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Ringleader of RBS WorldPay Heist Faces Charges in US
Late in 2008, the most sophisticated and well-coordinated international e-crime yet pulled off netted $9 million for its perpetrators. We discussed the RBS WorldPay heist when news about it emerged, and the indictments some months later. Now one of the accused ringleaders has been extradited from Estonia to face charges in the US. "...in the span of 12 hours around Nov. 8 [2008], the group hit 2,100 ATM terminals in 280 cities spanning the world, from the United States to Russia to Italy to Japan. ... Despite the technical and international challenges of the case, US investigators believe they were able to trace the scheme back to its origin. On Friday they brought one of the accused ringleaders from Estonia to Atlanta to face arraignment on several fraud charges — a rare appearance in US courts for an accused international hacker. Sergei Tsurikov, 26, of Tallinn, Estonia, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment to conspiracy to commit computer fraud, computer fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. ... The increasing scope of foreign attacks comes as college students around the world are focusing heavily on technology degrees only to emerge into a difficult job market with low pay, officials said."
Isn't it World Pay?
If he's found guilty, of course. Guys like these must be made examples off, so that it will deter future crimes like these.
I'm glad he's facing good old American justice. We are the best and the most aggressive in putting evildoers and troublemakers in prison, so justice should be well served.
Aint it cool how we can go grab someone from another country and force him to stand trial using our laws and rules.
Oh wait.. no... it's that other thing.... pretty stupid.
How long until some guy gets dragged into muslim land to stand trial for something their laws say. Well maybe not muslim land. we hate those guys... but what about someplace like china..
They have the pull to get the other countrys to dance to their tune.
Just FYI, it's RBS WorldPay, not WorldPlay
9mil? Pah, the guy won't even get an interview for a mail room gig at Goldman Sachs. 9 mil, what a joke.
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
Since when did book-learned college students accomplish anything? Look instead to the dropouts and the kids who went to the lower, more "technical" schools.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
He was making a PAY on words, fucker!
I think the flaw here was the ringleader(s) probably had was anonymity. They can't be identified by the cashers or tracked back by mail or cameras (because they went to a bank to pick up money, computer ip address etc), or other means. The timing sounds like it was done right. I doubt the FBI and law enforcement and everybody were able to pick up on it and trace it all fast enough to catch up with them in 11 hours. However I wouldn't have risked it because who knows when they picked up on it really. They were 'hacking' too. With somewhat legitimately obtained wealth nobody would have noticed the withdraws of significant quantities of cash. Or less likely. Even if they did the money would be legitimate as far as anybody could tell. The ringleader would still want to use cashers though just to be safe and a hangman to simultaneously get access to the cash without ever coming into contact with security cameras or people who could identity them as the ringleader. That would make it impossible to locate the funds after they go missing. The hangman would be the last person with the funds. And the hangman would only know he left the bag at a location x which has no cameras for the ringleader to pick up. Assuming this is all done within a very short period of time there just won't be anybody but the hangman to go back to and the cashers. Now how to spend that money? You might also have other issues to deal with like the IRS. If are you spending money and reporting no income they'll do certain types of reverse audits? I forget what it is called. But in any case there are problems to be solved... But I suppose those could be resolved simply by simulating a fake business that gets cash from fake customers and then reporting those "profits" to the IRS. I spent $100 on advertising and got back $2,000 on my return in cash. I suppose the only question that then needs to be answered is what business might you be able to convince them you are a success at you can make such profits with investing only $100 in and making $2,000 return? Maybe art? Time to buy some art I guess and pain in case the IRS comes round.
They shipped him from Estonia to Atlanta? Poor guy. No crime is worth going to Atlanta.
Hello, I'm your friendly translator here to convert the parent post into easily understood English. I will do so by pretending that I am the parent poster, so the following use of the words "I", "me", "my", and so on should be construed in that light.
Let me start off by saying that I approve of forcible rape in prison. I believe it is a good and right thing to promote among the prison population. You see, it acts as an effective deterrent to those who are considering a criminal act. Once they start thinking that their asshole might get torn asunder by the stereotypical black-dude-in-prison we so lovingly call "Bubba", they should reconsider their actions.
In fact, I would go so far as to say we should hold rape contests. Prizes are to be awarded to the prisoners who cause the most amount of bleeding, to those who have the most stamina, and a whole array of other achievements. Prison guards can identify prisoners deserving of extra-special justice and protect the rapists who go to work on the assholes of those prisoners. Through judicious use of a billy club and handcuffs, rape victims can be made to endure all sorts of demeaning acts upon their bodies.
All this because if you are sent to prison, then you must be sub-human and you deserve to have any human rights stripped away from you. I love American justice -- the land of the free and the home of the brave proudly supports waterboarding and forcible anal rape in prisons.
Thank you.
Have you got anything without fraud?
Well, there's fraud, egg, sausage, and fraud; that's not got much fraud in it.
I don't want ANY fraud!
What do you mean they cut the power? How can they cut the power, man? They're animals!
Late in 2008, the most sophisticated and well-coordinated international e-crime yet pulled off netted $9 million for its perpetrators.
I thought the banking bailout was for billions?
Late in 2008, the most sophisticated and well-coordinated international e-crime yet pulled off netted $9 million for its perpetrators.
It's the "most sophisticated and well-coordinated" one you know about, anyway....
Not so sophisticated and well-coordinated that it remained a secret, or that the ringleader didn't get caught, apparently.
Am I part of the core demographic for Swedish Fish?
Reminds me of the Monty Python spam sketch...
uncover a story of and 7he Bazzar corpse turned over this very moment,
"The increasing scope of foreign attacks comes as college students around the world are focusing heavily on technology degrees only to emerge into a difficult job market with low pay, officials said."
If you're coming out of college right now with a degree in some form Information or Computer security, then that's probably not going to be the case. From what I've heard, job placement for graduates at my university is pretty good.
If you are good then you wouldn't get caught. These guys weren't so good! That's probably why they couldn't find a job and why they were doing what they were doing.
Catch is in a tough job market, trust takes precedence over qualifications. Especially when you start squeezing down salaries of your computer IT staff. Stories like this will ramp up the fear factor, any hint of untrustworthiness will make successful job applications pretty hard especially in an interconnected world.
The other big thing of course, 'identity theft' (the credit card company lie for defrauding the accepted the false identity), ain't no such thing as identity theft in the cash economy, apart from of course stealing the identity of the currency itself.
Also get caught as a player and you will likely spend the rest of your life on an automated global digital watch list, every minute of every hour of every day, eww. Based upon past paranoid practices, expect stuff like required notifications to ISP at account opening for any convicted network cracker, even required notification to any computer based organisation that requests a log in.
When economic conditions are tough, is the worst time to play, as governments will seek distraction and people are looking to blame anybody for everything. Of course when conditions are tough, that's when the temptation is the greatest, interesting times.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
I wouldn't say no to a few million profit, but it seems a very small return for compromising so many banks. Might have been better to have sold the method to the banks.