Decent “Hackers” Still have to be Good Criminals

This person , after leaving the company he worked for planted a “logic bomb” on his old company’s network.

A logic bomb is essentially leaving a piece of code to mess things up at a specified time.

Duronio quit his job as a systems administrator in February 2002 after repeatedly expressing dissatisfaction about his salary and bonuses, the statement said.

He then planted malicious computer code known as a “logic bomb” into about 1,000 of UBS PaineWebber’s approximately 1,500 networked computers in branch offices. On March 4, 2002, the “bomb” detonated and began deleting files.

Now this not-so-bright person was trying to profit off of the potential drop in stocks his old company would suffer after the files were deleted. Instead, he ended up losing $23,000 when the stock didn’t fall.

Meaning he likely bought the extra stocks after he left the company, or on margin (betting the stock would fall). Either way if he suddenly made $100,000+ from this “freak” accident either someone on Wall Street or his ex-company would probably get wind of this.

At least I hope so…

And he got caught either way. There are good/bad criminals and there are good/bad “hackers” – they are not necessarily the same thing.

That is probably why we’ve been seeing more organized crime organizations getting involved in cybercrime, recruiting talented coders from around the world. One has the technical skills, the other the criminal ones.

Combine that with low wages, youth, the “cool” factor, and the potential for some quick cash…

A dangerous trend for 2007.