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[ISN] NZ jails Aussie bank hacker
by InfoSec News 20 Oct '04

20 Oct '04

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,11087415%5E15331%5E%5Enbv%5… Amanda Hodge OCTOBER 16, 2004 AN Australian IT whiz who stole $2.15 million after hacking into the New Zealand Health Ministry's bank account and then offered to brief the department on the weaknesses in its computer security system was yesterday jailed for three years. With university degrees in science and mathematics, an MBA and years of international computer experience, John Denison, 49, cruised into a senior job with the NZ Health Ministry in March. But in six months of service, in which he headed a national meningococcal B vaccination program, Denison tried unsuccessfully five times to crack the ministry's computer banking system. On his final attempt, in late September, he found fleeting success, hacking into the system and redirecting $2.15 million bound for doctors and medical laboratories to his own bank account, which he set up with a false passport and driver's licence in the name of Alan Bennett. Denison tried to use almost $800,000 as a down payment on a luxury apartment overlooking Sydney's Hyde Park before he was caught. He had been planning to return to Sydney to be near his critically ill sister but confessed to the thefts and passport fraud shortly after several laboratories rang the ministry to complain about the missing money. All the money has since been recovered. Wellington District Court judge Robert Kerr permanently suppressed details of how Denison hacked into the system. The crime was a gross abuse of trust that was partly motivated by a desire to maintain a certain quality of life, Judge Kerr said. Denison's lawyer, Greg King, argued the offence had arisen out of "something of a mid-life crisis" because his client's annual income had plunged from $200,000 to $103,000 when he took the new job. But Denison had also been under extreme financial pressure, supporting an acutely deaf and depressed brother, a sister who was still in hospital after suffering a brain aneurism in July, and also paying child maintenance. Yesterday, Denison's NSW-based former wife said she and her three children were devastated by the outcome but were trying to keep the news from Denison's brother and sister, who were too ill to withstand the trauma. Mr King said the Health Ministry had acted arrogantly by refusing an offer by a penitent Denison to talk them through the security gaps in its system. Crown prosecutor Cherie Clarke said the ministry did not want or need Denison's help. _________________________________________ Open Source Vulnerability Database (OSVDB) Everything is Vulnerable - http://www.osvdb.org/ --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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[ISN] NZ jails Aussie bank hacker
by InfoSec News 20 Oct '04

20 Oct '04

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,11087415%5E15331%5E%5Enbv%5… Amanda Hodge OCTOBER 16, 2004 AN Australian IT whiz who stole $2.15 million after hacking into the New Zealand Health Ministry's bank account and then offered to brief the department on the weaknesses in its computer security system was yesterday jailed for three years. With university degrees in science and mathematics, an MBA and years of international computer experience, John Denison, 49, cruised into a senior job with the NZ Health Ministry in March. But in six months of service, in which he headed a national meningococcal B vaccination program, Denison tried unsuccessfully five times to crack the ministry's computer banking system. On his final attempt, in late September, he found fleeting success, hacking into the system and redirecting $2.15 million bound for doctors and medical laboratories to his own bank account, which he set up with a false passport and driver's licence in the name of Alan Bennett. Denison tried to use almost $800,000 as a down payment on a luxury apartment overlooking Sydney's Hyde Park before he was caught. He had been planning to return to Sydney to be near his critically ill sister but confessed to the thefts and passport fraud shortly after several laboratories rang the ministry to complain about the missing money. All the money has since been recovered. Wellington District Court judge Robert Kerr permanently suppressed details of how Denison hacked into the system. The crime was a gross abuse of trust that was partly motivated by a desire to maintain a certain quality of life, Judge Kerr said. Denison's lawyer, Greg King, argued the offence had arisen out of "something of a mid-life crisis" because his client's annual income had plunged from $200,000 to $103,000 when he took the new job. But Denison had also been under extreme financial pressure, supporting an acutely deaf and depressed brother, a sister who was still in hospital after suffering a brain aneurism in July, and also paying child maintenance. Yesterday, Denison's NSW-based former wife said she and her three children were devastated by the outcome but were trying to keep the news from Denison's brother and sister, who were too ill to withstand the trauma. Mr King said the Health Ministry had acted arrogantly by refusing an offer by a penitent Denison to talk them through the security gaps in its system. Crown prosecutor Cherie Clarke said the ministry did not want or need Denison's help. _________________________________________ Open Source Vulnerability Database (OSVDB) Everything is Vulnerable - http://www.osvdb.org/ --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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Re: Financial identity is *dangerous*? (was re: Fake companies, real money
by R.A. Hettinga 19 Oct '04

19 Oct '04

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Crypto blogs?
by R.A. Hettinga 19 Oct '04

19 Oct '04

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Re: Financial identity is *dangerous*? (was re: Fake companies, real money)
by R.A. Hettinga 19 Oct '04

19 Oct '04

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CFP 2005 PKI R&D Workshop - Deadline soon
by R.A. Hettinga 19 Oct '04

19 Oct '04

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[Humor] [TSCM-L] secret agent man!!! (fwd)
by J.A. Terranson 19 Oct '04

