'PayPal 14' Culprits Enter Guilty Pleading Over Pro-WikiLeaks DDoS Attack Versus PayPal

Accused 'PayPal 14' Culprits of Anonymous Enter Guilty Pleading Over Pro-WikiLeaks DDoS Attack Versus PayPal

I am quite sure that all of your regular readers still remember the devastating cyber attack from Anonymous against PayPal, the attack was conducted under the banner of Operation PayPal (#OpPayPal). The infamous hacker community stated a reason for this mass protest as the online payment company suspending the account of WikiLeaks. #OpPayPal is considered as one of the most demolishing cyber attack ever taken in cyber space. PayPal with law enforcement agencies immediately taken steps and start investigation, in the primary step PayPal sent 1000 IP address of Anonymous hacker who was linked on that attack to FBI. As expected the hackers who were behind that attack was serially busted by the police. And finally the accused anonymous hacker appeared in federal court in California on Thursday and will be formally sentenced in one year. Eleven of the so-called “PayPal 14” members each pleaded guilty in court to one felony count of conspiracy and one misdemeanor count of damaging a computer as a result of their involvement in a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack waged by Anonymous in late 2010 shortly after PayPal stopped processing donations to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks. Prosecutors say the defendants used a free computer program called the Low Ion Orbit Cannon, aka LOIC, to collectively flood PayPal’s servers with tremendous amounts of illegitimate internet traffic for one week that winter, at moments knocking the website offline as a result and causing what PayPal estimated to be roughly £3.5 million in damages. 

Pending good behavior, those 11 alleged Anons will be back in court early next December for sentencing, atpleading guilty to the misdemeanor counts only, likely removing themselves from any lingering felony convictions but earning an eventual 90 day jail stint when they are finally sentenced. A fourth defendant, Dennis Owen Collins, did not attend the hearing due to complications involving a similar case currently being considered by a federal judge in Alexandria Virginia in which he and one dozen others are accused of conspiring to cripple other websites as an act of protest during roughly the same time.

which point the felony charges are expected to be adjourned. Two of the remaining defendants cut deals that found them. In his press reaction defense attorney Stanley Cohen said the terms of the settlement were reached following over a year of negotiations, “based upon strength, not weakness; based upon principle, not acquiescence.” In the courtroom all the accused hacker stood up and said, ‘We did what you said we did . . .We believe it was an appropriate act from us and we’re willing to pay the price.’ 

On the other hand Cohen, who represented PayPal 14 defendant Mercedes Haefer in court, said one of the hacktivists told him after Thursdays hearing concluded that "This misdemeanor is a badge of honor and courage." When media questioned Michael Whelan, a lawyer for one of the defendants, he declined to comment on the plea. 

-Source (RT)

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Stratfor Hacker Jeremy Hammond Sentenced to 120 Months in Prison

LulzSec Hacker Jeremy Hammond Sentenced to 120 Months in Prison For Stratfor Hack

Infamous hacker Jeremy Hammond convicted by the Judge for cyber-attacks on government agencies and businesses, including a global intelligence company. This 28 year old Chicago hacker who is also known as "Anarchaos" was arrested by the federal authorities and been charged for the  breach of the security analysis company Stratfor. In December last year the bail application of Hammond was also been rejected by the the U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska. On June this year Hammond pleaded guilty for his sin. In his statement he said "I have pleaded guilty, it is a relief to be able to say that I did work with Anonymous to hack Stratfor, among other websites." 

That guilty plea indeed worked out for him, as that time it was predicated that Hammond  might have to face 30 years in prison, but on Friday Judge Loretta Preska sentenced Hammond to 120 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release for illegally accessing computers systems of law enforcement agencies and government contractors. In an emotional proceeding that lasted more than 2 hours in a Manhattan federal court room on Friday, victims and relatives of Hammond railed against the FBI and shed tears on his behalf following the sentencing. One overwrought person claiming to be a victim was forcibly escorted from the court by officers. But Hammond likely knew the sentence was coming, his lawyer said. "When Jeremy took this plea with a 10-year maximum, I think he understood this was very likely the outcome," said Sarah Kunstler, Hammond's defense attorney outside of court house.

Chief U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska said Hammond's digital handiwork had compromised thousands of people's personal and financial data, including the unpublished phone numbers and addresses of law enforcement, who then received threats. Hammond tried unsuccessfully to argue that his actions were politically motivated, she said. Hammond pleaded guilty to a single charge with a 10-year maximum sentence. Still his lawyers are asking to reduce his punishment for a sentence of 20 months.

Hammond has been held without bail since his arrest in March on charges connected with last year's hacking of Strategic Forecasting, or Stratfor, an Austin, Texas-based international intelligence broker, by AntiSec, an offshoot of LulzSec, which is in turn an offshoot of the hacktivist collective Anonymous. Prosecutors say the hack of Austin, Texas-based Strategic Forecasting resulted in the theft of 60,000 credit-card numbers and records for 860,000 clients. The government alleges that he published some of that information online, and used some of the stolen credit card data to run up at least $700,000 in unauthorized charges. He is also accused of giving about five million internal emails to WikiLeaks, which were published under the name The Global Intelligence Files.

