Case $10$

Identify the computer fraud and abuse technique used in each of the following actual

examples of computer wrongdoing. Explain why you chose the particular computer

fraud and abuse technique briefly.

Each of these real$-$world scenarios was taken from news accounts of computer fraud and

abuse. There may be other valid answers, but the answers shown below are what the news

accounts and experts investigating the case said were used to perpetrate the fraud.

a$.$ A teenage gang known as the $414$s$$ broke into the Los Alamos National

Laboratory, Sloan$-$Kettering Cancer Center, and Security Pacific Bank. One

gang member appeared in Newsweek with the caption $$Beware: Hackers at

play.$$

b$.$ Daniel Baas was the systems administrator for a company that did business

with Acxiom, who manages customer information for companies. Baas

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exceeded his authorized access and downloaded a file with $300$ encrypted

passwords, decrypted the password file, and downloaded Acxiom customer

files containing personal information. The intrusion cost Acxiom over $$5\mathrm{.}8$

million.

c$.$ Cyber$-$attacks left high$-$profile sites such as Amazon.com, eBay, Buy.com,

and CNN Interactive staggering under the weight of tens of thousands of

bogus messages that tied up the retail sites$$ computers and slowed the news

site$$s operations for hours.

d$.$ Susan Gilmour$-$Latham got a call asking why she was sending the caller

multiple adult text messages per day. Her account records proved the calls

were not coming from her phone. Neither she nor her mobile company could

explain how the messages were sent. After finding no way to block the

unsavory messages, she changed her mobile number to avoid further

embarrassment by association.

e$.$ A federal grand jury in Fort Lauderdale claimed that four executives of a

rental$-$car franchise modified a computer$-$billing program to add five gallons

to the actual gas tank capacity of their vehicles. Over three years, $47,000$

customers who returned a car without topping it off ended up paying an extra

$$2$ to $$15$ for gasoline.

f$.$ A mail$-$order company programmer truncated odd cents in salescommission accounts and placed them in the last record in the commission

file. Accounts were processed alphabetically, and he created a dummy salescommission account using the name of Zwana. Three years later, the holders

of the first and last sales$-$commission accounts were honored. Zwana was

unmasked and his creator fired.

g$.$ MicroPatent, an intellectual property firm, was notified that their

proprietary information would be broadcast on the Internet if they did not

pay a $$17$ million fee. The hacker was caught by the FBI before any damage

was done.

i$.$ eBay customers were notified by e$-$mail that their accounts had been

compromised and were being restricted unless they re$-$registered using an

accompanying hyperlink to a Web page that had eBay$$s logo$,$ home page

design, and internal links. The form had a place for them to enter their credit

card data, ATM PINs, Social Security number, date of birth, and their

mother$$s maiden name. Unfortunately, eBay hadn$$t sent the e$-$mail.

j$.$ A teenager hijacked the eBay.de domain name and several months later the

domain name for a large New York ISP. Both hijacked Web sites pointed to

a site in Australia.

k$.$ Travelers who logged into the Alpharetta, Georgia, airport$$s Internet

service had personal information stolen and picked up as many as $45$ viruses.

A hacker had set up a rogue wireless network with the same name as the

airport$$s wireless access network.

l$.$ Criminals in Russia used a vulnerability in Microsoft$$s server software to

add a few lines of Java code to users$$ copies of Internet Explorer. The code

recorded the users$$ keyboard activities, giving the criminals access to

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usernames and passwords at many banking Web sites. The attacks caused

$$420$ million in damage.

m$.$ America Online subscribers received a message offering free software.

Users who opened the attachments unknowingly unleashed a program

hidden inside another program that secretly copied the subscriber$$s account

name and password and forwarded them to the sender$.$

n$.$ Rajendrasinh Makwana, an Indian citizen and IT contractor who worked at

Fannie Mae$$s Maryland facility, was terminated at $1$:$00$ P$.$M$.$ on October $24.$

Before his network access was revoked, he created a program to wipe out

all $4,000$ of Fannie Mae$$s servers on the following January $31.$

o$.$ A man accessed millions of ChoicePoint files by claiming in writing and

on the phone to be someone he was not.

p$.$ A $31-$year$-$old programmer unleashed a Visual Basic program by

deliberately posting an infected document to an alt.sex Usenet newsgroup

using a stolen AOL account. The program evaded security software and

infected computers using the Windows operating system and Microsoft

Word. On March $26,$ the Melissa program appeared on thousands of e$-$mail

systems disguised as an