Security Consultant Creates 250,000 Computer Botnet to Steal PayPal Passwords

Thread Rating:

0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
1
2
3
4
5

Threaded Mode | Linear Mode

Security Consultant Creates 250,000 Computer Botnet to Steal PayPal Passwords

11-11-2007, 11:11 AM,

Post: #1

mandy Offline

Administrator

Posts: 9,932
Likes Given: 0
Likes Received: 6 in 5 posts
Joined: Feb 2011
Reputation: 0

Security Consultant Creates 250,000 Computer Botnet to Steal PayPal Passwords

Quote:A Los Angeles man entrusted with making personal computers safer has admitted to hacking into them to create a rogue network of as many as a quarter-million PCs, which he used to steal money and identities.

Federal prosecutors Friday said that John Kenneth Schiefer, a 26-year-old computer security consultant, used an army of hijacked computers, known as a "botnet," to carry out a variety of schemes to rip off unsuspecting consumers and corporations.

Schiefer agreed to plead guilty to four felony charges in connection with the case and faces up to 60 years in prison and a $1.75-million fine, according to court documents filed Friday in federal court in Los Angeles...

By intercepting electronic communications, Schiefer stole user names and passwords for EBay Inc.'s PayPal online payment service to make unauthorized purchases. He also passed the stolen account information on to others....

full article: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bo...y?ctrack=1&cset=true

« Next Oldest | Next Newest »

Possibly Related Threads…
Thread		Author	Replies	Views	Last Post
	Survey: 88% of IT Staff Would Steal Company/Customer Data If Fired	Kristijntje	0	2,765	08-30-2008, 11:07 AM Last Post: Kristijntje
	How Dumb Is Too Dumb to Operate a Computer?	Kristijntje	5	3,658	10-29-2007, 10:58 PM Last Post: bargainbloodhound
	Yahoo Greetings e-cards used to infect thousands of computer users with malware	mandy	2	3,541	09-23-2007, 08:33 PM Last Post: regic
	22,000 at risk of identity theft after University of Missouri data breach	mandy	0	2,296	05-09-2007, 11:29 AM Last Post: mandy
	US Government loses hard drive containing personal info of 100,000 employees	Kristijntje	3	3,043	05-06-2007, 11:13 PM Last Post: regic
	Data Breach Dept: Office of Management and Budget website exposes 30,000 SSNs	mandy	0	2,148	04-21-2007, 10:16 AM Last Post: mandy
	Thieves Steal $1 Million (£580,000) in Largest Ever Online Bank Robbery	mandy	0	2,081	01-20-2007, 10:38 AM Last Post: mandy
	UCLA database breach exposes personal data of 800,000	mandy	0	2,114	12-14-2006, 10:32 AM Last Post: mandy
	Personal data of 19,000 AT&T web store shoppers breached by hackers	mandy	1	2,540	09-02-2006, 11:08 AM Last Post: Kristijntje
	Dollar Tree Shoppers lose $700,000 in debit card ATM scam	mandy	0	2,313	08-05-2006, 09:38 AM Last Post: mandy

Forum Jump:

Users browsing this thread: 2 Guest(s)