-Source (Fox News)

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LulzSec Hacker Cody Kretsinger Sentenced 1 Year Imprisonment For Sony Breach

LulzSec Hacker Cody Kretsinger Sentenced 1 Year Imprisonment For Security Breach of Sony Pictures Entertainment  

Infamous LulzSec hacker Cody Kretsinger who pleaded guilty last year in front of Federal Court of California for taking part in an extensive computer breach of Sony Pictures Entertainment server has faced judgement. 25 year aged Kretsinger who is also known as "Recursion" was one of the key member of Lulz Security, widely known to us as LulzSec, an offshoot of the international hacking group Anonymous. According to federal prosecutors, Cody Kretsinger has been sentenced to one year in prison in  Los Angeles. This court rule has been followed by home detention. Kretsinger, was also been ordered by a U.S. district judge in Los Angeles to perform 1,000 hours of community service after his release from prison, said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles. Although prosecutors refused to say whether the hacker was co-operating with authorities in return for a softer sentence. 

During last year's plea hearing, Kretsinger told a federal judge that he gained access to the Sony Pictures website and gave the information he found there to other members of LulzSec, who posted it on the group's website and Twitter. "I joined LulzSec, your honor, at which point we gained access to the Sony Pictures website," said Kretsinger in the federal court. Prosecutors said Kretsinger and other LulzSec hackers, including those known as "Sabu" and "Topiary," stole the personal information of thousands of people after launching an "SQL injection" attack on the website; ultimately caused the unit of Sony Corp more than $600,000 in finical damage, along with that the attack caused bad impact and loss of faith for Sony Corporation and it's customers across the globe. 

While talking about this story, we would like to recap the decent history - where the arrest followed by guilty pleading of all the key members of LulzSec including  Ryan Cleary, Jake Davis, Jeremy Hammond, Raynaldo Rivera & Cody Kretsinger came a month after court documents revealed that Anonymous leader "Sabu," whose real name is Hector Xavier Monsegur, turned traitor to his community and became FBI informer and provided all the information on fellow hackers.

-Source (Reuters & Yahoo) 

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Angelina Jolie & Lady Gaga Became Victim of Ongoing Celebrity Hacking

Angelina Jolie & Lady Gaga Became Victim of Ongoing Celebrity Hacking 

Now a days it has became a fascination for cyber criminals to target and hack celebrities and public figures. Earlier we have seen similar scenario many a time. Last month an unnamed hacker released personal details of many public figure, national leaders, celebrities. The hacked data dubbed "The Secret Files" by the hackers contains personal information and credit reports (including social security numbers, details of their mortgages, addresses, and details of their credit card and banking details) was made public by those hackers on a website. Now we have past just a couple of weeks, yet again the same massacre took place, the hackers returned to the Internet after a brief hiatus and immediately hit six more. 

Angelina Jolie who played a key role in one of the most fine hacking movie named "Hackers" herself became victim to hackers in real life, as well as Jolie; Lady Gaga, NRA advocate Wayne LaPierre, Dennis Rodman, Michael Vick, Secret Service Director Julia Pierson and Robert De Niro. 

Like earlier, this time also the nature of the hack was similar to the previous the hackers have posted what they claim to be the social security numbers, mortgage amounts, credit card info, car loans, banking and other info for the celebs listed on their site. Last time, the website; where the hacker have posted those hacked credentials; were shutdown by the authorities. But it's now back up and running with a new domain extension (.re) that suggests it's based out of the French island of Réunion located off the coast of Madagascar -said TMZ in an exclusive report. Again also the same style were followed by the hacker group and leaving the very same message saying - "If you believe that God makes miracles, you have to wonder if Satan has a few up his sleeve."

According to sources - Jolie's page (prepared by the hacker) includes what is said to be her social security number as well as her credit report, which can be downloaded. There are addresses listed as well, but they are all business addresses, likely for her lawyer and other people she employs. The same information for Lady Gaga and Johansson is also available. However, Johansson's page also features a photo of her which became public through a previous hacking incident. The FBI has already started investigation, but so far no arrest have been made. In 2011 another high profile hack taken place, where the hacker targeted several celebrities like Scarlett Johansson & few more; while leaking nude photos. Later FBI carried out a special operation named 'Hackerazzi' which put a full stop in that issue and also FBI arrested the master mind named Christopher Chaney was sentenced to imprisonment after pleading guilty. 

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Hollywood Celebrities Nude Photo Hacker Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison

Hollywood Celebrities Nude Photo Hacker Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison 

Photo hacking case of Hollywood celebrities takes another direction, as Christopher Chaney, who pleaded guilty to hacking into the e-mail accounts of Scarlett Johansson and other celebrities including Mila Kunis, Christina Aguilera and few others, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison by the  federal judge in Los Angeles. Chaney was arrested last year as part of a year-long investigation  of FBI dubbed Operation Hackerazzi. At a hearing on Monday, U.S. District Court judge S. James Otero said that Chaney's conduct demonstrated a "callous disregard to the victims," some 50 in total, including two non-celebrities who the judge noted was stalked by Chaney for more than 10 years. The prison term was accompanied by an order to pay $66,179 in restitution. Chaney pleaded guilty to nine offences, including illegal wire-tapping and unauthorized access to computers. In his guilty plea, Chaney admitted to having repeatedly hacked email accounts over a period of at least eleven months. He hacked into email accounts by taking advantage of the "forgotten password" feature on web interfaces and using publicly available information to answer security questions. 

Chaney admitted that as his hacking scheme became more extensive, he began using a proxy service called “Hide My IP” because he wanted to “cover his tracks” and not be discovered by law enforcement agents. Even after his home computers were seized by law enforcement, Chaney used another computer to hack into another victim’s e-mail account. As a result of his hacking scheme, Chaney obtained private photographs and confidential documents, including business contracts, scripts, letters, driver’s license information, and Social Security information. On several occasions, after hacking into victims’ accounts, Chaney sent e-mails from the hacked accounts, fraudulently posing as the victims and requesting more private photographs. Chaney e-mailed many of the stolen photographs to others, including another hacker and two gossip websites. As a result, some of the stolen photographs were posted on the Internet.

"I don't know what else to say other than I'm sorry," Chaney said. "I could be sentenced to never use a computer again and I wouldn't care." For detailed information about this case click here.

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Teen Hacker "Cosmo the God" of Underground Nazi Sentenced 6 Yrs Internet Ban By California Court

Teen Hacker "Cosmo the God" of Underground Nazi Sentenced 6 Yrs Internet Ban By California Court

A teenager hacker from an infamous hacker collective group named Underground Nazi faced Internet ban. On Wednesday the 15 years old hacker known as "Cosmo" or "Cosmo the God" was sentenced in juvenile court in Long Beach, California. According to sources, Cosmo pleaded guilty to multiple felonies in exchange for a probation, encompassing all the charges brought against him, which included charges based on credit card fraud, identity theft, bomb threats, and online impersonation. 

This newly formed hacker group Underground Nazi had taken the spot light in January this year, when they hacked UFC.com (Ultimate Fighting Championship). Later they involved them selves in mass protest against controversial privacy act SOPA & PIPA. The protest was dubbed Operation Megaupload (#OpMegaupload), where hacktivist Anonymous  along with hackers around the globe stand together against the take down of Megaupload.com. In the middle of 2012 Cosmo was also responsible for Twitter outage, where Cosmo along with few other UG Nazi members performed massive denial of service attack to interrupt the service of Twitter. Also it has been found that, Cosmo pioneered social-engineering techniques that allowed him to gain access to user accounts at Amazon, PayPal, and a slew of other companies. He was arrested in June during a part of a multi-state FBI sting. 

Representatives from both the Long Beach district attorney and public defenders offices refused to comment on the case, given Cosmo’s status as a juvenile. However, according to Cosmo, the terms of the plea place him on probation until his 21st birthday. During that time, he cannot use the internet without prior consent from his parole officer. Nor will he be allowed to use the Internet in an unsupervised manner, or for any purposes other than education-related ones. He is required to hand over all of his account logins and passwords. He must disclose in writing any devices that he has access to that have the capability to connect to a network. He is prohibited from having contact with any members or associates of UG Nazi or Anonymous, along with a specified list of other individuals. He had to forfeit all the computers and other items seized in the raid on his home. Also, according to Cosmo, violating any of these terms will result in a three-year prison term. The probationary period lasting until age 21 is standard, but other terms were more surprising.

-Source (Wired) 

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Two Romanian Hackers Pleaded Guilty on Credit Card Hack & Faced 7 Years Imprisonment

Two Romanian Hackers Pleaded Guilty on Credit Card Hack & Faced 7 Years Imprisonment  

According to the U.S. Department of Justice two Romanian hacker- Iulian Dolan & Cezar Butu have pleaded guilty to participating in a US$10 million scheme to hack into the computers of hundreds of Subway restaurants in the U.S. and steal payment card data. Iulian Dolan, 28, of Craiova, Romania, pleaded guilty Monday to one count of conspiracy to commit computer fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit access device fraud, and Cezar Butu, 27, of Ploiesti, Romania, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit access device fraud, the DOJ confirmed. Dolan and Butu were two of four Romanians charged in December in U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire with hacking Subway point-of-sale computers. In his plea agreement, Dolan has agreed to be sentenced to seven years, and Butu has agreed to be sentenced to 21 months in prison. The two men, in their guilty pleas, acknowledged participating in a Romanian-based conspiracy, lasting from 2009 to 2011, to hack into hundreds of U.S. point-of-sale (POS) computers. Co-conspirator Adrian-Tiberiu Oprea is in U.S. custody and awaiting trial in New Hampshire. The group used stolen payment card data to make unauthorized charges or to transfer funds from the cardholders' accounts, the scheme involved more than 146,000 compromised payment cards and more than $10 million in losses.  

During the conspiracy, Dolan remotely scanned the Internet to identify vulnerable POS systems in the U.S. with certain remote desktop software applications (RDAs) installed on them. Using these RDAs, Dolan logged onto the targeted POS systems over the Internet. The systems were often password-protected and Dolan attempted to crack the passwords to gain administrative access. 

He then installed keystroke logging software onto the POS systems and recorded all of the data that was keyed into or swiped through the POS systems, including customers' payment card data. Thus Dolan managed to steal payment card data belonging to approximately 6,000 cardholders. Dolan received $5,000 to $7,500 in cash and personal property from Oprea for his efforts.

In his plea agreement, Butu said he repeatedly asked Oprea to provide him with stolen payment card data and that Oprea provided him with instructions for how to access the website where Oprea had stored a portion of the stolen payment card data. Butu later attempted to use the stolen payment card data to make unauthorized charges on, or transfers of funds from, the accounts. He also attempted to sell, or otherwise transfer, the stolen payment card data to other co-conspirators. Butu acquired stolen payment card data from Oprea belonging to approximately 140 cardholders. 

While talking about Romanian Hackers then one name definitely comes in mind and that is Razvan Manole Cernaianu aka "TinKode" who get busted earlier in this year, on charges of hacking into Pentagon and NASA servers, stealing confidential data. Also last year another 26 year aged Romanian hacker faced imprisonment for hacking into NASA servers. 

-Source (CSO)

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A Tribute to The 10 Most Infamous Student Hackers of All Time

A Tribute to The 10 Most Infamous Student Hackers of All Time

Since last two years, we the VOGH team has been covering all the latest cyber security updates. But today lets do some thing different. One of our frequent reader and fan Katina Solomon has requested us to share a fantastic article. Everyday VOGH draws headlines of hackers around the world and their activities. While trying to maintain speed with time, we usually forgot our past. Today we will take you into the past, where we will discuss about those heroes, who are always been ill treated by the society & the system while revamping those heroes into cyber-criminals or infamous hackers. Its our question to our humanity "Did the system has done justice with them??" 

Hacking has always been inherently a young person’s game. The first usage of the word “hacker” was to describe pranksters meddling with the phones at MIT. Many hackers have cited boredom, a desire for change, or the thrill of going somewhere one is not supposed to go as their motivation for hacking, all of which could apply to scores of common activities on college campuses. While today’s hacking scene is dominated by large hacking groups like Anonymous and Masters of Deception, many of the greatest hacks ever have been pulled off by college, high school, and even middle school kids who rose to infamy armed only with a computer and the willingness to cross the bounds of legality.

1. Sven Jaschan: In the words of one tech expert, “His name will always be associated with some of the biggest viruses in the history of the Internet.” The viruses: the Sasser and NetSky worms that infected millions of computers and have caused millions of dollars of damage since their release in 2004. The man behind the viruses proved to be not even a man at all, legally. Seventeen-year-old hacker Sven Jaschan, a student at a computer science school in Germany, claimed to have created the viruses to become a hero by developing a program that would eradicate the rampaging Mydoom and Bagle bugs. Instead he found himself the subject of a $250,000 bounty courtesy of Microsoft, for which some of his classmates turned him in.
   
2. Jonathan James: In 2000, at the age of 16, James, or “C0mrade” as he was known in the hacker community, infamously became the first juvenile federally sentenced for hacking. The targets of his notorious hack jobs were a wing of the U.S. Department of Defense called the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, NASA, and the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. (By hacking the latter James gained the ability to control the A/C in the International Space Station.) All of these were pulled off “for fun” while James was still a student at Palmetto Senior High in Miami. Unfortunately, the fun ran out when James was tied into a massive identity theft investigation. Though insisting he was innocent, James took his own life, saying he had “no faith in the justice system.”
   
3. Michael Calce: Yahoo. CNN. Ebay. Amazon. Dell.com. One by one in a matter of days, these huge websites crashed at the hands of 15-year-old Canadian high school student Michael Calce, aka “MafiaBoy.” Armed with a denial-of-service program he called “Rivolta” that overloaded servers he targeted, the young hacker wreaked $7.5 million in damages, according to court filings. Calce was caught when he fell victim to a common ailment of teenage boys: bragging. The cops were turned on to him when he began boasting in chat rooms about being responsible for the attacks. On Sept. 12, 2001, MafiaBoy was sentenced to a group facility for eight months on 56 counts of cybercrime.
   
4. Kevin Mitnick: Before performing hacks that prompted the U.S. Department of Justice to declare him “the most wanted computer criminal in United States history,” Kevin Mitnick had already made a name for himself as a hacker in his school days, first at Monroe High School in LA and later at USC. On a dare, Mitnick connived an opening into the computer system of Digital Equipment Corporation, which some fellow hackers then used to steal proprietary source code from the company before ratting on him. While still on probation for that crime, Mitnick broke into the premises of Pacific Bell and had to go on the run from police in the aftermath, during which time he hacked dozens of systems, including those of IBM, Nokia, Motorola, and Fujitsu.
   
