The Great Cyberheist

theodp writes "In this week's cover story, the NY Times Magazine delves into the mind of Albert Gonzalez, the hacker who is currently doing time (the longest sentence ever handed down for computer crime in the US) for masterminding attacks on the nation's leading retailers, reportedly costing TJ Maxx, Heartland, and other victimized companies more than $400 million. And that may just be the tip of the iceberg. 'The majority of the stuff I hacked was never brought into public light,' said one of Gonzalez's partners-in-crime. Another claims there 'were major chains and big hacks that would dwarf TJX. I'm just waiting for them to indict us for the rest of them.' Online fraud is still rampant in the US, but statistics show a major drop in 2009 from previous years when Gonzalez was active. While reportedly not a gifted programmer, even the Feds that Gonzalez two-timed admired his ingenuity, likening him to top CEOs. When asked how Gonzalez rated among criminal hackers, a prosecutor replied: 'As a leader? Unparalleled. Unparalleled in his ability to coordinate contacts and continents and expertise. Unparalleled in that he didn't just get a hack done — he got a hack done, he got the exfiltration of the data done, he got the laundering of the funds done. He was a five-tool player.' Accounting for time served and good behavior, Gonzalez is expected to get out of prison in 2025." Last June Rolling Stone ran a long profile of Albert Gonzalez written by Sabrina Rubin Erdely; they have dusted it off now that producer Eric Eisner has embarked on the development of a feature film based on Erdely's piece.

Comments

from the skool of bad journalism :)

[viralMeme]

Yet another 'journalist who thinks he's the new Tom Wolfe :)

Biggest Cybercrime of All Time

"Albert Gonzalez remained focused on business — checking his laptop constantly, keeping tabs on the rogue operators he employed in Turkey and Latvia and China, pushing, haranguing, issuing orders into his cellphone in a steady voice. "Let's see if this Russian asshole has what I need," he'd say calmly. Then he would help himself to glass plates of powder, each thoughtfully cut into letters for easy identification: "E" for Ecstasy, "C" for coke" link

"Dude," he wailed, "I can't fucking read!"

Dude, you can't write :)

Re:from the skool of bad journalism :)

[devbox]

I loved this part

Before long, he discovered Internet Relay Chat, a web forum popular with hackers who discussed the how-tos of breaching Internet security at its highest levels.

the long tradition of bigging up criminals

[petes_PoV]

All media reports of (caught) cyber-criminals (or just plain "criminals" as they actually are) stresses how talented, or brilliant or "mastermind" they were. None of them were simply petty crooks that just happened to use a comuter rather than a jemmy as their tool of trade.

You could be forgiven for thinking that the world of the cyber-criminal is wholly populated by geniuses who have "gone bad", or the sorts of people that James Bond regularly vanquishes. Where are all the averagely intelligent, nondescript, stupid-but-lucky criminals who stalk the world of online, as they do the ordinary underworld?

The answer, I suspect, is that they're the very same people who are described above, but who's skills are exaggerated by police forces all over the world in an attempt at self-aggrandisement. To make their own lucky breaks appear to be much more significant than they actually were. Just as anglers everywhere have stories about the "massive" catches they made when no-one else was around I reckon the police are pursuing the same policy to try and convince the public that they, too are masterminds. Hmmm.

People Don't Want To Understand Cybercrime

[Black Gold Alchemist]

People think cybercrime is about misbegotten geniuses launch attacks using incomprehensible methods. They think cyberwar is about vast arrays of foreign hackers breaking into our high tech military systems and stealing our secrets. However, that's not what cybercrime and cyberwarfare are about. Cybercrime and cyberwarfare are about people bruteforcing some bigshot's low strength password. It's about some stupid spyware program exploiting some obvious old bug in windows and emailing your credit card to the former USSR. It's about your grandma downloading a set of "kitty" icons and infecting her computer with a botnet virus. It's about some small-time hacker calling up one secretary and getting the CEO's username, and then calling another and getting the CEO's password. These problems can't be solved by advanced security systems. They have to be solved by people. It's kind of like trying to fight cave-dwelling terrorists with a high-tech stealth bomber.