Hacker Tries To Land IT Job At Marriott Via Extortion

wiredmikey writes "A tough global economy has certainly created challenges for many people looking for jobs, but one Hungarian man took things to another level in an effort to gain employment at hotel giant Marriott International. On Wednesday, the 26-year-old man pleaded guilty to charges that he hacked into Marriott computer systems and threatened to reveal confidential company information if Marriott didn't offer him a job. Assuming his efforts were working, with the possibility of a new job with Marriott in his sights, the hacker arrived at Washington Dulles Airport on Jan. 17, 2011, using an airline ticket purchased by Marriott for him. He thought he would be attending a job interview with Marriott personnel. Unbeknown to him, he was actually being 'interviewed' by a Secret Service agent posing as a Marriott employee."

Comments

IT Darwin awards?

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder if there is an equivalent of Darwin awards for IT/Geek/Nerd stuf...

2nd time an FBI article go "Varnish cache server"

[G3ckoG33k]

Once up, the article woouldn't load, but gave:

Error 503 Service Unavailable
Service Unavailable
Guru Meditation:
XID: 0000000000 [true number changed]
Varnish cache server

I had never seen the Varnishcache server before. So, I use Google, and one of the first hits is a link to a Slashdot article, also detailing FBI work: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,26358766 [dslreports.com]. Here is their discussion:

reply to antdude
Re: HideMyAss.com Doesn't Hide Logs From the FBI
said by antdude:
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/09/25/0415213/hidemyasscom-doesnt-hide-logs-from-the-fbi [slashdot.org]
Link doesn't work for me....
Error 503 Service Unavailable
Service Unavailable
Guru Meditation:
XID: 853827040
Varnish cache server --
GuruGuy

Ok, once is ok. Twice. Hmmm. Three would be a hit.

How do you submit a story that doesn't trigger anything human but only an automatic reconnaissance, or vice versa. It would be fun to see if this follows a pattern.

Individual vs. Corportate Extortion

[Required Snark]

So a guy tries to extort a jov from a big corporation and gets busted. Meanwhile, corporate extortion is alive and well.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-11-25/business/chi-state-lawmakers-poised-to-act-on-tax-breaks-for-sears-cme-20111125_1_income-tax-tax-credit-cme-group

CME Group, parent of the Chicago Board of Trade and Chicago Mercantile Exchange, has threatened to leave the state in protest of a temporary increase to the state's corporate income tax rate. The proposal would tax income from just 27.54 percent of electronic transactions on local exchanges, costing the state an estimated $100 million a year.

Sears, for its part, would see a renewal of a special taxing district in Hoffman Estates. This would allow Sears to continue to get a break on local property taxes, although at a lower level. Under the deal, the retailer also would also receive a state incentive package to retain jobs here. That would to include tax credits worth $15 million a year for 10 years, another $150 million in potential tax breaks.

So we know that the Hungarian guy was trying to use what he perceived as his individual power to force Marriott to give him a job. Now we see two large Illinois companies use their real power to skip out on their corporate responsibility to support the state. They consume a lot of state resources, and they use their political influence to be parasites and free loaders. Since they got away with it this time, what's to stop them from deciding that they are going to pay no taxes in the coming years, like GE did last year?

All I see is the rich and powerful get away with de-facto extortion, and the individual getting nailed for trying to extort. One set of laws for the rich, another set for the poor.

Re:Individual vs. Corportate Extortion

[Solandri]

So a guy tries to extort a jov from a big corporation and gets busted. Meanwhile, corporate extortion is alive and well.

If you cannot see the difference between these two, then you are suffering from an entitlement mentality. He is not entitled to a job at Marriott. Illinois is not entitled to have any company (or person) stay within their borders. If he does something to coerce Marriott to give him a job which they don't want to give him, that is fraud. If Illinois does something to coerce the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to stay in the state when they want to leave, that is fraud.

If he were already employed by Marriott and decided to quit, then there is nothing wrong with that. Likewise, if the Chicago Mercantile decides to quit residing in Illinois, there is nothing wrong with that.

