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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

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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!!!

Monday, December 7, 2009

4 Hackers Indicted in $9.5 Million Bank Card Attack


Four men have been indicted in Georgia on charges that they hacked into the Atlanta-based bank card processing company RBS WorldPay. They allegedly used an army of flunkies to steal $9.5 million in cash from ATM machines around the world in a span of hours.
Sergei Tsurikov, 25, of Tallinn, Estonia; Viktor Pleshchuk, 28, of St. Petersburg, Russia; Oleg Covelin, 28, of Chisinau, Moldova; and a fourth person identified only as “Hacker 3″ were indicted by a federal grand jury in what’s being described as “perhaps the most sophisticated and organized computer fraud attack ever conducted.”
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The hack involved reverse-engineering PINs for payroll debit card accounts — the holy grail of bank card hacking. Another four people based in Estonia were also indicted on access-device fraud charges in connection with the hack.
The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Northern District of Georgia, in Atlanta.
RBS WorldPay, the payment-processing arm of the Royal Bank of Scotland, provides a multitude of electronic payment processing services, including debit card transactions, electronic benefits transfer payments (EBT), gift cards, customer-loyalty cards, prepaid cards, credit card and ATM-processing services. The processor discovered last November 10 that it had been hacked and that the intruders had accessed account details for 100 payroll cards. The hackers also obtained Social Security numbers of about 1.1 million account holders.
Initial reports painted the intrusion as a limited hack, due to the number of cards compromised. But the 16-count indictment (.pdf) charges that the four hackers “compromised the data encryption” that RBS WorldPay used on payroll debit cards to raise the amount of funds available on the cards, as well as withdrawal limits. Payroll debit cards are used by employers to pay employees instead of checks. In some cases the hackers raised the limits to $500,000.
According to the indictment, Tsurikov conducted reconnaissance of the RBS network after Covelin provided him with information about vulnerabilities in the system. Pleshchuk and Covelin then worked on exploiting the vulnerabilities to obtain access on November 4. Pleschuk allegedly developed the method for reverse-engineering the encrypted PINs.
Once the hackers raised the account limits, they provided an army of cashers with 44 cards embedded with the account details for a coordinated, simultaneous attack on ATMs around the world. On November 8, the cashers were instructed to begin siphoning money, and they hit more than 2,000 ATMs in less than 12 hours, netting about $9.5 million. Three Estonian defendants charged for their role in cashing — Ronald Tso, Evelin Tsoi and Mihhail Jevgenov — allegedly were responsible for withdrawing about $289,000 from ATMs in Tallinn, Estonia.
The cashers kept 30 to 50 percent of the loot before transmitting the remainder back to the hackers in Eastern Europe through Western Union and Web Money, a Russia-based digital currency service. The hackers, still in RBS’s network, were able to observe the withdrawals of funds from ATMs as they occurred in real time in order to monitor the amounts being taken by cashers and lock the accounts to prevent further withdrawals.
Once the mission was completed, the hackers tried to erase their tracks on the RBS network.
Tsurikov was arrested earlier this year in Estonia and is being held there pending extradition to the United States. The Justice Department will not comment at this time on the status of Pleshchuk and Covelin, a spokesman told Threat Level.
Tsurikov, Pleshchuk, Covelin and “Hacker 3″ face a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and other wire-fraud counts, and up to five years in prison for conspiracy to commit computer fraud as well as up to five or 10 years for each count of computer fraud. They also face a two-year mandatory minimum sentence for aggravated identity theft and fines up to $3.5 million dollars.
Covelin was also indicted in September in New York as part of a gang that authorities dubbed the Western Express Cybercrime Group. That group, operating between 2001 and 2007, trafficked in at least 95,000 known stolen credit card numbers.
The group worked with a New York-based company called Western Express International, which authorities allege was used to coordinate and facilitate the illegal activities and launder the ring’s ill-gotten gains.
See Also:
5 More Indicted in Probe of International Carding Ring
PIN Crackers Nab Holy Grail of Bank Card Security
Big Box Breach: The Inside Story of Wal-Mart’s Hacker Attack
Accused TJX Hacker Agrees to Guilty Plea
TJX Hacker Charged With Heartland, Hannaford Breaches
TJX Hacker Was Awash in Cash; His Penniless Coder Faces Prison
Former Teen Hacker’s Suicide Linked to TJX Probe
I Was a Cybercrook for the FBI
Hacking Godfather ‘Maksik’ Sentenced to 30 Years by Turkish Court
Stakeouts, Lucky Breaks Snare Six More in Citibank ATM Heist

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