Carnal Reason

I’m amazed by the effort and ingenuity that sometimes goes into computer crime. These guys raise the bar.

October 24, 2006 (Computerworld) Overseas hackers broke into customer accounts at two popular online stock brokerages, TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. and E-Trade Financial Corp., in a “pump and dump” stock-trading scheme that led to at least $22 million in losses.

The attacks, which took place during the last three months, were launched by identity thieves in Eastern Europe and Asia who primarily used keylogging software delivered via Trojan horses or other malware to steal users’ confidential information as they logged onto public computers or their own infected machines, TD Ameritrade CIO Jerry Bartlett said in an interview today.

The hackers then logged into existing customer accounts — or created dummy accounts — to buy shares in little-traded stocks, driving prices up so they could sell their own previously purchased shares for a profit.

There is no certain way to avoid malware, but a real effective way is to not use Windows. That may not be feasible, so next hint: if you must use Windows, don’t use Internet Explorer. Go with Firefox or Opera. And don’t launch programs you get by email, not even if they’re from a friend. If you like to surf the shadier parts of the internet, you might want to look into Sandboxie.

Posted on October 25th, 2006 by pwyll
Filed under: culture