The Beastest of Hackers
quarta-feira, 29 de maio de 2013
Kevin Poulsen
Kevin Poulsen, also known as “Dark Dante,” gained his fifteen minutes
of fame by utilizing his intricate knowledge of telephone systems. At
one point, he hacked a radio station’s phone lines and fixed himself as
the winning caller, earning him a brand new Porsche. According to media,
he was called the “Hannibal Lecter of computer crime.” He then earned his way onto the FBI’s wanted list when he hacked into
federal systems and stole wiretap information. Funny enough, he was
later captured in a supermarket and sentenced to 51 months in prison, as
well paying $56,000 in restitution. Like Kevin Mitnick, Poulsen changed his ways after being released
from prison. He began working as a journalist and is now a senior editor
for Wired News. At one point, he even helped law enforcement to
identify 744 sex offenders on MySpace.
Jonathan James
Jonathan James was known as “c0mrade” on the Internet. What is his
ticket to fame? He was convicted and sent to prison for hacking in the
United States–all while he was still a minor. At only fifteen years of
age, he managed to hack into a number of networks, including those
belonging to Bell South, Miami-Dade, the U.S. Department of Defense, and
NASA.
Yes, James hacked into NASA’s network and downloaded enough source code to learn how the International Space Station worked. The total value of the downloaded assets equaled $1.7 million. To add insult to injury, NASA had to shut down their network for three whole weeks while they investigated the breach, which cost them $41,000.
Yes, James hacked into NASA’s network and downloaded enough source code to learn how the International Space Station worked. The total value of the downloaded assets equaled $1.7 million. To add insult to injury, NASA had to shut down their network for three whole weeks while they investigated the breach, which cost them $41,000.
Albert Gonzales
Albert Gonzalez, known online as CumbaJohnny, was the mastermind
behind shadowcrew.com, a black market website for hackers to sell stolen
credit card numbers, Social Security Numbers, passports, and just about
any other type of information imaginable. But when he got arrested for
credit card fraud in 2003, he switched sides and became the key
informant for the government in "Operation: Firewall," a massive program
designed to take down hackers. Thanks to Gonzalez's assistance, 28
hackers, scattered across eight states and six foreign countries, were
indicted on charges of selling around 1.7 million credit card numbers.
For his assistance, Gonzalez was immune from all charges and was offered
a job at the Secret Service. With the Secret Service looking over his shoulder, Gonzalez developed a
new online persona known as "soupnazi" to help snare hackers for the
U.S. Government. But once he left the office for the day, soupnazi
partnered with hacker Maksym Yastremski (aka Maksik), a Ukrainian whose
sales of stolen credit card information were said to have reached $11
million between 2004 and 2006 alone. To get credit card numbers for Maksik to sell, soupnazi and his
hacker friends began "wardriving" – driving around town with a laptop
hooked up to a powerful antenna, looking for wireless network signals
they could breach. From the parking lots of major stores like TJMaxx,
Target, Barnes & Noble, and many others, they installed "packet
sniffers," software that can sit on the server undetected and grab data,
like every credit or debit card transaction, from the store's
vulnerable computer network. The sniffer then sent the credit card
information over the internet to one of Yastremski's PCs in Turkey,
allowing them to collect thousands of valid credit card numbers.
Meanwhile, two European cohorts hacked Heartland Payment Systems, one of
the largest credit card payment processing companies in the world, and
stole card information from an astonishing 130 million transactions.
With the two operations combined, Gonzalez and Yastremski were sitting
on a virtual goldmine. With an influx of cash, Gonzalez bought a brand new BMW, and blew
thousands of dollars every weekend with his hacker friends on drinks,
drugs, women, and swanky hotel suites. That year, he also threw himself a
$75,000 birthday party. By this time, Gonzalez was no longer working
for the Secret Service, who suspected he was up to no good but couldn't
find any evidence. Gonzalez had taught the feds much of what they knew
about hacking, so he also knew how to cover his tracks. Their
suspicions were confirmed when Ukrainian authorities caught up with
Gonzalez's partner, Yastremski. After searching through the files on
Yastremski's seized computers, investigators found records of over 600
instant message conversations about acquiring stolen card numbers for
sale. The IM name Yastremski was talking to was registered to the email
address soupnazi@efnet.ru. Gonzalez and 10 others were indicted in federal court in August 2008.
Gonzalez pleaded guilty to all charges and, in March 2010, was
sentenced to 20 years in prison. It's been estimated that the companies
hit by soupnazi and his crew have spent more than $400 million to cover
the damages done by these 11 men and their 11 computers.
Jeanson James Ancheta
Just because you're using the mouse and typing on the keyboard
doesn't mean you have complete control over your computer. If you're
connected to the internet, your PC could be a "zombie," an unwilling
member of a "botnet." A botnet is a large network of computers that have
been infected with the same virus that will force them to perform some
function for the "bot herder," the person who created and controls this
illegal network of PCs. Usually, the herder will have your PC send out a
few spam emails without your knowledge, or it could become part of an
army of computers repeatedly contacting a website, forcing the site to
shut down, in what is known as a "Denial-of-Service" (DoS) attack.
Because DoS attacks are automated, they can often go on as long as the
hacker controlling it would like, opening up the perfect opportunity for
extortion (Pay up or the DoS will continue). For 20-year-old high school dropout Jeanson James Ancheta, creating
botnets became easy thanks to software he discovered online. As he
continually expanded his army, he set up a website where he rented his
zombies to spammers or hackers, complete with price ranges and
recommendations for the number of zombies needed to complete the dirty
job at hand. At one time during the course of his 14 month crime spree,
it's estimated that Ancheta had over 500,000 computers at his disposal,
some of which were owned by the U.S. Navy and the Department of Defense.
Business was good, as Ancheta was able to buy a used BMW, spent about
$600 a week on clothes and car parts, and had around $60,000 in cash at
his disposal. But the fun ended when Ancheta became the first person to be indicted
for creating a botnet after getting caught as part of the FBI's
"Operation: Bot Roast," a nationwide push to bring down bot herders. In
2006, he pleaded guilty to four felony charges and was sentenced to 57
months in prison, forced to give up his car and the $60,000 in cash, and
to pay restitution of $15,000 for infecting federally owned computers.
Kevin Mitnick
Using the alias "Condor," Kevin Mitnick's first big hack was a Department of Defense computer, which he gained access to when he was only 16 years old. His most famous crime in his younger days was stealing $1 million worth of software from computer company Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). So when the FBI began investigating him in connection with a hack of the California Department of Motor Vehicles in 1992, he was determined not to get caught again and made a run for it. While a fugitive from the law, Mitnick continued to use a laptop and cell phone to break into computer networks and telephone systems across the country, stealing software, files, access codes, and anything else he could get his hands on, including some 20,000 credit card numbers. After evading capture for over two years, the FBI tracked Mitnick to an apartment in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he was arrested on February 15, 1995. Thanks to a plea agreement, Mitnick spent five and a half years in prison. However, eight months of that time was in solitary confinement after federal prosecutors convinced the judge of the ridiculous notion that Mitnick could launch nuclear warheads by simply whistling the proper tones into a telephone receiver. Since his release, Mitnick has become a well known speaker at hacking and security conferences, as well as the head of his own company, Mitnick Security Consulting.
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