Cybercriminals Has Heroin Delivered To Brian Krebs, Then Calls Police 187
Okian Warrior writes in about a package of heroin that found its way to the door of Brian Krebs. "'Fans' of [security researcher Brian Krebs] have shown their affection in some curious ways. One called in a phony hostage situation that resulted in a dozen heavily armed police surrounding my home. Another opened a $20,000 new line of credit in my name. Others sent more than $1,000 in bogus PayPal donations from hacked accounts. Still more admirers paid my cable bill for the next three years using stolen credit cards. Malware authors have even used my name and likeness to peddle their wares. But the most recent attempt to embarrass and fluster this author easily takes the cake as the most elaborate: Earlier this month, the administrator of an exclusive cybercrime forum hatched and executed a plan to purchase heroin, have it mailed to my home, and then spoof a phone call from one of my neighbors alerting the local police. Thankfully, I had already established a presence on his forum and was able to monitor the scam in real time and alert my local police well in advance of the delivery."
Working link to article (Score:5, Informative)
http://krebsonsecurity.com/ [krebsonsecurity.com]
Re:Working link to article (Score:5, Informative)
Or even better, http://krebsonsecurity.com/2013/07/mail-from-the-velvet-cybercrime-underground/ [krebsonsecurity.com]
Re:Working link to editor (Score:4, Informative)
WARNING
You're an idiot if you actually clicked on that link.
Journalist can has risk (Score:5, Informative)
Brian Krebs is a former Washington Post investigative journalist who has been writing about Internet security issues for a long time. He writes a lot about malicious attacks and often exposes the attackers. These are not nice people, either; they are spammers, botnet herders, guys who make, sell and buy credit card skimmers, hackers who steal credit card info, guys who run DDoS-for-hire sites, etc.
He uses aliases to get himself invited to underground forums, monitors them for as long as he can, then exposes the criminals. The bad guys are also improving their own security, and becoming more adept at turning the tables. One forum placed unique values in the "# of posts" listed in the left side column of their forum, then outed him when he posted a screenshot.
Needless to say, the people he is messing with are very annoyed at him. They are trying all the tricks they can to harass him remotely, such as ordering merchandise paid for on his credit cards, sending him unwanted (and now illegal) stuff, and using his credit cards to donate to charities. They've been trying to send him all the craziest, most annoying, most hazardous stuff they can without personally touching the merchandise themselves. The most dangerous stuff they have managed to send him so far was the SWAT van full of cops in a midnight raid. If these guys could get someone else to ship him a live cobra in a box, or a shit covered blasting cap, they wouldn't hesitate for a second.
While he may not be a "hero", Mr. Krebs has done some good work at cleaning up several of the nastier elements that infest the Internet. You get less spam in your in box thanks to him.