5. Tim Berners-Lee: “Scandalous” is a synonym for “infamous,” and for this legendary computer scientist, knight of the British Empire, and inventor of the World Wide Web to have been a hacker in his school days is certainly a juicy factoid. During his time at Oxford in the mid-’70s, Sir Tim was banned from using university computers after he and a friend were caught hacking their way into restricted digital areas. Luckily by that time he already knew how to make his own computer out of a soldering iron, an old TV, and some spare parts. And also luckily for him, he will always be revered as the father of the Internet.
   
6. Neal Patrick and the 414s: In the early ’80s, hacking was still a relatively foreign concept to most Americans. Few recognized the enormous power hackers could hijack with a few strokes on a keyboard, which explains why a young group of hackers known as the 414s (after a Milwaukee area code) were virtual celebrities after they hacked into the famous Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and elsewhere. While today hacking a lab where classified nuclear research is conducted could earn you a one-way ticket to Guantanamo, the 17-year-old ringleader and high school student Neal Patrick was on the cover of Newsweek. The group members got light sentences but prompted Congress to take a stronger role in cybercrime.
   
7. Robert T. Morris: The first ever Internet worm, the Morris Worm derived its name from Cornell grad student Robert Tappan Morris. In 1988, Morris released the worm through MIT’s system to cover his tracks, which would seem to contradict his claims that he meant no harm with it. But that’s exactly what resulted: the worm spread out of control, infecting more than 6,000 computers connected to the ARPANET, the academic forerunner to the World Wide Web. The damages reached as high as an estimated $10 million, and Morris earned the ignominious distinction of being the first person prosecuted under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Morris got community service but was apparently not considered too infamous to be offered his current job as a professor at MIT.
   
8. George Hotz: To some, George Hotz (aka “geohot,” aka “million75,” aka “mil”) is a public menace, a threat to electronic businesses everywhere. To many, Hotz is a hero. The high-schooler shot to fame/infamy in 2007 at the tender age of 17 by giving the world its first hacked, or “jailbroken” iPhone. He traded it for a new sports car and three new iPhones, and the video of the hacking received millions of hits. Apple has had to grudgingly come to terms with jailbreaking, seeing as the courts have declared it legal, but Sony Corp. is definitely not OK with such tampering. When Hotz hacked his PlayStation 3 and published the how-to on the web, the company launched a vicious lawsuit against him. In turn, the hacker group Anonymous launched an attack on Sony, stealing millions of users’ personal info.
   
9. Donncha O’Cearbhaill: According to the FBI, this 19-year-old freshman at Trinity College Dublin is one of the top five most wanted hackers in the world. Well, he was; now that he’s been arrested he’s not really “wanted” anymore. The Feds contend the young man is a VIP member of the Anonymous and LulzSec hacking groups that have already been mentioned and whose targets have included the FBI, the U.S. Senate, and Sony (in the Hotz backlash). It seems “Palladium” (O’Cearbhaill) took the liberty of listening in on a conference call between the FBI and several international police forces who were discussing their investigations of the hacking groups. He could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison if convicted for that hack alone.
   
10. Nicholas Allegra: Just as George Hotz moved on from the Apple hacking game, Brown University student Nicholas Allegra is also hanging up his jersey. “Comex,” as he is known to millions of rooted iPhone fans, created the simple-to-use Apple iOS jailbreaking program JailbreakMe in 2007 and has since released two newer versions of it. However, Comex seems to have gone over to the dark side, accepting an internship with the very company whose products he became famous exploiting. Still, Allegra’s hacking skills are so advanced (one author puts him five years ahead of the authors of the infamous Stuxnet worm that corrupted Iran’s nuclear facilities) and so many people availed themselves of his talents, he will forever live in hacking infamy.
    

We want to dedicate the above post to the legendary hacker, who left us -Jonathan James aka “C0mrade”. Also the post is a tribute to all the so called 'infamous hackers'. You are our heroes and inspiration, you will always be there in our soul. Team VOGH salutes you...... 

-Thank you Katina & Online Degrees

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Hacker Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison for Selling Access to Botnets & Infecting 72,000 PCs

Hacker Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison for Selling Access to Botnets & Infecting 72,000 PCs

A 30-year old computer hacker received a thirty month in prison sentence for creating a botnet and a charge of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. According to Depertment of Justice - Joshua Schichtel, of Phoenix, was sentenced today to 30 months in prison for selling command-and-control access to and use of thousands of malware-infected computers, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ronald C. Machen Jr.

Schichtel was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth in the District of Columbia.  In addition to his prison term, Schichtel was ordered to serve three years of supervised release. 

Schichtel entered a guilty plea on Aug. 17, 2011, to one count of attempting to cause damage to multiple computers without authorization by the transmission of programs, codes or commands, a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

According to court documents, Schichtel sold access to “botnets,” which are networks of computers that have been infected with a malicious computer program that allows unauthorized users to control infected computers.  Individuals who wanted to infect computers with various different types of malicious software (malware) would contact Schichtel and pay him to install, or have installed, malware on the computers that comprised those botnets.  Specifically, Schichtel pleaded guilty to causing software to be installed on approximately 72,000 computers on behalf of a customer who paid him $1,500 for use of the botnet.