19 Oct '04

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 16:02:53 -0700 From: A.Lizard <alizard(a)ecis.com> Reply-To: TSCM-L(a)yahoogroups.com To: TSCM-L(a)yahoogroups.com Subject: [TSCM-L] secret agent man!!! >Sad state of spying >Intelligence vets are still musing over Michael Kostiw, whose reported >shoplifting forced his withdrawal this month as the CIA's prospective >executive director. But what dismays the spooks most isn't the ethics or >the propriety of the case--it's that Kostiw had served as a case officer >for 10 years and still couldn't manage to shoplift a package of bacon >without getting caught in a Northern Virginia market. Says one old spy: >"It's a perfect metaphor for the sorry state of the CIA" http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/041025/whispers/25whisplead.htm While I don't think this the place for political debate, I think the state of US intelligence services is something of interest to everyone on the list. I only hope this guy hasn't been training people. A.Lizard -- member The Internet Society (ISOC), The HTML Writers Guild. "Feudal societies go broke. These top-heavy crony capitalists of the Enron ilk are nowhere near so good at business as they think they are." Bruce Sterling Personal Website http://www.ecis.com/~alizard business Website http://reptilelabs.com backup address (if ALL else fails) alizard(a)gmail.com PGP 8.0 key available by request or keyserver. Download PGP from: http://www.pgpi.org for e-mail privacy. Disaster prep info: http://www.ecis.com/~alizard/y2k.html ***Looking for INTELLIGENT new technology public policy alternatives?*** http://www.ecis.com/~alizard/technology.html ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/UBhwlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ======================================================== TSCM-L Technical Security Mailing List "In a multitude of counselors there is strength" To subscribe to the TSCM-L mailing list visit: http://www.yahoogroups.com/community/TSCM-L It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the juice of Star Bucks that thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire shaking, the shaking is a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion. =================================================== TSKS Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TSCM-L/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: TSCM-L-unsubscribe(a)yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

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Re: Airport insanity
by Tyler Durden 19 Oct '04

19 Oct '04

Bill Stewart wrote... >Unfortunately, the primary algorithm seems to work like this: >- Somebody puts a name on some list because it seems like a > good idea at the time, and there's no due process required. >- Everybody copies lists from everybody else, > with minimal attempt to track where the information comes from. >- Database corruption propagates rapidly, so anybody who's on > any list because of political corruption like Neo-Cointelpro > stays there because of database corruption. And if we add local "intelligence" in the form of allowing airport screeners to act on their hunches, then there's one more step: Airport Screener didn't get her child-support check from the ex and as a result is saving her crack for lunchtime...frisks well-heeled and arguably spolied white-guy with a little 'tude who proceeds to give said screener some 'feedback'...Airport screener figures she'll brighten up her own morning and prevents said white-guy from flying: "Hey, something told me this guy was trouble, so fire me and I'll work for Starbucks instead." One day, I may be willing to subscribe to the commonly held cypherpunk belief that any law from a government is basically a bad thing, but AFAIC we don't need to get that far yet. When laws boil down the decision-in-a-vacuum and whim of the enforcer, Break out the Zombie patriots. -TD _________________________________________________________________ Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE! http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/

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RE: Airport insanity
by John Kelsey 18 Oct '04

18 Oct '04

>From: "James A. Donald" <jamesd(a)echeque.com> >Sent: Oct 16, 2004 7:01 PM >To: cypherpunks(a)al-qaeda.net >Subject: RE: Airport insanity ... >On 15 Oct 2004 at 16:32, Tyler Durden wrote: ... >> He might have looked odd from the photo you saw circulated in >> the press, but I'd bet a lot of money no one would have >> picked him as looking like a terrorist. >But the people sitting beside him did pick him as looking like >a terrorist. What's the false positive rate? It's one thing if you see some guy lighting a fuse sticking out of his shoe, and quite another if you say "You look kinda terroristy; I'm sending you off the plane." This works as a reasonable strategy only if: a. The probability ratios don't work out so that the overwhelming majority of people you throw off planes are innocent. (They almost certainly will, just because terrorists are so rare.) b. The terrorists can't figure out how to make themselves look less threatening. > --digsig > James A. Donald --John

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Re: Airport insanity
by Tyler Durden 18 Oct '04

18 Oct '04

"Sadre protected himself with Iraqi women and young children as human shields, showing that he expected the Pentagon to show more concern for Iraqi lives than he did." There are giant, glaring holes in your logical processing, Mr Donald. In this case let us remember that the whole situation is because WE are over THERE. This particular incident would not occur if we hadn't invaded. Aside from that, your posts are completely saturated with the "They're more evil than we are therefore it's OK for us to be fuckin them over" logic. This is also why your (mostly faulty) examples of Muslim violence are basically irrelevant, or at least in the case(s) where the US has taken unilateral action to undermine or destabilise regimes that don't happen to serve us (guess that's just a coincidence, eh). -TD >From: "James A. Donald" <jamesd(a)echeque.com> >To: "cypherpunks(a)al-qaeda.net" <cypherpunks(a)al-qaeda.net> >Subject: Re: Airport insanity >Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 11:48:25 -0700 > > -- >James A. Donald: > > > A very large number of muslims, particularly arab muslims- > > > a small minority in the US, a large minority or substantial > > > majority in many muslim countries, continually seek to > > > confront the infidel in a wide variety of ways, and > > > interpret our politeness and care to avoid harming muslims > > > as weakness and fear." > >Tyler Durden > > I would bet that statements that sound very, very close to > > this were uttered prior to Iraq II. > > > > "Care to Avoid harming Muslims"? > > > > You are either trolling or [...] > >Sadre protected himself with Iraqi women and young children as >human shields, showing that he expected the Pentagon to show >more concern for Iraqi lives than he did. > > --digsig > James A. Donald > 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG > z0Tj1tmeI/AaMuuBMu2Z8xH7q6Mx5bQYJFqN5xU1 > 4zftsnadKxHqaGDRsPhgFcT8bZCLY79W7Yk0HjGwc _________________________________________________________________ Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE! http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/

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