Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Cyber-criminal Left In Charge of Prison Computer Network

Posted by samzenpus on from the fox-in-the-hen-house dept.

samzenpus writes "A 27-year-old man serving six years for stealing £6.5million using forged credit cards over the internet was recruited to help write code needed for the installation of an internal prison TV station. He was left unguarded with unfettered access to the system and produced results that anyone but prison officials could have guessed. He installed a series of passwords on all the machines, shutting down the entire prison computer system. A prison source said, 'It's unbelievable that a criminal convicted of cyber-crime was allowed uncontrolled access to the hard drive. He set up such an elaborate array of passwords it took a specialist company to get it working.'"

8 of 389 comments (clear)

  1. Don't they... by daninspokane · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...hire these people for the FBI or something? At least that's how the movies go...

    --
    Slashdot is too nerdy for me.
    1. Re:Don't they... by eln · · Score: 5, Funny

      Nah, that's just what they tell the rubes at DEFCON to make them want to get caught. They go up and show a bunch of faked pictures of hackers in FBI t-shirts tanning themselves on the roof of the J. Edgar Hoover building with a couple of scantily-clad "analysts", and tell everyone how these hackers were so good that they ended up being hired by the FBI and are now living happily ever after. Meanwhile, the burned up corpses of these hackers are resting in an abandoned locker room in the middle of a post-apocalyptic hellscape near a satellite uplink station. You know, sort of like in The Running Man.

  2. Oh man... by david@ecsd.com · · Score: 5, Funny

    Where's a "whatcouldpossiblygowrong" tag when you one?

  3. God DAMN it! by david@ecsd.com · · Score: 5, Funny

    Some cyber-criminal stole my 'need'!

  4. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  5. Press release by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Chicken Coop, Inc. is proud to announce the promotion of Mr. Fox to the position of chief of security...

  6. Re:Six years? by gnick · · Score: 5, Funny

    Still, I think it is comparable to cubical life.

    OK, that may be the most ignorant, presumptive thing I've read all day. I've seen prisons and I work in a cubicle. The two situations are nothing alike.

    Prisoners get access to a gym and exercise yard...

    --
    He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
  7. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion