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Phreaking

Phreaking is a slang term coined to describe the activity of a subculture of people who study, experiment with, or explore telecommunication systems, like equipment and systems connected to public telephone networks. The term "phreak" is derived from the words "phone" and "freak". It may also refer to the use of various audio frequencies to manipulate a phone system. "Phreak", "phreaker", or "phone phreak" are names used for and by individuals who participate in phreaking. Additionally, it is often associated with computer hacking. This is sometimes called the H/P culture (with H standing for Hacking and P standing for Phreaking). information on this site is for educational purposes only! Wyretap Network ©2007 - 2010

Disclaimer: The information on this site is for educational and entertainment purposes only. It is not intended to encourage or teach you to break the law, that's what TV is for, albeit in a very flawed manner. The owner(s) of this website will not be held liable for anything you choose to do with the information contained on this site. If you want to learn how to rape, murder, loot, and commit acts of terror on a monumental scale, well, you won't find it here. Instead, tune-in to your nightly news and take a lesson from your 'elected' 'leaders'.

Social engineering techniques and terms

All social engineering techniques are based on specific attributes of human decision-making known as cognitive biases.[1] These biases, sometimes called "bugs in the human hardware," are exploited in various combinations to create attack techniques, some of which are listed here:
Pretexting
Pretexting is the act of creating and using an invented scenario (the pretext) to persuade a targeted victim to release information or perform an action and is typically done over the telephone. It is more than a simple lie as it most often involves some prior research or set up and the use of pieces of known information (e.g. for impersonation: date of birth, Social Security Number, last bill amount) to establish legitimacy in the mind of the target. [2]
This technique is often used to trick a business into disclosing customer information, and is used by private investigators to obtain telephone records, utility records, banking records and other information directly from junior company service representatives. The information can then be used to establish even greater legitimacy under tougher questioning with a manager (e.g., to make account changes, get specific balances, etc).
As most U.S. companies still authenticate a client by asking only for a Social Security Number, date of birth, or mother's maiden name, the method is effective in many situations and will likely continue to be a security problem in the future.
Pretexting can also be used to impersonate co-workers, police, bank, tax authorities, or insurance investigators — or any other individual who could have perceived authority or right-to-know in the mind of the targeted victim. The pretexter must simply prepare answers to questions that might be asked by the victim. In some cases all that is needed is a voice that sounds authoritative, an earnest tone, and an ability to think on one's feet.
Phishing
Main article: Phishing
Phishing is a technique of fraudulently obtaining private information. Typically, the phisher sends an e-mail that appears to come from a legitimate business—a bank, or credit card company—requesting "verification" of information and warning of some dire consequence if it is not provided. The e-mail usually contains a link to a fraudulent web page that seems legitimate—with company logos and content—and has a form requesting everything from a home address to an ATM card's PIN.
For example, 2003 saw the proliferation of a phishing scam in which users received e-mails supposedly from eBay claiming that the user’s account was about to be suspended unless a link provided was clicked to update a credit card (information that the genuine eBay already had). Because it is relatively simple to make a Web site resemble a legitimate organization's site by mimicking the HTML code, the scam counted on people being tricked into thinking they were being contacted by eBay and subsequently, were going to eBay’s site to update their account information. By spamming large groups of people, the “phisher” counted on the e-mail being read by a percentage of people who already had listed credit card numbers with eBay legitimately, who might respond.
IVR or phone phishing
This technique uses a rogue Interactive voice response (IVR) system to recreate a legitimate sounding copy of a bank or other institution's IVR system. The victim is prompted (typically via a phishing e-mail) to call in to the "bank" via a (ideally toll free) number provided in order to "verify" information. A typical system will reject log-ins continually, ensuring the victim enters PINs or passwords multiple times, often disclosing several different passwords. More advanced systems transfer the victim to the attacker posing as a customer service agent for further questioning.
One could even record the typical commands ("Press one to change your password, press two to speak to customer service" ...) and play back the direction manually in real time, giving the appearance of being an IVR without the expense.
The technical name for phone phishing, is vishing.
Baiting
Baiting is like the real-world Trojan Horse that uses physical media and relies on the curiosity or greed of the victim.[3]
In this attack, the attacker leaves a malware infected floppy disk, CD ROM, or USB flash drive in a location sure to be found (bathroom, elevator, sidewalk, parking lot), gives it a legitimate looking and curiosity-piquing label, and simply waits for the victim to use the device.
For example, an attacker might create a disk featuring a corporate logo, readily available off the target's web site, and write "Executive Salary Summary Q2 2009" on the front. The attacker would then leave the disk on the floor of an elevator or somewhere in the lobby of the targeted company. An unknowing employee might find it and subsequently insert the disk into a computer to satisfy their curiosity, or a good samaritan might find it and turn it in to the company.
In either case as a consequence of merely inserting the disk into a computer to see the contents, the user would unknowingly install malware on it, likely giving an attacker unfettered access to the victim's PC and perhaps, the targeted company's internal computer network.
Unless computer controls block the infection, PCs set to "auto-run" inserted media may be compromised as soon as a rogue disk is inserted.
Quid pro quo
Quid pro quo means something for something:
An attacker calls random numbers at a company claiming to be calling back from technical support. Eventually they will hit someone with a legitimate problem, grateful that someone is calling back to help them. The attacker will "help" solve the problem and in the process have the user type commands that give the attacker access or launch malware.
In a 2003 information security survey, 90% of office workers gave researchers what they claimed was their password in answer to a survey question in exchange for a cheap pen.[4] Similar surveys in later years obtained similar results using chocolates and other cheap lures, although they made no attempt to validate the passwords.[5]
Other types
Common confidence tricksters or fraudsters also could be considered "social engineers" in the wider sense, in that they deliberately deceive and manipulate people, exploiting human weaknesses to obtain personal benefit. They may, for example, use social engineering techniques as part of an IT fraud.
The latest type of social engineering techniques include spoofing or hacking IDs of people having popular e-mail IDs such as Yahoo!, GMail, Hotmail, etc. Among the many motivations for deception are:
Phishing credit-card account numbers and their passwords.
Hacking private e-mails and chat histories, and manipulating them by using common editing techniques before using them to extort money and creating distrust among individuals.
Hacking websites of companies or organizations and destroying their reputation.

