Reddit reviews Kingpin: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cybercrime Underground
We found 16 Reddit comments about Kingpin: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cybercrime Underground. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Broadway Books
I had this happen a couple of times to me in one year. I found out later that it likely originated with Target when they got hacked a few years ago and then the other was from a Wendy’s POS terminal when it came out that all of them in the area in which we lived were discovered to have malware installed which skimmed customer numbers.
I actually read a book about credit card hackers called Kingpin.
https://www.amazon.com/Kingpin-Hacker-Billion-Dollar-Cybercrime-Underground/dp/0307588696
It’s a really interesting read and it makes you realize that basically, if you ever use your card, there is a chance it will get stolen at some point.
So your advice is definitely sound. Just check every month at least. I would also turn on transaction notifications. That’s how I caught what was happening both times. I set the limit to $5 so basically any transaction except for buying a candy bar or something alerts me. Good way to keep an eye on things.
Seconded. Just remember, if your adversary is sophisticated enough, and they get their hands on your computer while it's running, they could potentially retrieve the TrueCrypt key from your memory--that's how the government busted Iceman.
This reminded me of this book http://www.amazon.com/Kingpin-Hacker-Billion-Dollar-Cybercrime-Underground/dp/0307588696
Kingpin
Ghost in the Wires
The Art of Deception
Check out Kingpin: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cybercrime Underground. It doesn't have the social media aspect, but still a great real life hacker story. Also, Exploding the Phone: The Untold Story of the Teenagers and Outlaws who Hacked Ma Bell is very good as well. I will also second the Mitnick book.
What most consider the original is actually titled:
More recently, there have been several excellent titles. My suggestion is stick to non fiction as it will truly scare the yell out of you.
Almost everything by Bruce
I can recommend more but these are good starting points. Fiction is fun but for pure terror, grasping what these authors are revealing is the key.
Agreed. Also, reading suggestion for the OP:
https://www.amazon.com/Kingpin-Hacker-Billion-Dollar-Cybercrime-Underground/dp/0307588696
Ahh ok, this is the book: Kingpin: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cybercrime Underground - this guy was Max 'Vision' Butler and he had his flat searched as part of the investigation into the HL2 source code hack. It is a really great book by the way and definitely worth the read.
Look at the product screenshots. Written for Windows 95 using a JET database with VB4 and Access as a backend is my guess.
What a convoluted nightmare of a UI.
Then again, People still use Aloha terminals. Some of those were key to the largest set of credit breaches in history (looking at you, Pizza Schmizza, who had their terminals on the internet and magstripe captures on-disk, as well as plenty of other vendors who did same). They still don't seem to have fixed their shit, even though a fairly high-profile book covered it years ago.
You might question the information side of things - "aw, screw you, internet guy" - as irrelevant. It is irrelevant only until it's your restaurant in the news or in a book. Then you're fucked. This is a serious concern for owners, or should be. Bad technology will screw the best of businesses if you let it. And if you're found to be out of PCI compliance, imagine running your place without being able to run Visa, Mastercard, AmEx, etc. because your contract was severed by your DPS. When even Diner's Club won't keep you, you're done - a cash-only restaurant and bar? Good luck, unless you're a dive or a kitchy place that relies on that kind of trick. Whoops.
Get drunk if you're paranoid...a little liquid courage always helps. The downfall of markets will people posting plaintext requests in the subreddits, doing vendor reviews and all that rather than using the market forums, carding, amazon refunding, and some of that other shit people have taken to. Read the book 'Kingpin' if you get a chance
http://www.amazon.com/Kingpin-Hacker-Billion-Dollar-Cybercrime-Underground/dp/0307588696/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1427420793&sr=1-1&keywords=kingpin
I've had the constable knock on my door, but was do to some unpaid property taxes I had from along time ago. Scared the shit out of me. And some guy from Maryland has been calling me every time I leave the house. So yeah, you're not the only one.
This one https://www.amazon.com/Kingpin-Hacker-Billion-Dollar-Cybercrime-Underground/dp/0307588696
> "Ghost in the Wires" by Kevin Mitnick
Yes, fantastic book. I actually contracted Kevin (and his firm) to pen test my payment device, as much for the knowledge as for the celebrity tickles it sent up my spine.
Also I would recommend Kingpin
Someone likely got a hold of your card data. This can happen in several ways. Thieves put "skimmers" on ATMs for just this purpose, or it could be from a waitress that has a hand-held skimmer, who swipes each card she handles when the customer is out of sight. If your card has the sideways wifi-looking symbol on the back, it broadcasts its information wirelessly as well. This information can be zapped out of the air with relative ease. Certain phones that have NFC chips and/or the appropriate technology (nothing special), can download an app that sniffs CC info of cards that are within 6 inches or so of it (better technology can go further; while the theoretical limit for this technology on cards was supposed to be like 36 inches at Best, I saw a DefCON presentation where they were able to read card info from like a quarter mile with homemade equipment). All of this aside, it is Also extremely likely that your CC info was purchased online, from someone who hacked into a (usually) small mom/pops type place that is incorrectly handling CC info (it is technically illegal for them to store/maintain this info, at least unencrypted I know it is.... but it still happens a lot... usually when people use some "small business starter pro!!" software they don't know how to use).
Lastly, I'd like to point out that if I had to guess, the owner of that store is in on this ring of thieves. That, or the thief made a copy of your card and went there, a place where they don't really pay attention. The thief would want to make a clone of your card and do a test purchase before selling it, or before trying it at a large establishment (or simply taking the time to make his fake look Real, which costs him like 30$ of materials etc if he wants one that can pass inspection) (mind you the Tools/Machines costs 100s and 1000s of dollars... just once he's already got those, I'm averaging between 20-30$ of materials (metallic paint, hologram, other ink, etc, etc)).
Source: Read and recommend this book for you to read. Kingpin
Max “Vision” Butler is an example I use for training classes.
He was a FBI informant, told the FBI about government systems being vulnerable to an exploit that had just been made public. I mean every government system including military, they ignored him, so he created a patch and remediated the issue in thousands of government servers himself... BUT, he also left himself backdoors in his code, which is a running theme with him. He didn’t have the worst intentions, but he did some shady stuff.
Kingpin, How One Hacker Took Over The Billion Dollar Cybercrime Underground by Kevin Paulson
Edit - The book itself is more about his crime ring after he goes to prison for what I mentioned. He does do federal prison time, finds it tough to get work after, and meets a guy who has the idea for a crime ring. I actually think the above story would be more interesting for a school report.
I recommend reading Kingpin
http://www.amazon.com/Kingpin-Hacker-Billion-Dollar-Cybercrime-Underground/dp/0307588696
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Gonzalez
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/magazine/14Hacker-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0