company.
United States Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced that on Thursday, October 25, 2007, a federal grand jury returned an indictment involving JOHN ESCALERA, 29, of Fresno and GUSTAVO RAZO, JR., 28, of Pasenda, California, with conspiracy, honest services wire fraud, unauthorized access of computer and identity theft related to a grade changing scheme perpetrated against the California State University, Fresno.
shit, that sucks... Roberto is a pretty alright guy. Heh, he's a bit stocky, parties a lot, and basically tries to sleep with any women he sees... of course i like him. Hope he gets out soon and all remains well. Although it doesn't seem like this is the usual harassment over his 0-bay site. Maybe there's more to his past that i don't know.
heh, that's not as cool as little Habbo people with lockpicks or throwing bricks through windows... but i will admit that i have a really hard time understanding people who are spending real money on fake pixels of furniture that they use in their fake online apartment. People with that much free damn time on their hands should be forced to volunteer at hospitals or to read to the blind or something.
"I'll admit I had an OiNK account and frequented it quite often… What made OiNK a great place was that it was like the world's greatest record store… iTunes kind of feels like Sam Goody to me. I don't feel cool when I go there. I'm tired of seeing John Mayer's face pop up. I feel like I'm being hustled when I visit there, and I don't think their product is that great. DRM, low bit rate, etc... OiNK it existed because it filled a void of what people want." - Trent Reznor
heh, that's not as cool as little Habbo people with lockpicks or throwing bricks through windows... but i will admit that i have a really hard time understanding people who are spending real money on fake pixels of furniture that they use in their fake online apartment. People with that much free damn time on their hands should be forced to volunteer at hospitals or to read to the blind or something.
It's also important to note that Habbo has an unspoken policy of making it really easy for their users to fraudulently acquire those funds to furnish their cyber dream pad. From what I understand the user (target market ages 10-16) calls a premium telephone number, think 976, in which case mommy and daddy are billed $9.95 for crude pixels of a plasma screen and a ps3. This is from what I gather from word of mouth and in no way should this be considered factual but instead is merely hearsay. I won't waste the time to create an account to find out.
What we deem to be of value to pay real world cash for in the online world is something none of us can actually judge, just because its a few bits in a computer doesn't mean its not worth something to someone, somewhere. I think I shouldnt need to point that one out.
In my opinon what we are seeing is todays generations version of the our toys. You could see this as either a downfall in social skills or an advancement in early childhood development. Our toys and games were tangible, the dog chewed them up, you traded with your playmates, your mum stepped on it in the middle of the night. This habbo thing is just as primitive in the big scheme of crap you can do with your computer. If kids are obviously into it than it could prove to be the extension of characteristic and cognitive development that we didn't get to have. An evolution of learning, play and skill development, It's not necessarily a bad thing. My grandma certainly didn't understand my need for video games.
But then again, I'm a twunt who just so happens to know I'd be pretty pissed if someone ganked my gear from my pally. I don't pay anything more than a monthly fee for my account, but it's real world consumerism for online time. I place a value on the time it took me to complete my 900 mini quests to get some stupid looking sword. Or it could just mean that since we both *might* agree that " people who are spending real money on fake pixels of furniture that they use in their fake online apartment" *might be* totally lame or that *maybe*we are both just getting old.
Ehh...just my thoughts.
This guys a "cracker" not a "hacker". Intelligence is the difference here. The media got it wrong again.
While I'd certainly like to agree, media defines culture, and thanks to them sensationalizing the word, "hacker" has become a blanket term for people who break the law using computers.
One Nation Under Surveillance
"War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength."
The term "cracker" is not to be confused with "hacker". Hackers generally deplore cracking. However, as Eric Raymond, compiler of The New Hacker's Dictionary notes, some journalists ascribe break-ins to "hackers."
This is why 'the media" is entertainment and NOT news. For this reason the media is never to be respected for accuracy, truth, or integrity. Perhaps another reason why newspaper subscriptions nationwide are at an all time low while one rag fails after another (unplug and unsubscribe and they literally begin to go away) . The media's power is derived from any power you give it through your subscription and your agreement to buy from their corporate sponsors. The morons the media report on attempt to define culture through their behavior and not the other way around. One could say that the media's bias in reporting might influence cultures other than those living on a desert island. They also understand the more they repeat a lie the more likely its chance is of becoming "their" truth presented as entertainment value for you.
Last edited by Greyhatter; January 6, 2008, 11:15.
Though Media can force changes in the common definition of words, they are not immutable to being changed.
Consider the policing of how certain words are used by various special interest groups.
As an example, the word, "homeless," is almost never used to describe someone who is without a home, if they commit a crime. Instead, such people are assigned the label of, "drifter," or "vagrant."
Through enforcement of word use in the media, "protected words," help various causes avoid negative association.
If the word, "homeless," were used equally for criminals without homes and for people without homes that are not criminals, but have hit hard time, and people with mental problems on the streets, advocates for, "helping the homeless," would have a more difficult time selling their idea. People would (rightly or wrongly -- no judgment here, and no politics) make an association: "crime follows homelessness." (This kid of association is a powerful influence for many humans that don't understand correlation is not causation.)
Similar kinds of word protection can lead to changes over time. For example, Indian to Native American, to Indigenous People, back to Indian, then to specific tribal name instead of a forced grouping of all their nations into one conglomerate.
Similar kinds of word protection have been found in crippled, disabled, handicapped, "special," disenabled, and differently-abled.
All of the above share special interest groups that put pressure on the media (and elsewhere) to only use their protected words where, "appropriate."
If you want to make, "Hacker," a protected word, then you have two things to resolve:
1) A Special Interest Group to work as the above, to make, "Hacker," a protected word.
2) An alternate to the word, "Cracker," since it has collision in the racial slur namespace, often used to refer to, "white trash," or white racists.
This is why 'the media" is entertainment and NOT news. For this reason the media is never to be respected for accuracy, truth, or integrity.
By people like us, no. But to the majority of people, the media represents the voice of truth, alerting them to important issues and keeping them safe. Thus, if the media defines a "hacker" as a computer criminal, most of society will adopt that definition.
For all intents and purposes then, it has become true. Calling a hacker anything else is really just arguing over semantics- the societal definition of hacker is a bad one. Though I wish this weren't the case.
One Nation Under Surveillance
"War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength."
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