The Kernel delves into the hidden subculture of liars, thieves, and hackers who expose and exploit gaping loopholes in e-commerce via Jonah (not his real name), someone who’s been there and back.

“Confessions of a social engineer”
by Dell Cameron
The Kernel
August 9, 2015

…Part theater and part science, social engineering is the method by which hackers, for lack of a better term, exploit vulnerabilities in human psychology; for Jonah, it was a key to getting anything he wanted, from televisions and laptops to smartphones and expensive wines. One of his largest takes netted him around $60,000 worth of product, he says. He showed me a Rolex Daytona watch””part of a gallery of stolen goods he”™d photographed in his bedroom””which retails on Amazon for around $26,000.

Whether through face-to-face interaction, by phone, or by email, the human gatekeepers of any network can be exploited””if you know how to play the game. They”™re the weakest link in any company”™s security.

Almost every major electronics company is vulnerable in nearly the same way: They all have warranty-based replacement systems that can be exploited. Most companies, for instance, don”™t require a defective item to be returned before mailing out its replacement. It”™s likewise difficult to prove that an in-warranty item has been lost or stolen.

Through repeated phone calls, social engineers develop strategies for navigating a company”™s customer help line. They get a feel for which sob stories and which “yes” or “no” responses will work best toward achieving their objective. Intelligence, temperament, and even humor all come into play. The questions and responses are then mapped out, as if composing a flowchart, with the goal of expediting the con. Read the whole article.

The internet mystery that has the world baffled
by Chris Bell
telegraph.co.uk
25 November 2013

For the past two years, a mysterious online organisation has been setting the world’s finest code-breakers a series of seemingly unsolveable problems. But to what end? Welcome to the world of Cicada 3301

One evening in January last year, Joel Eriksson, a 34-year-old computer analyst from Uppsala in Sweden, was trawling the web, looking for distraction, when he came across a message on an internet forum. The message was in stark white type, against a black background.

“Hello,” it said. “We are looking for highly intelligent individuals. To find them, we have devised a test. There is a message hidden in this image. Find it, and it will lead you on the road to finding us. We look forward to meeting the few that will make it all the way through. Good luck.”

The message was signed: “3301”.

(more…)

Posted on YouTube by John Pemberton:

via Upworthy.com

Submitted by Tom Tenney, Director, RE/Mixed Media Festival:

EDITOR’S NOTE: The festival’s Kickstarter campaign needs to raise $1313 by Thursday at midnight! If it looks like something you’d like to help fund they’ll be eternally grateful. Watch the video below…

The RE/Mixed Media Festival, now in it’s 3rd year, is an annual celebration of collaborative art-making and creative appropriation. It’s the artists’ contribution to the ongoing conversation about remixing, mashups, copyright law, fair use, and the freedom of artists to access their culture in order to add to and build upon it.

The festival – which this year will take place at the Brooklyn Lyceum – a 3-floor 10,000 sq. ft. venue on the border of the Park Slope and Gowanus neighborhoods of Brooklyn – will feature performances, panel discussions, live musical collaborations, hip-hop, sampling, film & video, DIY, food and drink, DJs, technology, interactive installations, painting, sculpture, software, hacking, and much more!

Read more here.

Hackers Threaten Zetas Drug Cartel
Huffington Post
October 31, 2011

Veracruz, Mexico — An Internet video is threatening Mexico’s Zetas drug cartel with exposure of its allies in the local police and news media this week unless the gang frees a kidnapped member of the international hacker movement known as “Anonymous.”

The YouTube message, which claims to be from Anonymous “Veracruz, Mexico and the world,” says it is “tired of the criminal group the Zetas, which is dedicated to kidnapping, stealing and extortion,” and threatens to fight back with information instead of weapons.

It said it knows of police officers, journalists, taxi drivers and others working with the Zetas.

The video refers to an unidentified person kidnapped in the coastal city of Veracruz, and says: “You have made a great mistake by taking one of us. Free him.”

English version of the video (Original Spanish version here):

(more…)

Inside the Anonymous Army of ‘Hacktivist’ Attackers
by Cassell Bryan-Low and Siobhan Gorman
Wall Street Journal
June 24, 2011

Hoogezand-Sappemeer, Netherlands””In this sleepy Dutch town last December, police burst into the bedroom of 19-year-old Martijn Gonlag as he hurriedly pulled on jeans over his boxer shorts. He was hauled away on suspicion of taking part in cyber attacks by the online group calling itself Anonymous.

Mr. Gonlag admits taking part in several attacks on websites, but he recently had a change of heart as some hackers adopted increasingly aggressive tactics.

“People are starting to grow tired of” the hackers, he said in an interview. “People are also starting to realize that Anonymous is a loose cannon.”

Now he appears to be a target himself. A chat room he hosts faces frequent hack attacks, he says.
Mr. Gonlag’s role reversal provides a glimpse of the unruly hunt-or-be-hunted world underpinning a string of online attacks against major companies and government bodies””incidents that have sparked a digital manhunt by law-enforcement agencies in several countries.

What once was just righteous rabble-rousing by Anonymous in the name of Internet freedom has mutated into more menacing attacks, including by a splinter group of Anonymous called LulzSec, which is alleged to have moved beyond paralyzing websites to breaking in to steal data. (more…)

Porn video shown on Moscow highway billboard
by Nataliya Vasilyeva
1010WINS
January 15, 2009

Moscow (AP) — Drivers in downtown Moscow squinted in disbelief as an electronic highway billboard blazed a two-minute pornographic video instead of its regular advertising clips.

Late-night traffic on one of the Russian capital’s busiest roads slowed Thursday as a couple’s explicit escapades appeared on the 9-by-6-meter (yard) display.

Some people took pictures of the sight with their mobile phones and posted them on the Internet.

Passer-by Alyona Prokulatova told The Associated Press that she was “so shocked that I couldn’t even shoot video or take a picture of it.”

The screen’s owner, 3 Stars, told the AP that a hacker attack was likely to blame. Police were investigating the incident.

photo: legaljuice