The Real ID Coming Soon!!!

The Real ID Coming Soon!!!

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Three Plead Guilty in $2 Million Citibank ATM Caper



Threat Level Privacy, Crime and Security Online
Three Plead Guilty in $2 Million Citibank ATM Caper
By Kevin Poulsen
November 5, 2008
4:00 pm
Categories: Crime

Three New Yorkers accused of using hacked Citibank ATM card numbers and PINs to steal $2 million from customer accounts in four months have pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy and access device fraud charges.
The defendants — Ivan Biltse, Angelina Kitaeva and Yuriy Rakushchynets, aka Yuriy Ryabinin — are among 10 suspects charged earlier this year in connection with a breach of a server that processes ATM transactions from 7-Eleven convenience stores. Those ATMs are branded Citibank, but they’re owned by Houston-based Cardtronics.
Court records indicate a Russian hacker cracked the ATM server in late 2007, and monitored transactions from 7-Eleven cash machines long enough to capture thousands of account numbers and PINs. The Russian then farmed out the stolen data to mules in the United States, who burned the account numbers onto blank mag-stripe cards and withdrew cash from Citibank ATMs in the New York area for at least five months, sending 70 percent of the take back to Russia.

Yuriy Rakushchynets
Citibank reported the breach to the FBI in February. In a separate investigation, U.S. Secret Service agents had already identified Rakushchynets as a member of the computer underground, and they tied him to the Citibank heist after comparing ATM surveillance photos to pictures of Rakushchynets posted on ham radio websites.
In January, two other alleged cashers — Nue Quni and Luma Bitti — were arrested after a lucky traffic stop caught them with blank cards and a mag-stripe writer in their car. Bitti cooperated in the investigation and led the FBI to two more suspects, Andrey Baranets and Aleksandr Desevoh, who were arrested in New York after meeting with — and attempting to mug — an undercover FBI agent.
On May 8, Aleksandar Aleksiev, another alleged mule, was picked up in a stakeout while withdrawing money at a Citibank branch on New York’s Upper East Side, where some $180,000 had been stolen through the branch’s ATMs in the previous three days.
Another man, Ilya Boruch, has been charged with money laundering for allegedly helping transfer some of the proceeds of the heist to Russia through WebMoney, a PayPal-like internet-payment system. And Rakushchynets’s wife has been charged with obstruction of justice.
Citibank hasn’t commented on the breach, except to say that customers aren’t held responsible for fraudulent withdrawals, and that its own servers weren’t compromised. Cardtronics also hasn’t commented, but insisted in a July press release that its systems meet the PCI Data Security Standard, which sets requirements for credit and debit cards processing systems.
But Bob Russo, general manager of the PCI Security Standards Council, says he’s skeptical that Cardtronics was in compliance, assuming the company was the source of the data spill. "To the best of our knowledge at this point, the standard is solid," Russo said in an interview in July. "And there really should be no way that this is possible if they were following the standard."
Cardtronics did not return a call for comment Wednesday.
In addition to looting Citibank accounts, Rakushchynets was accused of participating in a global cybercrime feeding frenzy that tore into four specific iWire prepaid MasterCard accounts last fall. From September 30 to October 1 — just two days — the iWire accounts were hit with more than 9,000 actual and attempted withdrawals from ATM machines "around the world," according to an FBI affidavit, resulting in a staggering $5 million in losses.
Rakushchynets pleaded guilty on September 17 to four charges: access device fraud, and conspiracies to commit access device fraud, bank fraud and money laundering. Kitvea pleaded guilty to conspiracy and access device fraud on September 2. Biltse pleaded guilty on October 21 to access device fraud, three counts of conspiracy, passport fraud and one charge of gaining residency status in the United States with a sham marriage.
Rakushchynets and Biltse agreed to forfeit the cash found stashed in their homes at their arrest: $838,000 for Rakushchynets; $912,500 for Biltse.
Top photo: At the Citibank branch at 65th Street and Madison Avenue in New York City, a bank official caught a man in the act of allegedly looting customer accounts in May.Bryan Derballa/Wired.com
See Also:
Fed Blotter: Citibank Worker Allegedly Plunders Customer Accounts
ATM-Owner Cardtronics Issues Non-Denial Denial in Citibank Breach
Stakeouts, Lucky Breaks Snare Six More in Citibank ATM Heist
Citibank Replaces Some ATM Cards After Online PIN Heist — Update
Citibank Hack Blamed for Alleged ATM Crime Spree
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