Cyber-Crime Hall-of-Fame

[Ehtyar]

PC-Mag posts their Cyber-Crime Hall-of-Fame.

There are all sorts of crimes, but the ones that probably happen most often and hurt the most are crimes of opportunity—breaking into a house with an open window, nabbing the wallet from a purse left unattended, stealing an unlocked car, etc. Now, for the average Joe, breaking into NASA's infrastructure and bringing online giants like Amazon to a grinding halt would not fall into that category; for someone with in-depth networking and computer know-how, though, it's a different story altogether.

Often the greatest tech crimes in history have little more reason behind them than "because it was there." More often than not, a hacker sees an open window—a hole in system's security, a backdoor, etc.—and climbs on through. And they don't do it for any real worldly gain, but merely to prove that they can. That's not to say that there isn't malicious intent underlying some attacks (take Vladimir Levin's $10.7 million hoax on CitiBank, for example). And we're not saying that all hackers are bad guys, but a few fall prey to the dark side and use their talents for evil—not good.

Full Story

Ehtyar.

[Renegade]

This one is just funny:

Gary McKinnon
Never underestimate the power of curiosity. In 2001 and 2002, British hacker Gary McKinnon gained access to Air Force, Army, Navy, NASA, Pentagon, and Department of Defense computers—97 in total—in a quest for evidence of flying saucers. Officials claim damages from his entry range close to $700,000. Though charged and convicted in the U.K., McKinnon is currently facing extradition to the U.S., which could mean up to 70 years in prison

70 years when all he needed was $2.50 worth of tin foil for a nice hat.

[jgpaiva]

Renegade: I wonder if he actually found something and they are getting him into prison so that he can't speak out
hihi.. now that's conspiracy

[Edvard]

They forgot one!

MySpace co-founder Tom Anderson isn’t just everybody’s “friend.” He is also a 1980s teenage “WarGames” style computer hacker!

http://www.neatorama.com/2008/08/30/myspace_tom_anderson/

from Neatorama

[40hz]

Renegade: I wonder if he actually found something and they are getting him into prison so that he can't speak out

He did find something! There was this encrypted file that proved that uyfpiuwg;uyt;owuyg;oyogry'i'YGPY'GILH/LHLHG mn;[oj..............................

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