Now we see two large Illinois companies use their real power to skip out on their corporate responsibility to support the state. They consume a lot of state resources, and they use their political influence to be parasites and free loaders.

Ever hear of the phrase "No taxation without representation"? It was one of the battle cries of the colonists during the U.S. Revolutionary War. Britain taxed them, but didn't give them representation in government (they didn't get a vote), so they had no say in how those taxes were spent. They felt that was fundamentally unjust, and was something worth fighting and dying for to correct.

Since you're ok with taxing corporations, and in fact see it as their responsibility to help support the state, then surely you must agree that corporations should have representation in government? No? Why not? You agree it's wrong to tax people while denying them representation, right? Our founding fathers were justified in their rebellion, right? But somehow some people have arrived at the belief that corporations should not be considered persons, and should not have any say in government, yet they should be taxed. If that's your belief, then it sounds more like it's government which is the parasite freeloading off of corporations.

Re:There are no labour camps in Hungary

[Hazel Bergeron]

It is a "hard labour camp" in the sense that you're required to work there if you want to eat, i.e. if you want to live. You won't be shot or beaten for not working - you'll just be left to die - but the outcome is the same. It's healthy to see that you have Stalin as a yardstick for what counts as going too far, right? And even in the gulag, reduction of rations or transfer were often the punishments given to those who refused to work. No transport costs, either.

Europe is gradually introducing an underclass in each state by turning jobseekers' allowances into a pay well below minimum wage in exchange for doing government work or work for private companies which have the government's favour. This underclass replaces labourers which used to be, well, paid a regular wage for what is regular work. The UK, for example, has recently begun Work Programme, and was last week planning to add to this a scheme whereby the government pays a proportion of certain employees' wages for a fixed amount of time so employers don't have to. It's all about special interests keeping a cheap fund of desperate workers.

Re:Doesn't that make all jobs hard labour camps?

[Hazel Bergeron]

Is a specific job immediately assigned to you with scant regards for your abilities and disabilities? Is starvation the only (legal) alternative to this job? Are worker protections not applicable for this job?

Re:Typical

[Zero__Kelvin]

You missed what the AC was trying to say, though one can certainly understand why. In another Slashdot article many were outraged that a non Thai citizen was subjected to Thai laws (actually, he turned out to have dual citizenship.) Those same people will likely, in many cases, argue the opposite here of course ;-)

Re:Typical

[mooingyak]

The cases aren't identical.

First, it's easier to sympathize with the Thai guy because I think that law is ridiculous. I understand that's an emotional reaction and not a basis for a rational argument, but I figured I'd put it out there instead of trying to pretend there's no bias in my thinking.

Second, and much more important for this argument, I'd be fairly surprised if what he did was legal at home. It's not like he traveled to the US and was suddenly surprised by the uniquely American distaste for extortion. His behavior was criminal in just about any place I'd care to travel to. He's being prosecuted by the US because he did it to a US company (and came onto US soil).

Re:Exit Strategy?

[Slashdot Assistant]

That's what I want to know. I can see two "positive outcomes" he could have hoped for.

1) After signing his employment contract with Marriott he would dismantle his backdoors in their systems and Marriott would obviously be stuck with him because the contract.

2) He would keep his backdoors in place, to use as leverage should Marriott attempt to fire him or change the brand of coffee in the office to one that is not to his liking.

No-one above the age of six should consider his plan to be anything but hopeless lunacy.

Your assessment is quite incorrect, actually

[Zero__Kelvin]

"Second, and much more important for this argument, I'd be fairly surprised if what he did was legal at home. It's not like he traveled to the US ..."

He didn't commit the crime at home. He traveled to the US over an IP link and committed it in the US.

"He's being prosecuted by the US because he did it to a US company (and came onto US soil)."

No, he is being prosecuted by the US because he committed a crime in the US and when he physically traveled to the US the US authorities no longer had the hassle of extradition as a barrier.