Ringleader of RBS WorldPay Heist Faces Charges in US 52
Late in 2008, the most sophisticated and well-coordinated international e-crime yet pulled off netted $9 million for its perpetrators. We discussed the RBS WorldPay heist when news about it emerged, and the indictments some months later. Now one of the accused ringleaders has been extradited from Estonia to face charges in the US. "...in the span of 12 hours around Nov. 8 [2008], the group hit 2,100 ATM terminals in 280 cities spanning the world, from the United States to Russia to Italy to Japan. ... Despite the technical and international challenges of the case, US investigators believe they were able to trace the scheme back to its origin. On Friday they brought one of the accused ringleaders from Estonia to Atlanta to face arraignment on several fraud charges — a rare appearance in US courts for an accused international hacker. Sergei Tsurikov, 26, of Tallinn, Estonia, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment to conspiracy to commit computer fraud, computer fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. ... The increasing scope of foreign attacks comes as college students around the world are focusing heavily on technology degrees only to emerge into a difficult job market with low pay, officials said."
WorldPlay? (Score:3, Informative)
Isn't it World Pay?
Re:WorldPlay? (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, we use it for one of our websites. It is Royal Bank of Scotland WorldPay - as would make sense, as opposed to Worldplay. KDawson strikes again - obviously it'd be too much to ask him to spend 10 seconds editing as his job title would suggest.
http://www.rbsworldpay.com/ [rbsworldpay.com]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RBS_WorldPay [wikipedia.org]
Re:USA World police (Score:1, Informative)
perhaps he should have moved to a country that doesn't have an extradition treaty with the united states. (estonia has since 1935.)
It should maybe be clarified that, although Estonia has had an extradition treaty with the US since 1935, it hasn't been effective for most of that time.
For most of the time the treaty has been in place, Estonia was under the rule of the Soviets, and I suspect that there would have been no chance of getting someone extradited during that time. It was only from 1934 until late 1939 and then from 1991 that it was likely to happen.
However, your point stands as a good one, a smart Estonian would probably have shuffled over to Belarus or Russia after committing a crime of this magnitude to avoid any chance of extradition.
Re:USA World police (Score:2, Informative)
Wat do? Ask president Ali Abdullah Saleh if we can go into Yemen and kill the bad guys ourselves. [go.com]
Re:Send Him to PMITA Prison (Score:3, Informative)
You don't even have to offend anyone for laws to be ridiculously misapplied against you [economist.com]