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?
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.
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.
I kind of see your point...but doesn't the military already do this? They offer to pay for college, you agree to serve for 6 years or whatever. Does it make a difference if it's a private company?
:)
I know that some companies will help pay for your education if you agree to continue working for them for a certain amount of time after your education is complete. It's not so different, right? This is just getting them younger.
Of course, my original comment was more of a joke
Everything I need to know about copyrights I learned from Slashdot.
Actually, it is true that what most tech-savvy people expect from an IT job is a good combination of comfort and challenge (see Google's very long list of fringe benefits).
If you're a student, such an offer is definitely more tempting and self-rewarding than working in a cubicle.
if an attacker had access to wal*mart's systems, shutting them down for a few days would be a bad way to do it, instead attack trust and dependability.
screw up certain shipments for holidays, occasionally add an item or three to credit card purchases, add a hundred bucks to random debits.
then at the end transfer all credit card numbers, debit card numbers, signatures, and PINs to a third party
halting operations would be bad for walmart, leaking EVERY SINGLE credit card transaction processed by walmart would be much worse long term.
the attack could be even more effective if the pharmacy/medical records kept could be leaked. people get pissed when their viagra perscription gets posted on the internet
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
True, but only to an extent.
Many companies offer benefits in return for service (as you mention), the difference isn't in really in what the companies offer, it's in what they do.
If we just looked at offers - then there is not much difference between a lobbyist giving a politician large sums of money and someone donating to charity. Both are giving money away right? But the law looks at more than action - it looks at intent (thankfully). Which means that accepting money from a criminal enterprise is very different than accepting money from a legitimate company.
There is always a frontier where there is an open and willing mind
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?