Slashdot Mirror
Criminals Target Tech Students With Job Offers
An anonymous reader writes "BBC News is running a story on criminal gangs targeting tech students. Some of these outfits offer to pay for an education in exchange for the student's employment on graduation in criminal hacking activities." From the article: " As the number of criminal gangs looking to move into cyber crime expanded, it got harder to recruit skilled hackers, said Mr Day. This has led criminals to target university students all around the world. 'Some students are being sponsored through their IT degree,' said Mr Day. Once qualified, the graduates go to work for the criminal gangs. As well as the direct route of targeting students, some organised crime gangs were trading on the glamour surrounding the 'hacker' label to help them recruit impressionable youngsters..."
it's a better job offer than the other offers most kids are going to get, and it appeals to their interests... why are people surprised?
Does this mean that legitimate companies, to keep up, will have to do the same thing?
Maybe they could even get into bidding wars over potential students/employees! This could only be a good thing...right?
Everything I need to know about copyrights I learned from Slashdot.
Sonny: Hey, whaddya gonna do, nice college boy, eh?
Hack, that's what!
Shit, where do I sign up?
how do i sign up?
For Slashdot users in the future, the year for this article is 2006. I'm just tired of having to guess the year of old Slashdot articles from their context.
Of course, I could be lying.
This isn't anything new really. I mean I even feel redundant saying this. Where there's commerce, there's crime. Where there's crime, there's organization. Gangs have simply moved on from convincing kids on street corners to steal some stuff into convincing kids in chatrooms to hack into some websites. It was only a matter of time.
that this article followed the one below. then again, i had friends who were offered support to finish medical school by the mob. kids, don't believe the hype! its not like that david duchovny movie 'playing god;, you don't always wind up with the boss's girlfriend; more often than not you wind up in the east river :)
to top it off, the watcha-mathingy is 'murders'
...vividly encapsulates that post-Watergate/pre-punk/coked-up moment when you could trust no one, least of all yourself.
I'm currently doing an IT internship for the Gambino family. The pay is good, I get medical & dental, and if anyone mods me down, they'll find out about some of the other perks of working in the industry.
This will reassure CS students that there are jobs lined up for them after they graduate!
No! No! No! Any hacker with even an ounce of skill is more than capable of setting up shop on his own. What you gotta do is offer the guy something he would never EVER get legitimately. What these criminal types REALLY ought to do is come on slashdot here and promise they can arrange regular *private* meetings with our favorite adult performers from the pr0n we all download.
Stay sentient. Don't drink bad milk.
The US military has been doing this for years. Sign up and kill people for 4 years and we pay for your degree. The GI Bill is quite nice. Also, while you are still in, the Veterans' Administration pays for 100% of your tuition and 50% of your wife's tuition.
I'd rather you do it wrong, than for me to have to do it at all.
Ahhhh, but do they offer dental? If not, they could probably manage to add you to somebody else's plan :-)
Say what you will, hacking (cracking, don't throw a fit) isn't exactly easy nowadays. Can anyone here honestly tell me that they can get me access to a given business's clients database in the next 48 hours ? Didn't think so. So what are the gangs getting out of this ? Are they getting on a hype bandwagon ?
This seems like a monumentally stupid way to recruit hackers. Let's see, leave a public record of you funding a student (rather than cold cash), then when he graduates, tell him, oops, you want him to break several laws. "Oh really? Well, thanks for the free education. Hey feds, over here!" *gets witness protection* *gets guaranteed income for life* *eliminates obligation to employer*
... er, why do you need to pay for his education again?
In order for this to work, you'd have to credibly threaten or capture a loved one. But if you've got the techie that way,
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
Wal-Mart. Big huge massive retail company. How much do you think it would be worth to K-Mart, or Target, or various other retailers, for Wal-Mart to just be down for a few days? Easily into tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars.
Sad part is, the person at the top doesn't even have to know what's going on. They just say "Hey write a program that will do this, and propogate. We'll give you a cool 100Gs." Kid says hells yea, takes a few hours, whatever, writes it, and gives it to them, collects.
