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T-Moblile Cracker Pleads Guilty
hackajar writes "The Register is reporting Nicholas Lee Jacobsen plead guilty to cracking into T-Mobile's phones. He was picked up in mid October of last year in the "Operation Firewall" sweep by the FBI. He faces "maximum five years' prison and a $250,000 fine" according to the site."
"If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living."
- Seneca
As I recall, he wasn't picked up in the Operation Firewall sweep (although he would have been), instead, he turned himself in several days before the arrests.
Secondly, the maximum five year/$250,000 fine thing is standard for a single felony. In all likelyhood he will get MUCH less, especially because he cooperated and plead guilty.
Here is an article about Operation Firewall. Interesting that wikipedia does not yet have an entry on it... http://www.viruslist.com/en/news?id=154205192
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/12/hacker_pen etrates_t-mobile/
The Secret Service doesn't just protect the president. They also police money fraud(ie counterfeiting), since they are part of the US Treasury dept. A large amount of their work isn't classified.
A great deal of inter-organisation banter is considered 'unclassified' so it makes sense to use public systems that are already in place - saves money all round. Also workers will send personal stuff like banking and email to friends and family, it's got to leave the 'secret service' building somewhere.
I seriously doubt he got anything hard core. Air Gap - (and no, I did not say WiFi gap)
*buzzer* Wrong.
Sorry you fail at finace.
http://wfhummel.cnchost.com/banklending.html
Basically the bank lends money out of the money deposited in it. It has to keep a certain amount of liquid cash availible, but it can actually have less on hand cash then it has money in its accounts. This is done by having the banks borrow money from the FED. If you were to try your scheme you would quickly find yourself out luck when the Fed refused to loan you any more money and called in your debt plus interest.
Banking like anything else in a market economy a giant balancing act between supply and demand. The money "made out of thin air" is called profit. Its this wonderful concept of when you have something worth less to you than someone else is willing to pay you for it, both of you make money. Since the other guy would have paid more somewhere else and you would have taken less somewhere else.
In this case it is refered to as "interest on funds loaned". You make a loan in expectance of it being paid back with interest, and people loan you money expecting you to pay them back with interest.
At least you are right on your last point. To scam involves gaining money at someone else's expense. If everybody gains then there is no scam. Just as there is none here.
since they are part of the US Treasury dept
Used to be part of the treasury dept. They are now DHS
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