Security Focus reports on how the FBI caught a white collar extortionist using Wifi hotspots to cover his identity.

Though he went to some lengths to make himself untraceable technically, past altercations between Tereshchuk and the company made him the prime suspect from the start, according to court records. The clearest sign came when he issued the seventeen million dollar extortion demand, and instructed the company to "make the check payable to Myron Tereshchuk."

The FBI began following Tereshchuk, and in March a surveillance team watched as he drove to a computer lab at the University of Maryland, where he used a purloined student account to send more threatening e-mail. "During this drive he was observed driving erratically and was paying a lot of attention to something in the front passenger side seat," an FBI affidavit notes.

Techdirt rambles on about how silly we "computer security people" are to be worried about thousands of unsecured access points. Well they caught this guy - BECAUSE HE WAS A MORON. Sure he was technically competent, but when you request a 17 million dollar payoff in a check made out to yourself, the plans tend to implode. Do the people at Techdirt really think it will always be this easy?
posted by mt at 09:41