Two weeks later, Wal-Mart plant sticks the little nasty into the Wal-Mart mainframe, and it gets disseminated to every single store in the company. The plant is nice and safe (removed by organization, or perhaps just left to fend for themselves, whatever), many of the people involved will never be caught, and the person that wrote it may not even know they were responsible!
Perhaps I should take off my tin-foil hat, but still, it's a helluva "What-If".
Ok,so now techies are also supposed to watch out when getting hired; not just lawyers like those in that John Grisham novel. :)
At least I hope not.
It will probably become a felony to accept funding from such groups first (if it already isn't) since its somewhat similar to bribery. Simply because if this were to spread to other professions, the impact could potentially be much worse (and could result in having a government like some third world countries where since the mafia is willing to pay more, the whole government is corrupt).
There is always a frontier where there is an open and willing mind
Criminal gangs should be able to offer some very "creative" fringe benefit packages. You want $200,000 a year? Or maybe $150,000 and a two hookers / week? Tax that!
Only boring people are ever bored.
Obviously, this is an avenue that criminals will pursue, especially with the way video games are emersing our youth with violence and crime, but aren't the smart ones going to figure this out and rise above?
The low risk of being caught and the relatively high-rewards on offer helped the criminal gangs to paint an attractive picture of a cyber criminal's life, said Mr Day.
Why exactly isn't there a fear of getting caught? Considering the way the RIAA and other orgs (FBI) is able to track internet users, why so anon? -devils advocate
SCO is hiring? I'm so in there...
I like big butts and I cannot lie.
All "hackers" who choosen to work for criminal organizations are not true hackers.
They are against the ways of the hackers! They choose to harm the internet! They don't deserve the title "hackers". What they really deserve is the title "crackers". For they have chosen such unspeakable unethical career!
-Happy Hacking, Kiba
Geeks like to think that they can ignore politics, you can leave politics alone, but politics won't leave you alone.-RMS
And what's their motto?
:P
DO evil?
Uh... Bribery is not illegal. There are certain types of bribes that are illegal, but much like being a monopoly, it is not inherently illegal. You know, if I offer may local mayor a new car in exchange rezoning some land I own, it's a crime. If I offer my son a new car in exchange for mowing the lawn, I may be a crappy parent, but I certainly have not committed a crime.
Previously they were called "CEO's".
Now we just come out and say it.
they could just get a degree the same way "Michael Parker" from Mitnick's first book got one.
Monstar L
Not a specific one, but *any* business' client database? Yes, definitely.
Webster's can't even be counted on for correct spelling. Here is the definition of the English word.
Don't kid yourself. It's not that organized.
Sony ha
I just had a headhunter call me the other day regarding an open position at SomeBigSearch Engine.
I had never conducted business with me before. We had never talked. In order to submit my application to the company, he stated that he needed me to give him my SSN#. I spent several minutes explaining that I do not give out my SSN to strangers, never mind when I initially submit my resume to a company. He was incredulous at my reluctance.
Now, I'd imagine there is a huge untapped market, of soon to be graduating students, here.
I'd bet there is a good entry level organized crime position just waiting to be filled cold-calling prospective employees.
If you give the mayor $25,000 and he understands what a zoning variance is, it's a good value for the money.
If you give the mayor $25,000 and he doesn't understand what a zoning variance is, it's a bad value for the money.
If you give the mayor $25,000 and neither of you understand what a zoning variance is, then it's your fault for not giving your money to a better candidate.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
...I thought it was going to be about the new ms recruitment drive.
nt
"Professionalism"
"I will maintain professional" - Doh!
"Professionalism"
"I will maintain professional" - Doh!
"Professionalism"
"I will maintain professional" - Doh!
"Professionalism"
"I will maintain professional" - Doh!
Stupid "professionalism", take that, argg, and that, ugff,....
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
To many people Microsoft is an illegal 'gang'. This is based on its numerous convictions for illegal activities in many countries of the world, and its ongoing defiance of the laws in basically all jurisdictions of the world.
To the best of my knowledge, Microsoft hires IT grads.
