Hacking Ring Nabbed By US Authorities

Slatterz writes "The members of a hacking ring responsible for stealing more than 40 million credit and debit card numbers from retail organizations in the US have been caught and charged. The case before the US Department of Justice is believed to be the largest hacking and identity theft case ever prosecuted. The criminals allegedly obtained bank details by hacking into the retailers' computer networks and then installing 'sniffer' programs to capture card numbers and password details as the customers moved through the retailers' credit and debit processing networks."

will there be changes?

[CaptainNerdCave]

are security measures going to be changed with this revelation to the public? having seen the inner-workings of various bank and investment facilities, i can safely say that one doesn't need to go through any really complicated work to take financial information from consumers: most wiring closets aren't even locked.

More details

[hattable]

If you felt a little cheated by the lack of info in the 'article' the DOJ site [usdoj.gov] has more.

Re:Hacking?

[srjh]

hacking [wiktionary.org] (uncountable)

1. (computing) Unauthorized attempts to bypass the security mechanisms of an information system or network.

Hack [merriam-webster.com]

...4b: to gain access to a computer illegally

You may prefer to use other definitions yourself, but the usage here is perfectly correct.

indictment links

[ya really]

Links to the indictments of the top two suspects:

suspect 1 [usdoj.gov]
suspect 2 [usdoj.gov]

Re:Hacking?

[BPPG]

You can bet hackers didn't write those definitions. Those definitions are accurate in the context of mainstream media, but as the GP stated, this is /.

Better Article

[FSWKU]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7545212.stm [bbc.co.uk] has a much better write-up.

So now we will get even MORE draconian measures to stop the "evil hackers" when in reality, it was a combination of bad intentions, and old-fashioned stupidity. The article specifically mentions looking for "vulnerable" access points. This means that whoever set the network up for these stores did not do a proper job in securing said network. Also, why the HELL were the systems used to process credit card transactions on the same insecure wireless network? There is NO excuse for that. I'm not excusing what these guys did, but once again we have a case where whoever setup the hardware in these places needs to be held for criminal negligence.

Re:Hacking?

[pegdhcp]

Provided that this is still the /. that we all know, this [catb.org] should not be necessary, but one may never be sure about the level of truth...

Re:More details

[consonant]

As does Ars [arstechnica.com]..

Re:Slashdot is days behind the news

[Anonymous Coward]

Beats me. A while back you could tell the BBC's sci/tech section was taking cues from /., and now it's one to four weeks before the same news show up here, and usually linked to 'articles' with a lot less info.

July 8 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7495961.stm [bbc.co.uk]
Aug 4 http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/08/03/200240 [slashdot.org]

This was in Wednesdays newspaper!

[Rick Richardson]

This was in Wednesdays newspaper!

Kill some trees! Better than Slashdot!

Re:This was in Wednesdays newspaper!

[Redneck Hacker]

This was in Wednesdays newspaper!

It was also in Tuesday's /. [slashdot.org]

Re:Defendant worked for the Secret Service

[ya really]

I'm not really getting the thrust of your argument. Informants are, by definition, most likely to be criminals or criminal accessories. What's your point?

I believe his point is, they were supposed to be former criminals, in the past tense. Law enforcement's job is to see that they stay that way, not to go run amok with 40+ million credit cards.

In the case of the other informant he linked, the guy stole information directly from the Secret Service office's computers while the agents are on duty (though probably off viewing porn while the informant conducts non-authorized criminal activity). Mind you, they had a huge monitor displaying whatever the informant was doing on there aside from keylogging. Seriously, that's a huge lax on monitoring, if they can't even watch an informant in their own office. Makes you wonder if they are even capable of doing their jobs.

He's basically saying that this bust is just a front for the US government cleaning up a mess they created in 2003 by not initially locking this guy up or restricting his computer access/monitoring him more closely.

One other thing, the informant did absolutely no time for all previous criminal activity he conducted before turning informant, after his initial arrest in 2003 (which according to the FBOP inmate tracker [bop.gov], he is 27). Thus, he could have been doing this for some time. Basically, he got a free pass on whatever crime he did before his intial arrest, plus almost five more years of reeking havoc on the banking system. This is in sharp contrast to what most people would assume "informing" is, where a criminal cuts a deal for reduced time or perhaps probation/house arrest, but still gets charged. This guy however has not been charged, until now.

Re:Hacking?

[mixmatch]

Maybe because you are ignorantly trying to say that because they are black hats they should not be called hackers. The term hacker can be appropriately used to describe anyone with above-average knowledge on a subject and a desire to explore and tinker, usually outside the confines of what is expected or desired. Maybe you can educate yourself a little better before complaining on slashdot, Try reading some Kevin Mitnick [amazon.com], Michal Zalewski [amazon.com], or if nothing else Wikipedia [wikipedia.org].

Re:will there be changes?

[Anonymous Coward]

already done, patented and on the way for deployment (at least in Switzerland):

http://www.zurich.ibm.com/ztic/

Re:one time CC numbers

[maxume]

If you don't feel you are getting your money's worth from the annual fee, you should consider switching to one of the hundreds (thousands?) of cards available without an annual fee.

Re:will there be changes?

[bberens]

Or you could.. ya know.. discover that there's vulnerabilities inherent in the system and just use cash instead. Using cards (even debit) causes price inflation. Cash is king.