Hacking : Be Afraid...Be Very

[radhak]

AFRAID!

Fascinating story about the super hacker Albert Gonzalez here : The Great Cyberheist.

He was caught in high school hacking into NASA. Then at 22 he was caught siphoning off cash hand-over-fist (literally) from ATM machines, after which he became an informer and helped catch many of his then cohorts. But while being an 'insider' he built up yet another world wide network of cyber-thieves who ended up with information for hundreds of millions of customers (yes, read that number again, its not a typo).

The ease with which they got data from all mega-stores like Target, Marshalls, TJMaxx, etc is unbelievable; and there were 500 banks that they 'owned' ! If this were a movie with George Clooney (or even Justin Long) in it, I'd dismiss it as over-hyped and under-researched; after all, such things don't happen in real life, right?

Of course, seeing that he was not wallowing in billions of $, just about $1.5 millions buried in the back-yard probably tells the tale - I'd never notice if any of my transactions were topped-up by a few cents each time, and that's what they seem to have done.

Take your time and read that article : 10 pages long, but unstoppable page-turner.

I am happy he's in jail, but worried he's coming out in 2025 !

[leehljp]

That was a very interesting read. He is very intuitive and observant in many fields - computer tech as well as human behavior. Without a sense of morality, those two combos with the intelligence that he obviously had - can and did reap huge sordid gain. Anyone can observe things but those who can observe and deduce the relationship of different objects to each other - they operate on a different level. This fellow had that ability.


In addition to hacking, personal info for HR as it relates to personal job application (as well as job security) is out there readily available.

A person's email address, handle or name alone can be googled. Companies are doing this. This is not even hacking. Public interaction on the internet becomes public for anyone. HR's have a wealth of material at their fingertips that go way beyond one's resume.

[footprintsinconc]

you are right about not able to stop reading....and i am not even a reader. interesting and amazing story. i guess i can see this happening already from all the stories i hear from my friends that are in the computer and IT field.....how there is very important financial information just sitting there for IT guys to get their hands on...

it is scary, but he seems to be think of his actions and hopefully when he comes out, he will be a better person. if he isn't out doing this stuff, there is another somewhere else that we dont know of.....

[smorris]

His attacks while interesting, broke no new ground, he just exploited weakness in the victims infrastructure which by any measure should not have been there.