This case was investigated by the Washington Field Office of the FBI.  The case is being prosecuted by Corbin Weiss, Senior Counsel in the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.

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Pirate Bay Co-Founder Gottfrid Svartholm aka Anakata Arrested in Cambodia

Pirate Bay Co-Founder Gottfrid Svartholm aka Anakata Arrested in Cambodia

Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm Warg was arrested by Cambodian police on Thursday in Phnom Penh, the city that he made his home several years ago. Svartholm, known online by his nickname Anakata, was sentenced to one year in jail for his involvement in The Pirate Bay but has been missing for some time. Svartholm was wanted internationally but exact details as to why he was arrested have not yet been made public. Gottfrid’s lawyer Ola Salomonsson thinks the arrest could be related to The Pirate Bay case, but this hasn’t been announced officially. “As far as I understand it is because he is on an international wanted list,” he said. While there is no extradition treaty between Cambodia and Sweden the lawyer believes his client could be transferred to his home country eventually.

Pirate Bay, founded less than 10 years again in Sweden, made news over the past ten years for its controversial and generally illegal file-sharing practices. Specifically, Svartholm and his co-founder Fredrik Neij became the the whipping boys for the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) – among other media companies for copyright violations. Those copyright violation allegations eventually ended in a prison sentence and fees for Svartholm. Svartholm never showed up to serve his sentence and a warrant for his arrest has remained outstanding ever since. The most recent arrest happened in Cambodia at the request of Swedish authorities. This time, however, the arrest isn’t tied to Pirate Bay but to something more serious: Svartholm is alleged to have hacked a Swedish IT company and leaked thousands of tax ID numbers. That company, Logica, provides services to the major tax offices in Sweden. Two Swedes have already been identified as suspects and it would appear that Svartholm is the third. Svartholm currently sits in Cambodia awaiting next steps. It was initially unclear as to what might happen since Cambodia does not have an extradition treaty with Sweden; extradition is the legal transfer of an accused person from one jurisdiction to another. Sources have indicated, however, that Cambodia appears to be cooperating with Swedish authorities.

-Source (TorrentFreak, Forbes)

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A Chicago Woman Sentenced To 2.5 Years in Prison For $9 Million ATM Hacking

A Chicago Woman Sentenced To 2.5 Years in Prison For $9 Million ATM Hacking

$9 million ATM hacking case takes a new direction. The Federal authorities have track down a ring of cyber-criminals. A Chicago woman was busted and sentenced to two years and six months in federal prison for helping steal more than $9 million USD back in 2008. She was also ordered to spend five years on supervised release following prison, and pay $89,120.25 in restitution. According to federal prosecutors, 45-year-old Sonya Martin was the member of a cell in what they claim was "one of the most sophisticated and organized computer hacking and ATM cashout schemes ever." Her Chicago cell was one of many "cashing crews" that drained millions of dollars from roughly 2,100 ATMs in 280 cities across the globe.

U.S. District Court officials claim that a group of hackers obtained unauthorized access to Atlanta-based payment processing company WorldPay U.S. Inc. back in November 2008. WorldPay handles companies who use payroll debit cards to pay their employees that in turn use these cards to make purchases or withdraw their salaries from an ATM. The hackers allegedly used "sophisticated techniques" to compromise the data encryption used to protect customer data on these cards. Once they gained access to these accounts, the hackers fraudulently raised the balances and ATM withdrawal limits. They then handed over 44 debit card account numbers and their associated PIN numbers to the cashing crew cells to cash out the accounts. Martin's cell and others located around the world including United States, Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Italy, Hong Kong, Japan, and Canada drained those accounts in less than 12 hours on November 8, 2008.

Officials said Sonya Martin worked with one of the lead cashers and supervised a cashing crew in Chicago. This cell withdrew approximately $80.000 from various Chicago area ATMs using counterfeit debits cards she manufactured using a payroll card number and PIN code. "While this was a complex, internationally coordinated crime with many different players and components, it would not have gotten very far without the cashing crews [like the one Martin worked with]," said Brian D. Lamkin, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Atlanta Field Office.

-Source (TOM'S HARDWARE)

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Dutch Hacker Sentenced To 7 Years in Prison For Stealing Credit Card Numbers

Dutch Hacker Sentenced To 7 Years in Prison For Stealing Credit Card Numbers 

Another cyber criminal from Maryland get busted and has been sentenced for seven years in prison. He was part of a credit card hacking ring that targeted businesses in Seattle and across the country.  The U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle says Christopher A. Schroebel partnered with 21-year-old Dutch computer hacker David Benjamin Schrooten to steal credit card numbers from businesses across the country and sell them in bulk through websites. In their charges, prosecutors say Schroebel had in his possession 84,000 credit card numbers he had stolen or bought from other hackers. The two hackers operated "point of sale" operations, in which spy software is installed in computers used by businesses for transactions. The software records credit card numbers used. Schroebel pleaded guilty in May to charges of bank fraud, obtaining information from a protected computer, access device fraud, among others. Schrooten, who was arrested in Romania, is set to stand trial next month. 

