Post by Kazuya_UK on Jul 8, 2004 6:27:06 GMT -5
Check out this little gem that got emailed to me at work from silicon.com:
That's one stupid hacker right there... possibly the most stupid I have ever heard of
. This guy doesn't deserve prison... he needs a 
Kaz
The line between criminal genius and hapless moron is a fine one as a Southampton man discovered this week.
Simon Jones was a supermarket shelf stacker with a rudimentary grasp of hacking skills and a chip on his shoulder.
Feeling the world was against him he decided to hold one of the most prominent websites on the net to ransom - Playboy.
Simon thought that having got hold of some of the site's customer subscriber details he could blackmail Playboy for its big bongo bucks.
So was planted the germ of his idea. Unfortunately for Simon his plan was rubbish. Nervous, would-be criminal genii should look away now.
>From his high-tech crime centre (bedroom) in his secret underground lair (parent's house) the criminal mastermind (halfwit) launched his plan to bring the porn giant to its knees, figuratively speaking.
Simon managed to convince the company he had confidential user details obtained by hacking into the Playboy buxom servers and would exploit them if they didn't pay up (see: newsletters.silicon.cneteu.net/t/24699/581533/8721/0/ ).
In fact, all Simon had were two usernames and passwords but faced with the evidence Playboy thought it was dealing with the real deal.
It decided to settle with the hacker and through gritted teeth asked how much he wanted.
Operating under the pseudonym Paymaster 69 (nice touch) Simon demanded... $100 (and no, there isn't a little 'm' or 'bn' missing from the end of that number).
Playboy agreed, perhaps wondering if this criminal madman was paying some strange homage to Austin Powers' arch-nemesis Dr Evil (see here: newsletters.silicon.cneteu.net/t/24699/581533/8722/0/ ) and asked him how he would like to receive the money.
Simple Simon demanded the company credit the $100 (that's about £60) to his bank and passed on his account details.
Now, the eagle-eyed reader may have just spotted how the US secret service tracked their man down.
The Feds caught up with him a few months later - presumably it took them that long to stop laughing.
Jones this week told a sblack personing courtroom, rather unnecessarily, that he wasn't "in it for the money" and launched his crime spree because he was bored with his mundane life stacking supermarket shelves and was bitter about not finding a job in IT.
The judge showed little sympathy, convicted Simon of blackmail and sentenced him to two years in jail - which on balance may be just a little bit harsh.
Then again the ill-conceived blackmail scheme did cost Playboy more than $100 after the company ordered a review of its security systems costing several thousand dollars.
The company also admitted it had considered a complete overhaul of its database that would have put it back millions of dollars.
Something which would have ended up costing Playboy supremo Hugh Hefner an awful lot of bunny tails, smoking jackets and Viagra...
Simon Jones was a supermarket shelf stacker with a rudimentary grasp of hacking skills and a chip on his shoulder.
Feeling the world was against him he decided to hold one of the most prominent websites on the net to ransom - Playboy.
Simon thought that having got hold of some of the site's customer subscriber details he could blackmail Playboy for its big bongo bucks.
So was planted the germ of his idea. Unfortunately for Simon his plan was rubbish. Nervous, would-be criminal genii should look away now.
>From his high-tech crime centre (bedroom) in his secret underground lair (parent's house) the criminal mastermind (halfwit) launched his plan to bring the porn giant to its knees, figuratively speaking.
Simon managed to convince the company he had confidential user details obtained by hacking into the Playboy buxom servers and would exploit them if they didn't pay up (see: newsletters.silicon.cneteu.net/t/24699/581533/8721/0/ ).
In fact, all Simon had were two usernames and passwords but faced with the evidence Playboy thought it was dealing with the real deal.
It decided to settle with the hacker and through gritted teeth asked how much he wanted.
Operating under the pseudonym Paymaster 69 (nice touch) Simon demanded... $100 (and no, there isn't a little 'm' or 'bn' missing from the end of that number).
Playboy agreed, perhaps wondering if this criminal madman was paying some strange homage to Austin Powers' arch-nemesis Dr Evil (see here: newsletters.silicon.cneteu.net/t/24699/581533/8722/0/ ) and asked him how he would like to receive the money.
Simple Simon demanded the company credit the $100 (that's about £60) to his bank and passed on his account details.
Now, the eagle-eyed reader may have just spotted how the US secret service tracked their man down.
The Feds caught up with him a few months later - presumably it took them that long to stop laughing.
Jones this week told a sblack personing courtroom, rather unnecessarily, that he wasn't "in it for the money" and launched his crime spree because he was bored with his mundane life stacking supermarket shelves and was bitter about not finding a job in IT.
The judge showed little sympathy, convicted Simon of blackmail and sentenced him to two years in jail - which on balance may be just a little bit harsh.
Then again the ill-conceived blackmail scheme did cost Playboy more than $100 after the company ordered a review of its security systems costing several thousand dollars.
The company also admitted it had considered a complete overhaul of its database that would have put it back millions of dollars.
Something which would have ended up costing Playboy supremo Hugh Hefner an awful lot of bunny tails, smoking jackets and Viagra...
That's one stupid hacker right there... possibly the most stupid I have ever heard of
. This guy doesn't deserve prison... he needs a Kaz
