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Okay would it matter if someone hacked 1 Billion accounts stealling only $1 from each and becoming a billionaire?

If i were to do it, would anyone even notice it? Would you be mad if your account was part of it?

Why hasn't anyone every thought of this? Or have they?

At first I doubt it. But as it keeps up I think the pattern would be discovered.

Imagine hacking one penny from every transaction from every bank. Have each penny taken and deposited into an offshore bank account. You would be loaded with money!

Someone's been watching Office Space.

I've got a mate who studied ethical hacking and countermeasures. He tells me banking systems are probably the most difficult in the world to hack as, unlike governments, they have the money to spend on the most robust systems and the best people. I'm not saying it can't be done. As this article shows, banks do have vulnerabilities.

http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/03/pwnie/

Don't get caught, or you'll be going to pound-me-in-the-ass prison

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
Okay would it matter if someone hacked 1 Billion accounts stealling only $1 from each and becoming a billionaire?

If i were to do it, would anyone even notice it? Would you be mad if your account was part of it?

Why hasn't anyone every thought of this? Or have they?


I don't know much about hacking, but I think it would require a very sophisticated virus/worm.

Originally posted by jaden101
Someone's been watching Office Space.


lol

Office Space stole the "salami slicing" idea from Superman 3. Though they're probably not original either.

Notice the dollar? Probably not, but wouldn't someone notice the hacking? That's the banks money, you don't **** with the bank.

I don't think a dollar would be enough to get a billion, would it?

^Are you making a Sorites Argument or did you not read the part in the OP where it specifies that a billion accounts are being robbed for a single dollar each?

Seeing as it was a question and that this topic doesn't seem all that serious, I wasn't really trying to make any argument at all.

Word would get around about a new billionaire in town, so unless you spread your goods over lots of accounts and are very careful about how you access them eventually you're going to come under scrutiny. That's of course assuming you got away with all of the original skimming.

It would only take a few people who are anal about everything and notice even an extra dollar taken out for the downfall to begin.

Would you care if your account was involved/ would you report it to the bank/police?

Originally posted by Mairuzu
Seeing as it was a question and that this topic doesn't seem all that serious, I wasn't really trying to make any argument at all. the topic is serious

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
Would you care if your account was involved/ would you report it to the bank/police?

I wouldn't notice a buck missing.

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
the topic is serious

KwxwUiDbRCk

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
the topic is serious

Can someone help me start creating the virus?

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
Can someone help me start creating the virus?
KMC is not your personal army.

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
Can someone help me start creating the virus?


Sure. Just know that the process involves a banana, a condom, and 3 liters of AstroGlide lubricant.

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
Can someone help me start creating the virus?

Yes, definitely, since I have the ability to create just such a program I will now surely include you in it, because....wait...why would I do that?

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
the topic is serious

Really? I would stop here. You are posting on the internet that you seriously intend to steal 1 billion dollars....

EDIT: nvm.....

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
Can someone help me start creating the virus?

Tell ya what I'll do. If I pull this off, I'll make sure your account is one of the ones that I hit. Then, when you run to the authorities they'll think you're a total nutjob

I never said I was running to the authorities I only said that posting online where anyone can see, that you are seriously trying to create a virus to steal a billion dollars isn't smart. But assumeing that I would run to the police it would be more like this I think......

.........more then likely if you hit my account and I report to the bank and the proper authorities, upon investigation they would discover a virus stole the money. Then all the banks in America would be warned of such an attack. Now the banks would be on the look out for a virus that is taking money from them and once the authorities tracked it down you would be in jail and I would be a hero and my missing dollar returned.

If someone steals a 1 pound from my bank accout I won't even notice, but if someone could acctually have a dollar from a billion of bank accounts I would be quote impressive tbh and wonder how they pulled it off.

Originally posted by Ascendancy
Tell ya what I'll do. If I pull this off, I'll make sure your account is one of the ones that I hit. Then, when you run to the authorities they'll think you're a total nutjob I'll just hunt you down and kill you.

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
Can someone help me start creating the virus?
Download a basic NetBeans IDE or some other suitable software development platform, take up an e-course in data structures, algorithms, ethical hacking, cryptography etc. or better still become a poster on this forum.

Not that any of this will have long-term benefits for you as you'll inevitably end up getting caught in this preposterous quest(if one seriously entertains the possibility of you getting anywhere close to following up on this "plan" of yours) anyway, but the more you know the more you grow.

The problem is that the public always knows when a large sum of money vanishes.

The secret? Trickery, hacking the money from cyber money-handling systems is child's play.

Get the right excuses and right people to blame by leading the money down a path so complex and mystifying that it would take a room full of geniuses not to see the wrong people at fault. By then they have already convinced themselves they've already found the culprits.

Originally posted by dadudemon
KwxwUiDbRCk

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
Okay would it matter if someone hacked 1 Billion accounts stealling only $1 from each and becoming a billionaire?

If i were to do it, would anyone even notice it? Would you be mad if your account was part of it?

Why hasn't anyone every thought of this? Or have they?


Notice it? Yes.

Would I be mad? Yes

Why hasn't anyone tried? It is hard?

Originally posted by kgkg
Why hasn't anyone tried? It is hard?

I'd figure so. In order to get a dollar out of a billion people, you would either have to hack every bank account in China, or hack every bank account in not only the US (which only has 300 million people),but other countries as well to get the other $700 million. The program would have to work on an international scale, and if you could create a program that complex, you could probably just sell it for a billion dollars rather than engage in a convoluted heist.

