Police Bust Underground Syndicate and Find Shocking Information
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There are hidden hacker groups that are paid money to hack your computer and steal all your personal data. Anyone can be attacked by these stealth hackers. The high profile case of Mr. Haephrati shined light on this dark underworld.
A computer programmer by the name of Michael Haephrati created a Trojan to spy on his former in-laws. It was his way of getting revenge. Michael's wife saw the business opportunity in selling this capability to other entities.
Haephratis subscribers could target any individual or business they wanted to steal intellectual property from. The data stolen was secret correspondence, economic data, and documents.
This is the creepy story of how they did it.
Haephrati subscribers would pick a target they wanted to steal information from. Haephrati would then deliver a psychological hook to that individual. The target received an email from a person that looked like a known associate. The psychological hook was usually of a business opportunity. When the target responded to the email, they would receive a Trojan. If the target did not respond to the original email, they would receive a CD by postal mail with the psychological hook and a hidden Trojan.
The Trojan allowed Haephrati to remotely control the computer of the target. This Trojan included a key-logger and a store and forward capability. It had the capability of watching what someone was doing on their computer "live" or in real time. It would send files from the target computer to FTP servers located in Israel, the U.S., and other locales. Haephrati had dozens of servers located around the globe.
According to Israeli police, items stolen included business plans, marketing plans, details on new products in the making, and employee information and pay slips. This information was then sold to competitors of the target. Israeli police said that over 11 gigabytes of confidential data was obtained before they shut it down.
Subscribers of Haephratis used the service to gain economic advantage of their competition.
A subscription to Haephratis didn't come cheap. Haephratis charged a business customer $3,500 (U.S. dollars) to create a customized software program and to make the initial install on the victim's computer. The monthly fee was then $900 to maintain the infrastructure used to collect, store, and forward the secretly acquired data on a monthly basis.
The ultimate cost to victims was severe. They lost their intellectual property, lost the trust of customers, and even lost employees' personal data. They also lost their best marketing plans to Haephratis' underground servers. Underground servers are believed to facilitate most International identity and credit card theft. The following scary as hell price list was found on underground servers in 2007.
U.S.-based credit card with card verification value $1 - $6 UK-based credit card with card verification value $2 - $12 An identity (including U.S. bank account, credit card, date of birth, and government-issued identification number) $14 - $18 List of 29,000 e-mails $5 Online banking account with a $9,900 balance $300 Yahoo Mail cookie exploit"advertised to facilitate full access when successful $3 Valid Yahoo and Hotmail e-mail cookies $3 Compromised computers $6 - $20 Phishing Web site hosting"per site $3 - $5 Verified PayPal account with balance (balance varies) $10 - $50 Unverified PayPal account with balance (balance varies) $12 Skype accounts $12 World of Warcraft accounts"one month duration $10
Haephrati may have never been caught if it wasn't for his own stupidity. He continued to harass his former in-laws by taking his former father-in-law's private work and posting it publicly on the Internet to defame his person and character. His former father-in-law went to the police in November of 2004.
The police have their own anti-hacker tools and used secret computer forensic technology tools to trace the Trojan back to Haephrati's business.
In 2005, Michael Haephrati and his wife were arrested by British police in London and extradited to Israeli where they were found guilty of economic and industrial espionage.
Some type of secret plea agreement was reached and the Haephrati's were set free. The rumor on the street is that Haephrati now sub-contracts his Trojan and espionage service to law enforcement agencies only.
A computer programmer by the name of Michael Haephrati created a Trojan to spy on his former in-laws. It was his way of getting revenge. Michael's wife saw the business opportunity in selling this capability to other entities.
Haephratis subscribers could target any individual or business they wanted to steal intellectual property from. The data stolen was secret correspondence, economic data, and documents.
This is the creepy story of how they did it.
Haephrati subscribers would pick a target they wanted to steal information from. Haephrati would then deliver a psychological hook to that individual. The target received an email from a person that looked like a known associate. The psychological hook was usually of a business opportunity. When the target responded to the email, they would receive a Trojan. If the target did not respond to the original email, they would receive a CD by postal mail with the psychological hook and a hidden Trojan.
The Trojan allowed Haephrati to remotely control the computer of the target. This Trojan included a key-logger and a store and forward capability. It had the capability of watching what someone was doing on their computer "live" or in real time. It would send files from the target computer to FTP servers located in Israel, the U.S., and other locales. Haephrati had dozens of servers located around the globe.
According to Israeli police, items stolen included business plans, marketing plans, details on new products in the making, and employee information and pay slips. This information was then sold to competitors of the target. Israeli police said that over 11 gigabytes of confidential data was obtained before they shut it down.
Subscribers of Haephratis used the service to gain economic advantage of their competition.
A subscription to Haephratis didn't come cheap. Haephratis charged a business customer $3,500 (U.S. dollars) to create a customized software program and to make the initial install on the victim's computer. The monthly fee was then $900 to maintain the infrastructure used to collect, store, and forward the secretly acquired data on a monthly basis.
The ultimate cost to victims was severe. They lost their intellectual property, lost the trust of customers, and even lost employees' personal data. They also lost their best marketing plans to Haephratis' underground servers. Underground servers are believed to facilitate most International identity and credit card theft. The following scary as hell price list was found on underground servers in 2007.
U.S.-based credit card with card verification value $1 - $6 UK-based credit card with card verification value $2 - $12 An identity (including U.S. bank account, credit card, date of birth, and government-issued identification number) $14 - $18 List of 29,000 e-mails $5 Online banking account with a $9,900 balance $300 Yahoo Mail cookie exploit"advertised to facilitate full access when successful $3 Valid Yahoo and Hotmail e-mail cookies $3 Compromised computers $6 - $20 Phishing Web site hosting"per site $3 - $5 Verified PayPal account with balance (balance varies) $10 - $50 Unverified PayPal account with balance (balance varies) $12 Skype accounts $12 World of Warcraft accounts"one month duration $10
Haephrati may have never been caught if it wasn't for his own stupidity. He continued to harass his former in-laws by taking his former father-in-law's private work and posting it publicly on the Internet to defame his person and character. His former father-in-law went to the police in November of 2004.
The police have their own anti-hacker tools and used secret computer forensic technology tools to trace the Trojan back to Haephrati's business.
In 2005, Michael Haephrati and his wife were arrested by British police in London and extradited to Israeli where they were found guilty of economic and industrial espionage.
Some type of secret plea agreement was reached and the Haephrati's were set free. The rumor on the street is that Haephrati now sub-contracts his Trojan and espionage service to law enforcement agencies only.
About the Author:
Written by Michael Scott. To read and learn more about how to be your own private detective go to spy gear
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