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Junaid Hussain aka "TriCk" -Former Leader of "TeaMp0isoN" Jailed

Junaid Hussain aka "TriCk" -Former Leader of "TeaMp0isoN" Jailed For 6 Months

Former leader of infamous hacker collective group TeaMp0isoN named Junaid Hussain also known as "TriCk" was sentenced to six months in prison for accessing the Gmail email account of former special adviser of Tony Blair and publishing details from her contacts database. Earlier in this year MI6 arrested the TriCk along with few other active members of TeaMp0isoN  who ware directly involved behind the Denial of Service attack on MI6 hotline. Hussain had previously pled guilty to the conspiracy and computer charges which arose from the publication of phone numbers and email addresses of Members of Parliament and the House of Lords and a separate event which left the national anti-terror hotline "permanently engaged" for three days. Hussain has also confessed to taking part in and leading members of the hacker group to attack the UK national Anti-Terrorist Hotline with hundreds of hoax phone calls and involvement with hacktivist Anonymous in #OpRobinHood, #OpCensorThis and few more. "Hussain's actions were foolish and irresponsible," said detective inspector Stewart Garrick of the Police Central E-crime Unit. "Today's sentencing emphasises the seriousness of his offence and should act as a deterrent to anyone else who feels that they can act in such a manner." 

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27 Years Old Hacker From Washington Fined & Jailed For Hacking Several Facebook Accounts & Pages

27 Years Old Hacker (Timothy Noirjean) From Washington Fined & Jailed For Hacking Several Facebook Accounts & Pages

Washington County district court judge sentenced Woodbury resident Timothy Noirjean to 150 days in jail, five years on probation and more than $15,000 in fines.

27 year old Noirjean pleaded guilty to 13 counts of electronic identity theft. He was accused of posing as a Facebook friend to an Oakdale woman and hacking her information – and information belonging to her friends. Washington County Attorney Pete Orput said his prosecutors never budged from his assertion in 2011 that the case would not be plea-bargained. “I’m not willing to tell one or several (of the victims) that we dismissed one or several of the counts in return for guilty pleas for the others,” Orput said.

He said he was committed to getting convictions on the 13 counts – all felonies – due to the harm caused by Noirjean’s actions. After hacking the women’s information, Noirjean posted photos of several of the women on an adult website.

Orput said that while his office could prosecute Noirjean, it couldn’t legally make the website take down the photos. “That harm goes on forever,” he said.

Orput said Internet users must be critical when it comes to sharing information, adding that identity theft has emerged as perhaps the most common crime in Washington County. “This case illustrates the need to be very, very safe and vigilant online,” he said. “I hope people just won’t share passwords with anybody.”

According to a criminal complaint, the woman reported having a Facebook chat with someone she thought was a friend. When the woman logged off Facebook, then attempted to log back in, she learned her password had been changed.

After gaining access to her Facebook page, she found a link on her page that appeared to have been posted by the friend she had been chatting with earlier. That link led to a sexually explicit website that contained three of the woman’s photos and identified her by first and last name and city of residence. Those photos had been stored in her email account, according to the complaint.

The woman then realized that she had unwittingly disclosed account information to her chat correspondent, later identified as Noirjean. The friend Noirjean had been posing as also learned her account information had been hacked.

Police closed in on Noirjean using Internet records. In an interview with police, Noirjean admitted to hacking into or attempting to hack more than 100 accounts. More victims were discovered after a search of Noirjean’s computer.

As part of the sentence, Tenth District Court Judge Elizabeth Martin ordered Noirjean to pay $1,000 to each of the 13 victims. She also required him to pay more than $2,000 to two women to cover computer expenses.

-Source (Woodbury Bulletin)

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Selena Gomez Facebook Hacker Sentenced To One Year in Prison

Selena Gomez Facebook Hacker Sentenced To One Year in Prison

A British hacker has been sentenced to one year in prison after he admitted to hacking singer-actress Selena Gomez's Facebook account and illegally accessing the  emails. According to the London's Metropolitan Police - Gareth Crosskey, 21, was jailed on Wednesday for an incident in January 2011, when he hacked into an unnamed American's Facebook profile. 

Crosskey was arrested at his home in West Sussex, a coastal county in south of London. Law-enforcement agents removed computers and other storage devices from his home during the raid. A YouTube video detailing the account takeover was allegedly posted by Crosskey, using the hacker handle "PkinJ0r." The video shows someone gaining control of Gomez's Facebook page and entering text into various fields.

However, none of the new information is saved, and the maker of the video writes in one field as he films, "I won't actually be posting anything ... Due to it's her page and I'm not that much of a [jerk]."

The video maker made one telling error, which may have led to Crosskey's arrest.

