Oxymoron of the day: Government Organisation
|
|
|
Hacker jailed after using Facebook to steal
OVER 400 BILLION poker chips could probably stretch to the Moon and back but when they are virtual they are easy to steal, or so convicted hacker Ashley Mitchell thought.
According to the BBC Mitchell used that highly secure website Facebook to try to launder the 400 billion chips he had taken from online gaming firm Zynga's website.
At Exeter Crown Court he pleaded guilty to the online theft and can now expect a hefty jail sentence, as he was already on a suspended sentence for hacking. That earlier conviction was for hacking computers at a local council. No UFO research defence there, then.
Before his arrest Mitchell had turned some of his virtual chips into £53,000 of real money, but his total haul from Zynga was actually worth £7.4 million. He gained access to the Zynga site by posing as an administrator of its poker game on Facebook. He also used the world's biggest marketing database to siphon the chips through various accounts.
Part of Mitchell's defence was that he had become obsessed with the Zynga game and online poker in general, but we think he was just obsessed with the cash. µ
Share this:
Share
The data breach at Zynga underlines the importance of a strong identity management system and clear policies for creating and protecting access credentials. Of particular concern in this instance was that the infiltrator was able to gain unfettered access by impersonating and using the credentials of a legitimate systems administrator.
Were it not for the fact the individual stole a considerable amount of valuable data, in the form of virtual poker chips, then got caught trying to sell the data for a fraction of its face value, this breach may never have been noticed. Clearly there is room for improvement in Zynga’s identity and access management (IAM) regime. Any company trading in highly valuable data and virtual commodities such as online credits must ensure their systems are as tightly secured as any other financial institution.
Come the revolution, spammers and trolls will be the first ones against the wall!
Prison will do him good.
Had he transferred the majority of the stolen goods to charitable organisations, his relatively small personal gain would have been lost in the noise.
Instead, he tried to keep it all for himself. What a fool. Unqualified for real work, he really *should* be in Government.
HEAR HEAR, DEATH TO ALL TROLLS DAGNABIT.
And while were at it, lets also have the death penalty for trolling.
The problem is getting the cash to yourself I guess, hard to get away with it without some government position, he should run for the UN or EU parliament or congress or something and try again.
...is very dead.