Computer Hacking

Criminology Hacking Exposed Jacqueline Hunt June 10, 2012 Week 9 Assignment 6 Computer hacking has become a more frequent crime in today’s society. Due to the fact that computers are widely used throughout the world and all information is right at your fingertips in a matter of seconds, hacking is an effortless crime, but it comes with a tremendous gain. Albert Gonzalez was fascinated by technology â€Å"computer nerd† but he took it all as an easy way for monetary gain. Gonzalez stole 170 million credit and debit card numbers and either used them or sold them to other cyber criminals.Gonzalez case is the biggest hacker case in history it all ended in him serving a two twenty year concurrent sentences. â€Å"His parents, who had immigrated to the United States from Cuba in the 1970s, bought him his first computer when he was 8. By the age of 9 he was reported to be actively removing computer viruses. Gonzalez, a Cuban-American, attended South Miami High School in Miami , Florida, where he was described as the â€Å"troubled† pack leader of computer nerds . In his senior year at the school he and friend used the library computer to hack into computer systems of the government of India where they left messages about their culture.Reportedly India had to cancel government checks as a result. Gonzalez was not charged and was warned to stay away from a computer for six months. In 2000 he moved to New York City where he lived for three months before moving to Kearny, New Jersey. †(Wikipedia, 2012) Gonzalez ran a scheme with a group of hackers called Shadow crew. They managed to traffic 1. 5 million stolen credit and debit card numbers while in New Jersey. The domain name Shadowcrew. cc was being investigated by The Secret Service â€Å"Operation Firewall† and it is believed that $4. million was stolen. The investigation involved countries like Bulgaria, Belarus, Canada, Poland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Ukraine, and the U. S. Gonzalez avoided jail time by providing evidence to the United States Secret Service against his associates. After 19 of Shadow crew hackers were indicted he then returned back home to Miami. As a Secret Service informant he earned 75, 000 a year and he continued his hacking business right under their noses. He used SQL injections and malware backdoors as tools to his biggest heist.He called the scheme Operation: Get Rich or Die Tryin’, which is a famous movie about the life of rapper 50 cent, he breached systems like Citibank, 7-Eleven, Hannaford Brothers, J. C. Penny, Target, T J Maxx, Dave & Busters and stole credit card data and resold it to international cyber criminals. His goal was to earn up to 15 million dollars, buy a yacht, and then retire. Those plans were foiled by the investigation which leads to end of his schemes. The debit from the crimes totaled a staggering 4. 1 million dollars. This type of hacker is known as the Addict. In the trial he was sentenced to two twenty year concurrent sentences, ordered to pay a 25,000 dollar fine, and he was ordered restitution. He claims his motive for the crimes he committed, was that he possessed technical curiosity and he had an obsession with conquering computer networks. He also stated that his work for the secret service was to seek out cyber criminals, which he used to his advantage to make his plan work. †(Zetter, 2010) I feel that Gonzalez is an addict hacker because he committed the crime more than once.Gonzalez was even in a situation where he worked for the people who put criminals away and he still could not stop his criminal acts. The sentence he is now serving is just. This crime could have been deterred by the idea that a criminal should not get a second chance. If he was serving time for his first crime the operation: Get Rich or Die Tryin’ would have never came about because he would not have had the access to international cyber criminals. The government should have more strict p olicies on who is used for informants and the hiring process.Gonzalez proved to be a very skillful and intelligent hacker. References Guadin, Sharon Computerworld. com. Government Informant is called kingpin. 18 August 2009 Wikipedia. com. Albert Gonzalez. 4 June 2012 Zetter, Sharon Wired. com. Tjx hacker charged with Heartland. 25 March 2010 < http://www. wired. com/threatlevel/2009/08/tjx-hacker-charged-with-heartland/> Computer Hacking Criminology Hacking Exposed Jacqueline Hunt June 10, 2012 Week 9 Assignment 6 Computer hacking has become a more frequent crime in today’s society. Due to the fact that computers are widely used throughout the world and all information is right at your fingertips in a matter of seconds, hacking is an effortless crime, but it comes with a tremendous gain. Albert Gonzalez was fascinated by technology â€Å"computer nerd† but he took it all as an easy way for monetary gain. Gonzalez stole 170 million credit and debit card numbers and either used them or sold them to other cyber criminals.Gonzalez case is the biggest hacker case in history it all ended in him serving a two twenty year concurrent sentences. â€Å"His parents, who had immigrated to the United States from Cuba in the 1970s, bought him his first computer when he was 8. By the age of 9 he was reported to be actively removing computer viruses. Gonzalez, a Cuban-American, attended South Miami High School in Miami , Florida, where he was described as the â€Å"troubled† pack leader of computer nerds . In his senior year at the school he and friend used the library computer to hack into computer systems of the government of India where they left messages about their culture.Reportedly India had to cancel government checks as a result. Gonzalez was not charged and was warned to stay away from a computer for six months. In 2000 he moved to New York City where he lived for three months before moving to Kearny, New Jersey. †(Wikipedia, 2012) Gonzalez ran a scheme with a group of hackers called Shadow crew. They managed to traffic 1. 5 million stolen credit and debit card numbers while in New Jersey. The domain name Shadowcrew. cc was being investigated by The Secret Service â€Å"Operation Firewall† and it is believed that $4. million was stolen. The investigation involved countries like Bulgaria, Belarus, Canada, Poland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Ukraine, and the U. S. Gonzalez avoided jail time by providing evidence to the United States Secret Service against his associates. After 19 of Shadow crew hackers were indicted he then returned back home to Miami. As a Secret Service informant he earned 75, 000 a year and he continued his hacking business right under their noses. He used SQL injections and malware backdoors as tools to his biggest heist.He called the scheme Operation: Get Rich or Die Tryin’, which is a famous movie about the life of rapper 50 cent, he breached systems like Citibank, 7-Eleven, Hannaford Brothers, J. C. Penny, Target, T J Maxx, Dave & Busters and stole credit card data and resold it to international cyber criminals. His goal was to earn up to 15 million dollars, buy a yacht, and then retire. Those plans were foiled by the investigation which leads to end of his schemes. The debit from the crimes totaled a staggering 4. 1 million dollars. This type of hacker is known as the Addict. In the trial he was sentenced to two twenty year concurrent sentences, ordered to pay a 25,000 dollar fine, and he was ordered restitution. He claims his motive for the crimes he committed, was that he possessed technical curiosity and he had an obsession with conquering computer networks. He also stated that his work for the secret service was to seek out cyber criminals, which he used to his advantage to make his plan work. †(Zetter, 2010) I feel that Gonzalez is an addict hacker because he committed the crime more than once.Gonzalez was even in a situation where he worked for the people who put criminals away and he still could not stop his criminal acts. The sentence he is now serving is just. This crime could have been deterred by the idea that a criminal should not get a second chance. If he was serving time for his first crime the operation: Get Rich or Die Tryin’ would have never came about because he would not have had the access to international cyber criminals. The government should have more strict p olicies on who is used for informants and the hiring process.Gonzalez proved to be a very skillful and intelligent hacker. References Guadin, Sharon Computerworld. com. Government Informant is called kingpin. 18 August 2009 Wikipedia. com. Albert Gonzalez. 4 June 2012 Zetter, Sharon Wired. com. Tjx hacker charged with Heartland. 25 March 2010 < http://www. wired. com/threatlevel/2009/08/tjx-hacker-charged-with-heartland/>