The G Manifesto

Top Crim of The Week: A-Z, The computer hacker

A-Z is an archetypical new-generation hacker. No one outside of his close associates knows his true identity, virus hunters say. But security researchers and government authorities have exhaustively triangulated his presence in the cyber-underworld for nearly two years. Based on A-Z’s marketing activities in Russian chat rooms and forums, and distinctive coding signatures in ZeuS, investigators peg him to be a male in his early 20s, living in Moscow, working full time as an independent software developer for hire.

Anticipating that ZeuS would reel in thousands of such alerts, A-Z prepared the botnet created in Stage 1 to lend a helping hand. Jackson says the botnet was set to automatically react to alerts. Each alert triggered a cash transfer of $5,000 to $10,000 that took only a few seconds to complete, he says. According to SecureWorks, British law enforcement and affected banks compiled an estimate of ZeuS’ total take over the course of two weeks: $6 million.

ANATOMY OF A CYBER BANK HEIST

In summer 2007, a German gang skilled at pilfering online bank accounts forged a partnership with a Russian hacker known as A-Z, who security analysts say created ZeuS, a versatile tool for infecting PCs. The collaboration produced a lucrative score.

They blast waves of e-mail spam carrying purported links to greeting cards, news stories and celebrity videos. Clicking on a link installs generic ZeuS on your PC.

Generic ZeuS collects data typed on your banking pages and other Web forms; it also turns the PC into a “bot,” that can be used by others remotely.

Gang members spend summer and fall stealing personal data from PC users with commercial accounts at banks that allow online cash transfers.

E-mail is sent to bank patrons asking them to “click here” to reset their security codes. Thousands fall for the ruse, installing a custom version of ZeuS.

Custom ZeuS issues an alert each time the PC user logs into the account.

Alerts get distributed to the bots created by generic Zeus; each bot stands ready to complete a cash transfer in a few seconds.

In two weeks, ZeuS extracts $6 million from thousands of accounts at banks in the USA, U.K., Italy and Spain.

Authorities shut down a computer server in Turkey discovered to be holding key instructions for transferring funds.

Source: USA Today

I have mentioned this Tech Crim phenomenon before in Criminality in The Luxury Sector. Sure makes walking into a bank with a loaded gun look old-school, doesn’t it?

The Rest is Up to You……..

Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA The Playboy you Love to Hate
The Guide to Getting More Out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com

ROLL DEEP – JEALOUS
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