Notorious tricks of the digital age: Part 2

Tram Ho

In an anthology of the biggest cybercriminals of the digital age in a special Bloomberg issue, we’ll hear about how the Canadian company that invented the iPhone prototype went bust before Apple introduced iPhone 2G, how hackers robbed museums without touching exhibits…

‘Abnormal traffic’: How Chinese hackers made Canada’s largest company bankrupt

Canada Nortel Networks Corp., headquartered in Ottawa, was in the 2000s the largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer with headquarters of 90,000 people. By the standards of the time, its market value was about $250 million. Nortel developed the touchscreen device nearly a decade before the first iPhone.

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Nortel Network

During the 1990s, Canadian security officials discovered “Unusual Traffic”. Documents from Ottawa were somehow leaked to China. Service personnel approached Nortel Network to check where the data was, but Nortel ignored the warning. By 2004, hackers had broken into the accounts of top corporate positions, including the profile of CEO Frank Dunn. It was from his mail that Chinese hackers obtained PowerPoint presentations in customer meetings, product development data, research, financial calculations, technical documents, code and more. more.

Using the Il.browse script, the attackers manipulated confidential information and forwarded it to an IP address registered with Shangai Faxian Corp. – a shell company that has no business relationship with Nortel. Nortel Networks did little to respond to cybercriminals: All the company’s employees could do at the time was change the passwords on corporate accounts. Hacks continued to occur and in 2009 the Canadian market leader went bankrupt.

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The cause of bankruptcy was that the Internet at that time still had many holes, which hackers could take advantage of

It is still unknown who hacked Nortel Network’s database.

“Perfect Museum Robbery”: How Hackers Get $3 Million Without Touching the Painting

Every year, the Netherlands hosts the European Fine Arts Fair, where 260 museums auction and sell their exhibits. In 2018, Simon Dickinson of the London Gallery put for sale a landscape painting by British artist John Constable called Perspectives from Hampstead Heath (1825).

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View from Hampstead Heath (1825)

Some auctioneers immediately expressed a desire to buy the painting, but none had as much intensity and desire to buy the painting as Arno Odding, Director of the Dutch State Museum Twente. Due to lack of money, Arnot Oding was unable to close the deal, so he signed a deal with Dickinson. The Twente Museum will take Constable’s landscape and promise to pay as soon as the money is available. Over time, thanks to the German government and a private art organization, the museum raised $3 million.

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Twente Museum

Just as Arno Odding was about to transfer the money, he received an email from Simon Dickinson with new bank account information. The director of the Dutch museum transferred $3 million, but that money never reached London. It turned out that Dickinson’s email had been hacked: The cybercriminals were trying to get the money without even touching the painting. Investigators are sure that this is a perfect crime in the art field, because sometimes it is quite easy to steal an item, but it is difficult to get the money and be detected. In this case, the scammers avoided all difficulties: They simply hacked the mail, provided incorrect data, received the money, and disappeared.

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The perpetrator of Hack mail has not been found yet

To date, the perpetrator has not been found. The painting remains in the archives of the State Museum of Twente, although Simon Dickinson insists on returning it to the London Gallery, as he has never received the money.

“From a picky kid to a global influencer”: how does a blogger from Nigeria make money from a bank account?

Ramon Abbas, better known online as @hushpuppi, is a Nigerian blogger with 2.5 million viewers. Always brag and boast about your wealth.

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Ramon Abbas

This blogger’s photo shows a lot of luxury cars and designer stuff, but most importantly inspirational quotes in which he positions himself as a man who achieves everything on his own. and from an “unfortunate child from Nigeria” to a “global influencer”.

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Ramon Abbas and the set of super cars

The only thing that Ramon never blogs about is his source of income. Rumors began to appear online: Many people believe that this influencer is making money dishonestly. Abbos has denied those rumors, writing on Instagram that they were words from people who were jealous of him. FBI agents figured out how this blogger made so much money. As it turned out, Abbas and his friends had repeatedly carried out BEC (Business Email Compromise) attacks, in other words fraud using a corporate mailbox account.

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Accompanied by an expensive branded bag

A California federal court filed charges against Ramon and his co-conspirator, Caleb Alaumari, for the theft of $923,000. There appeared a transaction to an account controlled by Abbas at the US bank Chase from a law firm in New York. The legal assistant had to make a Citizen Bank transaction into the client’s account, but when she asked the client where the money was going, they mailed her Chase account details. Although all the information matched, the girl did not communicate with the client of that law firm at all, but with one of Ramon Abbas’s people. More than a third of the money goes to the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, with the rest going to other bank accounts. On October 17, Abbas is said to have sent a screenshot confirming the transfer to his accomplice, Caleb Alaumari, but was on a plane with no network. By the time his plane landed and was connected, police were waiting for the blogger – the photo was promised never to reach the recipient.

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This blogger has now been arrested

This attack is not the only accusation against the blogger. He is also believed to be involved in the theft of $14.7 million from the Maltese Bank of Valletta, a commercial and investment bank with offices throughout Europe. In January 2019, at the request of his accomplice Alaumari, Abbas found several accounts in Europe that could safely accommodate a $6.1 million wire transfer to attackers. Public Valletta. When a bank employee opened a received message, the hacker gained access to the secure payment system and made the transfer.

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With my 3 accomplices

Ramon Abbas now faces 20 years in prison.

By: RBK

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Source : Genk