Hacking started crime spree
Six Fresno, Calif. men were held this week for hacking into victims’ PCs, stealing their personal information and using that data to access bank accounts.
Ryan Nathan Friend, Michael Ray Buchanan II, Christopher Travis, Lloyd Tom Travis, Robert Moreno and Cesar Moreno, all of Fresno, were named in a 53-count federal indictment on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering, according to this report in the Fresno Bee.
The scam cost victims more than $380,000 between November 2003 and July 2004. It was unclear why arrests took place nearly three years after the scam ended, according to the Bee.
MySpace hacker threatens school massacre
An unknown individual hacked into the MySpace pages of several Petaluma High School students and threatened to bring a gun to school, referencing the shooting massacre at Virginia Tech last month.
In obscenity-laced posts, the hacker threatened to “beat the high score of 33,” referencing the Blacksburg, Va. shootings that left 33 people, including the gunman, dead.
Police are asking parents students and officials at the school to help them identify the hacker, according to this report on SFGate.com, the website of the San Francisco Chronicle. School was in session Wednesday.
Community service for grade-changing student hacker
A student at Colorado’s Golden High School was ordered top perform 80 hours of community service after pleading guilty to hacking into school computers to change his grades.
Prosecutors did not release the student’s name, according to this report in the Rocky Mountain News.