Turkish hacker pleads guilty to $55m maniac global ATM heist The hacker behind an attack on the US banking sector that caused $55m in damages has pleaded guilty – and faces more than 57 years in prison. Turkish citizen Ercan Findikoglu, 34, admitted his role in an international syndicate including charges of computer intrusion conspiracy, bank fraud, and effecting transactions using …
... "missing on the mobile Reg page?"
The mobile Reg page is unloved by the maintainers.
A couple of years ago I asked for links from the mobile Reg page to 'Channel' articles to point to the mobile page. This got fixed in a few days, then broken again:
http://m.forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2014/08/08/ei10_Mobile_site_El_Chan_links_broken/
..and proof-reading budget, by the looks of things.
*"...Findikoglu ducked police until he was arrested December 2013 in Frankfurt, Germany and battled extradition until last year, pleading not guilty in June...."
* Battled extradition to where?
* Where is the trial taking place?
It's never actually mentioned in the article.
[SPOILER ALERT: OK. We know that the answer is USA, as they now rule the world and have the right to try anyone's citizens for any crimes committed anywhere –but still, in the interests of cogency, it would be nice to have been told].
Err... No.
21st century my a**e.
This was a standard ATM cloned card fraud using the magnetic stripe. Cards were issued by banks servicing individuals and organizations stuck in the 1990-es.
The only "new addition" is removing limits instead of targeting the debit cards of UAE cittizens which had no limits to start off with.
That as last century as it can get and then some.
Hmm... seems like progress to me. Almost civilised.
Not approving of the crime, just observing that, in this kind of heist, at least no innocent bystanders get scared shitless, shot or killed.
Robbery will always happen until/unless we evolve to a post-scarcity society where money is irrelevant and anybody can have any possessions they desire with no effort required.
But as we're a long way from that, in the meantime well hey, it's an improvement if nobody dies in the process.
Almost sounds like the US attorney would have preferred the gang marched into New York banks with guns waving...
Quote: "this cybercrime organisation used laptops and the internet,"
I'm curious to know what the other cybercrime organisations are using, if it's not laptops and the internet? As they seem to be implying this is unusual behaviour for cyber criminals!
I totally agree with the tone of the OP's comment. And, let's not forget, there is activity going on *inside* the banking sector, and financial markets in general, that is just as deserving of some lengthy prison time.
The article states:-
"
... stole US$40 million (£28.4 million, A$54.8 million) through an eye-watering 36,000 ATM transactions ...
"
Which works out at an average withdrawal of almost £790 per ATM transaction. You could not do that with cloned cards, and if it was by hacking the ATM firmware, you'd have thought it would have been detected and stopped long before that many hacks. It also amount to nearly 100 transactions per day for a full year.
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