Forwarded from: Pete Simpson <pete.simpsonat_private> > they would hack into the server of a big US company, access their > protected > database, download clients' personal files and then demand $50,000 > for not publishing the confidential documents on the internet. A bunch of third world kids. Geez, they much be something special - 'cyber terrorists'? What kind of 'protected' database was that then? And how much had these "big US companies" spent on taking the most elementary precautions? ROTFL! -----Original Message----- From: InfoSec News [mailto:isnat_private] Sent: 30 June 2003 08:45 To: isnat_private Subject: [ISN] Young cyber-terrorists hold top US firms to ransom in Transylvania Forwarded from: William Knowles <wkat_private> http://www.sundayherald.com/34961 Gabriel Ronay 29 June 2003 Several top American companies have been blackmailed to the tune of $50,000 a head by Romanian hackers practising 'cyber- terrorism' from the backwoods of Transylvania. Astonishingly, the cyber wizards who penetrated the databases of security-conscious corporate America turned out to be a group of Romanian high school drop-outs, work-shy provincials and students manquZ. Romania is not exactly in the vanguard of the high-tech revolution and the medieval Transylvanian town of Sibiu, the hub of the daring hacking operation, has hitherto been better known as the birthplace of Vlad Dracula the Impaler than the new Silicon Valley of the Balkans. The modus operandi of the Sibiu 'cyber terrorists,' as they have been nicknamed by the FBI, was simple enough: they would hack into the server of a big US company, access their protected database, download clients' personal files and then demand $50,000 for not publishing the confidential documents on the internet. The young hackers' work paid so well that last April the targeted US companies sought the help of the FBI to get on the trail of the blackmailers. The ripped-off companies have not been named for fear of alarming their clients. [...] - ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org To unsubscribe email majordomoat_private with 'unsubscribe isn' in the BODY of the mail.
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