Yes, but this is not how "hackers" make money. They make money by selling spam and pop-ups sent through bot nets. And also by phishing email/websites. (Although the latter is extremely traceable, so it only seems to be done by people in countries where they don't do anything about it, like the former Soviet bloc.)
Apparently Verizon and whiny liberals are both bad at math.
Don't get me wrong -- I love and respect our soldiers. That so many step up to do their duty gives me hope that America may yet survive. But statistically far more Americans are killed by medical accident, influenza, a host of other causes.
Let's not pretend that for an American going to war is more dangerous than commuting on the freeway. It was so once, but it isn't any more.
If you want to be honest and still win points with Hanoi Jane, argue that it costs money. That at least is true.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Did anybody notice that this BBC story is based entirely on a report, "McAfee Virtual Criminology Report http://www.softmart.com/mcafee/docs/McAfee%20NA%20 Virtual%20Criminology%20Report.pdf and an interview with one of its authors?
This report -- from 2005 -- doesn't have anything that you couldn't have already read on Slashdot or the newspapers.
The BBC didn't check McAfee's claims with another source. The McAfee report doesn't say anything about criminals paying tuition for students to study computer science. The McAfee security analyst didn't give any details. The BBC didn't ask him the obvious question, "How do you know?" Did he talk to a student like this? Did he find it in court records? Or did he hear it from another security expert after a few drinks?
Has McAfee been reliable in the past?
That's isn't new, they always pay better than anyone!
If the value of the IT were more then this could be different, but is not.
ghostbar page.
Three years ago, Wired had an article written by a guy who does tech support for the Mafia.
Can anyone tell me how to set my sig on Slashdot?
Medical, dental? How about a retirement package?
What we *had* here was a failure to communicate.
:-P"
1 237124/ref=ase_mitnicksecuri-20/103-6052457-813506 9?v=glance&s=books
...
That seems to be clearing up, somewhat.
If you remember just a few, scant years ago, this discussion would be full of:
* "Your a moran"
"How about that tin foil hat"
"You watch too much TV"
"I guess you are a leet hacker dude
and so on.
Perhaps Kevin (TM) has helped us understand what has been perpetrated on us for years (witting or unwitting social engineering).
The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/047
So the internet does make us smarter, eh?
For example:
The Kennedy assassination made the word "conspiracy" a knee jerk, almost unconscientious reaction to discount whatever followed as ludicrous.
As an exercise let me roll this past you.
If the Japanese in WWII could have attacked every home in the US by way of their radio set top box (a "brown note" for electronics), to start fires in every home
http://www.schmarder.com/radios/crystal/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_note
do you think they would have conspired with College (engineering) students to help them?
Criminals are now MBAs, Engineers and Rocket Scientists.
Your desktop could be mocking you.
* [yes, it's misspelled]
~hylas
Dishonesty, in the context of financial transactions, certainly is illegal.
Education is expensive. Wouldn't it cost less to outsource the hacking jobs to India?
As "hacker" for a big organization you will not work alone. A nice guy with a wad of Dead Presidents will persuade the minimum-wage night guard to open the back door at 03:00. At 03:01 you get in, reboot the Windows server in safe mode, install a backdoor and leave in 03:15.
coming out of the netherlands from this place
http://www.cyberbunker.com/
a place with an interesting history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CyberBunker
run by this guy
http://www.xennt.com/
who is responsible for creating this
http://www.unifiedroot.com/
backed by an internet notable ....
http://www.unifiedroot.com/dynroot/page_100/
some interesting stories for those who read dutch ,,,,
http://www.netkwesties.nl/editie137/artikel2.htmll
http://www.netkwesties.nl/editie140/artikel1.html
http://www.netkwesties.nl/editie141/artikel3.html
http://www.netkwesties.nl/editie141/artikel3a.htm
http://www.netkwesties.nl/editie141/artikel4.html
Fallout from operations started last year ... government of turkey involved.
http://www.publicroot.org/news-2005-09-30-resignat ions.html
just goes to prove criminals have many faces. regards joe