Hackers stole $332,000
Date: May 17, 2005Source: Computer Crime Research Center
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A Yemeni court on Saturday convicted four Yemenis of stealing $332,000 from Canadian oil company Nexen Inc. through Internet fraud, judicial source said.
The four men were ordered to repay 1.26 million Malaysian ringgit ($332,000) which they had transferred to Malaysian bank accounts after one of them, a former Nexen employee, hacked into the company's computer system in North America.
Two others were acquitted.
The men did not receive prison sentences because of a recent presidential pardon covering such cases, but they will remain under detention until they pay up. More than half of Yemen's total oil production of around 400,000 bpd is produced by Nexen, Canada's No. 4 oil explorer. Internet usage is limited in Yemen, an impoverished country of 19 million at the tip of the Arabian peninsula. ($1=3.800 Malaysian Ringgit).
We will remind that a group of Russian hackers broke Internet sites of different companies and offices and tried to make hay on them. Hackers of Saratov even reached England with their "long arms": they made a series of virtual attacks on online gambling companies. After a regular attack that blocked access to the online source, hackers made a demand that a certain fee should be paid. Bookmakers at once met demands and paid money in order not to complicate their life. However, after several successful operations police managed to track down and neutralize criminals.
A 21-year old man of Saratov, Russia was the original mastermind of the electronic racket; he allegedly thought up to use DDoS attacks to make easy money. Experts believe that it is almost impossible to protect anyone from these attacks and everyone who has certain computer skills could use this scheme. Initially estimated losses of the British companies incurred by Saratov hackers amount to hundreds of thousands of US dollars.
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