Cops reel in greedy hackers

The authorities are now catching these guys and its about time. If they put their talents to good use they would not need to keep looking over their shoulders and they would make decent money doing it. Stupid hackers :)

Read on....

A syndicate of Internet thieves has stolen more than R400-million from government departments, including the Presidency.

Two computer identity-theft hackers, believed to be the masterminds of the cyber gang, were nabbed by the police this week.

These follow the earlier arrests of 13 people involved in stealing millions of rands from government departments and employees across the country.

The syndicate allegedly hacked into computer systems linked to the Presidency using specialised spy software (spyware) programs.

The Internet-based syndicate, which had operatives in banks and government departments, is alleged to be behind the theft of R400-million from bank accounts of the departments of Home Affairs and Public Works, the licensing department, several parastatals and financial institutions, as well as from staff working in the various organisations over the past two years.

The syndicate, the members of which have been arrested over the past month, was bust during an operation conducted by the South African Police Service's Covert Intelligence Collective Directorate and the Commercial Crime Unit.

The operation, dubbed Operation Swift, had detectives and undercover agents raiding houses in Tshwane and North West. The latest arrests were made in Centurion and Ramokokastad, North West.

The arrests bring an end to what has been described as the country's biggest cyber attack on government organisations.

The theft, say police, allegedly took place through fraudulent electronic funds transfers (EFTs) from the various institutes and its staff members' accounts since 2006, and saw the syndicate, which comprises small business owners and IT specialists employed in both the government and the private sector, siphoning off money to fictitious bank accounts.

Police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Tummi Golding said the latest arrests followed information received from undercover operatives.

She said the information showed that since 2006 the suspects had allegedly stolen more than R5-million from the Office of the Presidency's budget.

"One of the suspects was arrested in Centurion in a townhouse he rents and the second was arrested at his home in the North West town of Ramokokastad," she said.

Golding said the men, aged 40 and 36, would appear in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court soon on charges of fraud.

Golding said that during the arrests, police seized a Mercedes-Benz SLK and a Harley-Davidson motorbike, which had allegedly been bought with fraudulent documents.

She said that in other raids conducted as part of the operation, police raided several houses in Soshanguve, where they arrested five people and seized two laptop computers, two printing machines, a laminating machine and documents used to commit the alleged fraud.

Explaining how the syndicate operated, Golding said the group operated by infiltrating targeted departments and institutions and installing spyware on their IT systems.

"The spyware was used to collect the user names and passwords of users of the government salary systems.

"Once this information is compromised, it is used to effect fraudulent EFTs into bank accounts opened by runners using fraudulent documents.

"In some cases, government officials within IT departments used remote access software available on the commercial market to gain unauthorised access and modify the banking details of registered suppliers," she explained.

Golding said the syndicate also targeted bank officials for recruitment and facilitation of fraudulent transactions.

"These bank officials load stop orders from bank accounts of government departments using compromised user names and passwords of other bank employees.

"The funds are transferred into fraudulently opened bank accounts using the details of registered business entities.

"As well as this, the syndicate, in collaboration with government officials, used compromised log-on details of other users to create ghost workers on the Persal system and pay the salaries of these nonexistent employees into fraudulent bank accounts," she said.

Browser Highjackers: Whats This Mean in Terms of Spyware?

There is usually alot of confusion within the term "spyware" but we clear one thing up today with this post. Hopefully we can clear one thing up with you.

Read on....

When you think of a hijacker, what comes to mind? Generally, people think of someone who takes over a situation and runs it the way they want to get what they want. This is the hard cold fact about hijacking, and while it is definitely less violent than a physical hijacking, the results can be all the same. Someone comes in, takes over, and in the end the innocent party minding their business is the one who loses. Welcome to the not-so -pleasant work of browser hijacking. When someone gains entry to your machine, you can almost be sure that they are going to tamper with all that you have available. First and foremost it is the Internet browser, this seemingly is the easiest target to get too, and they do utilize it to the fullest. When it is taken over, you can be sure you will have virtually no control over what they are doing. You will not be able to stop it, short of turning your machine completely off or disconnecting from the Internet. By this time, it will clearly be too late.

This, again, is a form of Spyware, and it generally hits home computers or small business machines that they can weasel themselves through. It is the easiest for their entry, if they are clustered in a group of programs, and they lay in wait for you to accept a harmless java download or active x offer. This is very common when someone is sharing music via a music share program such as Lime Wire or Kazzaa. Once the program recognizes that there is an opportunity for entry, it is designed to open a field of banners and graphics that look relatively safe and professional for a website or distributor. Once they have this download sequence in process, it is easy for them to unload multiple packets of tainted information. This is sent in prior to the infiltration itself. The reason this information is sent in first is to allow for the lowering of all guards and firewall properties. This is where the program spreads out within the new host system, it goes to the e-mail directory for future propagation, it attacks and seizes the Internet browser, and makes changes to settings to interrupt the flow of the computers workings.

Once the browser hijacking has taken place, it is easy for someone to remotely direct you to sites that are not on your agenda. Many times it will take you to porn sites, in the attempt to gain valuable information on you to use at a later date. This is pretty much done to establish a card password or number of the IP address in order to use the information from offshore accounts. This will then be set up to use your home number as a base so to speak, for a porn site, where thousands of dollars can amass quite quickly in your name. This Internet browser hijacking will redirect you to undesirable sites, and frequently tamper with your browser settings. This will make for very frustrating and aggravating surf on the web. If this program is strong enough, it will easily place time coded stamps on the entire e-mail list in your computer. What this will do is then send a segment of information to all your contacts, under your name of course. When the person views the name, it will be recognized as safe, and open the file that was sent. This is how the propagation is initiated. In turn infecting all contacts on the list that open the said mail packet. Not only will it attack your e-mail contact list and hijack your Internet browser, but also it will move files around in a shuffling fashion. This will then make difficulties for many of your programs to operate properly. Sometimes they will not start or operate at all. It is important to ensure that this menace is stopped, by keeping a close eye out on what you click on and download. Just because it looks fairly safe does not mean it is. It is up to you to ensure that you are not the next target, alert your friends on suspicious programs that you have seen, if you frequent the same sites as them.