Not the same thing, but the topic reminded me of this click-scheme that made the person running it between $500K to $1 mil a month. He skimmed such a tiny amount of money (cents) from so many sources that no one has much incentive to shut it down.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/423370/a-web-scam-that-makes-500000-a-month/?p1=A5

The scheme in much more technical detail from one of the guys who figured it out:
http://www.behind-the-enemy-lines.com/2011/03/uncovering-advertising-fraud-scheme.html

Blair, why didn't we do that?

Originally posted by Mindset
Blair, why didn't we do that?

As far as I know, the person behind it has yet to be caught. They bought all the domains needed under someone else's name - and none of the companies involved want to pursue the matter because it would drag their brand into the mud (associated with porn sites). The Feds might be pursuing but I have no idea, and no one is pressuring them to do so. They might drop it if more important matters show up.

All that to say, lets do it

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
Can someone help me start creating the virus?

You know someone is truly serious and that you should absolutely agree when they solicit you to not only help them commit a serious, and completely obvious federal crime that every bank employees internal security and external companies to combat routinely, but also to commit that crime for free.

While we're on the subject, can you guys rob a bank for me and give me all the money tomorrow? I'll provide you guys with black masks with two eye holes that tie around your heads, black caps, and white shirts with horizontal black stripes, and big tan bags with dollar signs on them for putting money in. Deal?

everyone read "Dark Market" by Misha Glenny

Originally posted by Darth Jello
You know someone is truly serious and that you should absolutely agree when they solicit you to not only help them commit a serious, and completely obvious federal crime that every bank employees internal security and external companies to combat routinely, but also to commit that crime for free.

While we're on the subject, can you guys rob a bank for me and give me all the money tomorrow? I'll provide you guys with black masks with two eye holes that tie around your heads, black caps, and white shirts with horizontal black stripes, and big tan bags with dollar signs on them for putting money in. Deal?

actually, though likely not on forums like this, a market for designing viruses for any number of purposes exists. The vast majority of hackers, including those who do it for traditional criminal purposes (and in some cases, especially those who are involved in more traditional organized crime) are not the people who write the code.

It is only recently that hacker criminal organizations and traditional criminal organizations have began to bleed together or merge, and this still tends to be more of a Eastern European/Turkish sort of thing.

CBC's problem is not knowing where to look... and leaving an online footprint that the Hardy Boys could follow. Getting professional criminals to write your malware for you is pretty much common practice.

EDIT: the comparison to your bank robber situation:

1) the code writer is not part of the criminal conspiracy and are compensated for the code independent of the crime.

2) the code writer assumes no criminal liability in the case of a failure, as they likely are anonymous to the criminal themselves.

3) the criminal assumes all responsibility, as the hacker has plausible deniability (writing the code isn't illegal, they didn't know its use, etc).

The closest comparison would be if you were a manufacturer of black ski masks, and a criminal placed an order for 50 of them with you, and you supplied the order. Unless the actual act of writing the code (a potential free speech violation), the person creating the malware is not violating any laws.

http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/0/4/12170-2196-13634-1-beagle-boys-the_super.jpg

Originally posted by Oliver North
The closest comparison would be if you were a manufacturer of black ski masks, and a criminal placed an order for 50 of them with you, and you supplied the order. Unless the actual act of writing the code (a potential free speech violation), the person creating the malware is not violating any laws.

Well in this case it would be like if a criminal ordered 50 ski masks from you and put in the memo line "This is for a heist." in which case you might be held responsible. Writing malicious code isn't currently illegal but I don't think free speech is the best place to start defending it.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
Well in this case it would be like if a criminal ordered 50 ski masks from you and put in the memo line "This is for a heist."

fair enough, I was assuming we weren't talking about stupid criminals... though, given the OP

touche

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
in which case you might be held responsible. Writing malicious code isn't currently illegal but I don't think free speech is the best place to start defending it.

oh, for sure, however, the closest legal argument in its defense would be something like: I can write an incredibly detailed plan for how to rob a bank and publish it.

I imagine it would come down to the communication between the coder and the criminal. If the coder had software already available and the criminal just ordered one of these premade packages, deniability goes up. If the criminal orders an incredibly specific piece of code that deliberately targets something... etc... Then it is likely the "reasonable person" standard would be established for them knowing what they are doing is for a criminal act.

Its certainly not a place I'd put my neck on the line for free speech though. TBH, I think the wording of the second amendment protects this type of thing more than does free speech

Originally posted by Oliver North
oh, for sure, however, the closest legal argument in its defense would be something like: I can write an incredibly detailed plan for how to rob a bank and publish it.

The program is not a plan, it is a (digital) machine that is incapable of anything except robbing banks.

I think this is where the legal issues come from. We have very suddenly found ourselves in a world where "words" can actual perform actions that affect the real world. Both the law and legal/moral philosophy are having trouble adapting to that fact. If there were a magic spell that took money out of banks when you said it that sequence of words could not reasonably be protected by free speech laws, as a result I don't think malicious code can be either.

Originally posted by Oliver North
I imagine it would come down to the communication between the coder and the criminal. If the coder had software already available and the criminal just ordered one of these premade packages, deniability goes up. If the criminal orders an incredibly specific piece of code that deliberately targets something... etc... Then it is likely the "reasonable person" standard would be established for them knowing what they are doing is for a criminal act.

Which makes sense to me but doesn't seem to currently be true. A quick Google search suggests that communicating malicious code is perfectly legal in most of the world.

Originally posted by Oliver North
Its certainly not a place I'd put my neck on the line for free speech though. TBH, I think the wording of the second amendment protects this type of thing more than does free speech

If code can be a weapon then use of code as a weapon might be protected but since code can be specific enough that it might have only illegal uses it would probably be different from most weapons.