Slashdot Mirror
Default Passwords Blamed In $55M PBX Hacks
An anonymous reader writes "The Washington Post is reporting that the US Justice Department has indicted three residents of the Philippines for breaking into more than 2,500 corporate PBX systems in the United States and abroad. The government says the hackers sold access to those systems to operators of call centers in Italy, which allegedly made 12 million minutes of unauthorized phone calls through the system, valued at more than $55 million. The DOJ's action coincides with an announcement from Italian authorities today of the arrest of five men there who are suspected of funneling the profits from those call centers to terrorist groups in Southeast Asia."
I'm just amazed they found somebody willing to pay almost $5 per minute for long distance.
If factory-set default passwords were used to gain access to the systems and use them, what exactly did they 'hack' ?
That would seem like a typical case of unauthorized use of a system to me, but hardly qualify as 'hacking'. When legal charges are to be brought, use a correct description of the crime, will you?
"Your honor, there was a gaping hole where the door used to be! I didn't even have to touch the doorknob!"
"I don't care! Since a computer system was involved, you broke into the place, understood?"
Am I the only one that finds this "terrorism" link a bit absurd. Having travelled in SE Asia I sincerely doubt that this money was filtered into "terrorist" hands. All that has happened here is that a small number of enterprising Philipino's have made themselves rich enough to retire (rich enough for their kids to retire in the Philipines). If they've been caught then they've just made the cops rich enough to retire as well.
It just seems the "evil terrorist" card is played every time law enforcement fucks up and wants to keep people from questioning that.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.