Following the breach, which was reported to the FBI, Crosskey was released on bail. The FBI traced Crosskey's Facebook hack to the U.K, and on Feb. 29, he was brought back to court, where he pleaded guilty to two counts of illegally accessing data, both violations of the Computer Misuse Act.

British police stressed that Crosskey's jail term should serve as a warning that authorities will take swift action, and levy strong penalties, against anyone who follows in his footsteps. 

We would like to give you reminder that this year Young Pop Star & Gomez's husband Justin Bieber's twitter account also get compromised 

-Source (msnbc & msn)

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Anonymous Hacker James Jeffery Faced 2 Years Imprisonment For Hacking British Abortion Site

Anonymous Hacker James Jeffery Faced 2 Years Imprisonment For Hacking British Abortion Site

27-year-old British hacker named James Jeffery, who claimed to be a member of hacking collective Anonymous sentenced to two years and eight months in jail for breaking into the website of (BPAS) British Pregnancy Advisory Service  and stealing the personal details of thousands of women. Prosecutors say he defaced the site with an anti-abortion statement and the Anonymous logo, and stole personal information about some 10,000 women. Though he 'disagreed' with the decisions of two women he knew to have their pregnancies aborted, London's Southwark Crown Court was told.
He was arrested by Scotland Yard, officers from the Police Central e-Crime Unit (PeCU) from his home in Castle Street, Wednesbury in the West Midlands, in the early hours of March 9th, with police having tracked him through his Internet service provider address.

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Glenn Steven Mangham Sentenced 8 Months Imprisonment For Hacking Into Facebook Server

Glenn Steven Mangham Sentenced 8 Months Imprisonment For Hacking Into Facebook Server

A 26 year aged British student named Glenn Steven Mangham sentenced to eight months of prison for hacking to Facebook server. The attack cost the company $200,000, and resulted in an investigation by the FBI and British law enforcement. Judge Alistair McCreath said his actions had “real consequences and very serious potential consequences” which could have been “utterly disastrous” for Facebook. “He acted with determination, undoubted ingenuity and it was sophisticated, it was calculating,” prosecutor Sandip Patel told a London court. He also said Mangham stole “invaluable” intellectual property and that the attack “represents the most extensive and grave incident of social media hacking to be brought before the British courts.”

Facebook runs a Puzzle server to allow computer programmers to test their skills and Mangham broke int that server, attempted to hack into a Facebook mailman server run that manages email distribution lists, as well as trying to gain access to the Facebook phabricator server, which offers tools for third-party app developers. Earlier in June 2011 he was arrested by the Metropolitan Police's Central e-Crime Unit for breaching the social network’s security systems between April 27 and May 9. After spending 2months he was released on bail. Four conditions were attached to his bail, including that he live and sleep at his home address, not access the Internet, and not have any devices in the house that can access the Web.

VOGH Review:-

The twist of irony here is that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s inspiration for creating the site came from his hacking into Harvard’s internal servers. If Zuckerberg can get sympathy then why not Steven Mangham ??No user data have been compromised while this attack and nor the system get infiltrated. So our question is where is the justice? While creating facebook Zuckerberg can breach the Harvard’s internal servers and stole sensitive user data but if another guy did something little wrong to whom who is already did guilty is facing law and order and 8 months of imprisonment. What a justice???!!!!!  

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Online Bank Hacking Case, 2 Guys Sent for 4 Years Imprisonment

The ringleaders of a major organised criminal network that stole nearly £3m from online bank accounts have each been jailed for four years and eight months after a Croydon Crown Court ruling. Ukrainian nationals Yuriy Konovalenko and Yevhen Kulibaba were sentenced after an investigation by the Met's Police Central eCrime Unit (PCeU), codenamed Operation Lath. So far the Met has jailed 13 of the gang's members.
The PCeU argued that the prison sentences show the police to be committed to bringing online fraudsters to justice, but the length of time Konovalenko and Kulibaba will serve could be viewed as too short.

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A Man Has been Jailed for 18 Years Due to Hacking into Neighbours Wi-Fi

A man has been jailed for 18 years following a prolonged campaign of hacking his neighbours Wi-Fi in an attempt to frame them for child pornography and threats against the US Vice President.

Minnesota resident Barry Ardolf was sentenced to a lengthy stretch in America's finest following an astonishing campaign of revenge against his neighbours, apparently motivated by the neighbours reporting Ardolf to the police after kissing their 4-year-old son.

The FBI, having become involved following the death threats against Vice President Joe Biden , discovered documents stolen from the man's neighbours as well as detailed revenge plans against his neighbours Matt and Bethany Kostolnik. While the Kostolnik's Wi-Fi router network was encrypted, Ardolf reportedly used password cracking software to discover the password to the router where upon he would access the Kostolnik's home network and set up fake MySpace and Yahoo email accounts posting as his neighbours. In a court document from the prosecution prior to sentencing, Ardolf was described as a "dangerous man" that "uses his technical skills both to inflict harm and to avoid getting caught."

-News Source (PCR)

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