SOC 167- Assignment #2: Analysis of an online crime
Tone Hanstad
In February 2013 eight people became arrested after the largest bank robbery in the history, by using computers to hack into bank systems and steal PINs from credit- and debit cards to get access to unlimited withdrawal. Loretta Lynch, a Brooklyn attorney called the network “a virtual criminal flash mob.” The members of this global cybercrime operation did a crime as huge as never seen before. The crimes found place in 26 different countries, the first “attack” in December 2012 in a bank in India stealing a total of $5 million. The second “attack” was in February 2013, when information that was stolen from databases of prepaid debit cards was used to process the total of $40 millions. People that had a lot of money paid others to hack in to the bank systems and get their hands on the PINs to a huge number of credit and debit cards. The “leaders” in this cybercrime operation pays the hacker to do all this work, then make the limits of withdrawal on the accounts unlimited, and then get as much cash as they can carry from the ATMs. In February 2013, it took this people two hours to get 2,8 million dollars in checking from ATM´s in a straight line on the streets of Manhattan, NY.
Tone Hanstad
In February 2013 eight people became arrested after the largest bank robbery in the history, by using computers to hack into bank systems and steal PINs from credit- and debit cards to get access to unlimited withdrawal. Loretta Lynch, a Brooklyn attorney called the network “a virtual criminal flash mob.” The members of this global cybercrime operation did a crime as huge as never seen before. The crimes found place in 26 different countries, the first “attack” in December 2012 in a bank in India stealing a total of $5 million. The second “attack” was in February 2013, when information that was stolen from databases of prepaid debit cards was used to process the total of $40 millions. People that had a lot of money paid others to hack in to the bank systems and get their hands on the PINs to a huge number of credit and debit cards. The “leaders” in this cybercrime operation pays the hacker to do all this work, then make the limits of withdrawal on the accounts unlimited, and then get as much cash as they can carry from the ATMs. In February 2013, it took this people two hours to get 2,8 million dollars in checking from ATM´s in a straight line on the streets of Manhattan, NY.
This case is a typical virtual crime that turns out to have big consequences in the real world. The group of online hackers that did this huge robbery must have been affected by the online disinhibition effect, most specific the factor invisibility. When this people did the crime by using only their computers hacking in the bank systems, nobody could see them and they might even do it larger then they had dared to do physically. According to the factor invisibility, the robbers could accomplish the crime while avoiding eye-contact and get the money in silence before they got caught. (Suler, 2004) The opportunity to be invisible amplifies the disinhibiton effect, and the opportunity to stay anonymous was maybe the reason that got them to conduct these large robberies even over the borders. Without the computers and the network online, the hackers would probably never manage to do this “virtual criminal flash mob” as huge as they did.
This is the
link to the article in New York Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/cyber-thieves-busted-45-million-heist-article-1.1339051
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/cyber-thieves-busted-45-million-heist-article-1.1339051
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