TJX Hacker gets 30 years

[PrntRhd]

One of the Ukrainians wanted for the TJ Maxx wardriving hacks got caught doing more of it in Turkey, he got sentenced to 30 years there.
http://www.darkreading.com/security/attacks/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212701407

[mjc]

30 years in Turkish prison...SWEET!!!!!!!

[Whyzman]

I hear already he's searching the Internet for soap-on-a-rope...

[minus-sign]

I'm confused. I thought wardriving was essentially harmless. Wasn't what he was actually doing called "piggyhacking"?

EDIT: wiki'd. Guess "piggyhacking" isn't sensational-sounding enough for the press.

[PrntRhd]

Not harmless at all, this was (primarily Russian) organized crime.
War driving the way he did it is definitely criminal, both in intent and action.

He was part of a ring involved with breaking into business wireless networks and wired networks, he then loaded software onto those networks allowing the ring to steal credit card swipes and debit card swipes, and emptied the businesses customer's bank accounts with the debit card information, and also credit card fraud.
Millions of dollars in losses which the consumer eventually pays in the form of higher prices and fees, ruined businesses who had their accounts emptied, & huge losses for the credit card firms, insurers, and the banks.

An earlier article, estimates of losses at TJ Maxx alone was $4.5 billion.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199203277

[minus-sign]

As I understand, wardriving is just signal acquisition; mapping hotspots and such. piggyhacking is unauthorized access. We talked about it in my security concepts class a little bit last week, so I was confused when they called what he did wardriving.

Splitting hairs maybe, but my teachers have been hammering proper term usage into me for several months now (doohickey has been banned from my lexicon of acceptable hardware terminology). The reporter (at least, I think) used the wrong term to describe the act, since "wardriving" has more of a buzzword quality--sounds more threatening than piggyhacking to a casual reader.

Am I incorrect?

[PrntRhd]

A generic definition of wardriving is "driving around looking for wireless access points".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardriving

The problem for wardrivers is there are now laws that make "accessing protected computer systems" a crime.

What the TJX ring did was wardriving to find businesses with inadequate WEP encryption and then broke into those systems ("cracking") and loaded software to modify the systems to their use ("hacking") for profit.

Piggybacking can also be accessing the internet by bringing your wireless laptop in range of someones wireless access point.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piggybacking

[mjc]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardriving

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piggybacking_(internet_access)

Neither term is 100% accurate for describing the activity in this case...

In the classic sense of the word, the group used wardriving to mark the network, then used other techniques to hack/subvert/gain unrestricted access...

[sassie05]

30 years in Turkish prison...SWEET!!!!!!!

Anyone seen the movie "Midnight Express"?
Oh my!

[Angie1313]

30 years in Turkish prison...SWEET!!!!!!!

eewwllll....NOT a pretty picture...I have a funny feeling that this guy won't exactly be fitting in with the other inmates as he would like.