Complete
Solutions for Accounting Information System 12e by Marshall B. Romney Paul J. Steinbart
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CHAPTER 6
COMPUTER FRAUD AND ABUSE TECHNIQUES
6.1 When U.S. Leasing (USL) computers
began acting sluggishly, computer operators were relieved when a software
troubleshooter from IBM called. When he offered to correct the problem
they were having, he was given a log-on ID and password. The next morning,
the computers were worse. A call to IBM confirmed USL’s suspicion:
Someone had impersonated an IBM repairman to gain unauthorized access to the
system and destroy the database. USL was also concerned that the intruder
had devised a program that would let him get back into the system even after
all the passwords were changed.
What techniques might the impostor have employed to breach USL’s internal
security?
What could USL do to avoid these types of incidents in the future?</para></question><question
id="ch05ques04" label="5.4">
6.2 What motives do people have for hacking? Why has hacking
become so popular in recent years? Do you regard it as a crime?
Explain your position.
6.3 The UCLA computer lab was filled to capacity when the system slowed
and crashed, disrupting the lives of students who could no longer log into the
system or access data to prepare for finals. IT initially suspected a
cable break or an operating system failure, but diagnostics revealed
nothing. After several frustrating hours, a staff member ran a virus
detection program and uncovered a virus on the lab’s main server. The
virus was eventually traced to the computers of unsuspecting UCLA
students. Later that evening, the system was brought back online after
infected files were replaced with backup copies.
<para>What
conditions made the UCLA system a potential breeding ground for the virus?
What symptoms indicated that a virus was present?
6.1 A few years ago, news began
circulating about a computer virus named Michelangelo that was set to “ignite” on
March 6, the birthday of the famous Italian artist. The virus attached itself to the computer’s
operating system boot sector. On the magical date, the virus would release
itself, destroying all of the computer’s data. When March 6 arrived, the virus
did minimal damage. Preventive techniques limited the damage to isolated
personal and business computers. Though the excitement surrounding the virus
was largely illusory, Michelangelo helped the computer-using public realize its
systems’ vulnerability to outside attack.
a. What is a computer
virus? Cite at least three reasons why no system is completely safe from
a computer virus.
b. Why do viruses
represent a serious threat to information systems? What damage can a
virus do to a computer system?
c. How does a
virus resemble a Trojan horse?
d. What steps can be taken to prevent the spread
of a computer virus?
6.2 The controller of a small
business received the following e-mail with an authentic-looking e-mail address
and logo:
From:
Big Bank [antifraud@bigbank.com]
To:
Justin Lewis, Controller, Small Business USA
Subject:
Official Notice
for all users of Big Bank!
Due to the increased incidence of fraud and identity theft, we are
asking all bank customers to verify their account information on the following
Web page: www.antifraudbigbank.com
Please confirm your account information as soon as possible.
Failure to confirm your account information will require us to suspend your
account until confirmation is made.
A week later, the following e-mail was delivered to the
controller:
From:
Big Bank [antifraud@bigbank.com]
To:
Justin Lewis, Controller, Small Business USA
Subject:
Official Notice
for all users of Big Bank!
Dear Client of Big Bank,
Technical services at Big Bank is currently updating our software.
Therefore, we kindly ask that you access the website shown below to confirm
your data. Otherwise, your access to the system may be blocked.
web.da-us.bigbank.com/signin/scripts/login2/user_setup.jsp
We are grateful for your cooperation.
a. What should Justin do about these
e-mails?
b. What should Big Bank
do about these e-mails?
c. Identify the
computer fraud and abuse technique illustrated.
6.3 A purchasing department received the following e-mail.
Dear Accounts Payable Clerk,
You can purchase everything you need online—including peace of
mind—when you shop using Random Account Numbers (RAN). RAN is a free
service for Big Credit Card customers that substitutes a random credit card
number in place of your normal credit card number when you make online
purchases and payments. This random number provides you with additional
security. Before every online purchase, simply get a new number from RAN
to use at each new vendor. Sign up for an account at www.bigcreditcard.com.
Also, take advantage of the following features:
§ Automatic Form automatically
completes a vendor’s order form with the RAN, its expiration date, and your
shipping and billing addresses.
§ Set the spending limit and
expiration date for each new RAN.
§ Use RAN once or use it for
recurring payments for up to one year.
<para>Explain which computer fraud and abuse techniques
could be prevented using a random account number that links to your corporate
credit card.
</para></problem>
6.4
<para>Match the internet related computer fraud and abuse technique in
the left column with the scenario in the right column. Terms may be used once,
more than once, or not at all.</para>
6. 5
<para>Match the data communications-related computer fraud and abuse
technique in the left column with the scenario in the right column. Terms may
be used once, more than once, or not at all.
</para>
6.6
<para>Match the data related computer fraud and abuse technique in the
left column with the scenario in the right column. Terms may be used once, more
than once, or not at all.</para>
6.7
<para>Match the data security computer fraud and abuse technique in the
left column with the scenario in the right column. Terms may be used once, more
than once, or not at all.</para>
6.8 Match the
data security computer fraud and abuse technique in the left column with the
scenario in the right column. Terms may be used once, more than once, or not at
all.</para>
6.9 Identify
the computer fraud and abuse technique used in each the following actual
examples of computer wrongdoing.
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a. A teenage gang known as the “414s” broke into the Los Alamos
National Laboratory, Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and Security Pacific
Bank. One gang member appeared in Newsweek with
the caption “Beware: Hackers at play.”
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b. Daniel Baas was the systems administrator for a company that
did business with Acxiom, who manages customer information for companies.
Baas exceeded his authorized access and downloaded a file with 300 encrypted
passwords, decrypted the password file, and downloaded Acxiom customer files
containing personal information. The intrusion cost Acxiom over $5.8 million.
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c. Cyber-attacks left high-profile sites such as Amazon.com,
eBay, Buy.com, and CNN Interactive staggering under the weight of tens of
thousands of bogus messages that tied up the retail sites’ computers and
slowed the news site’s operations for hours.
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d. Susan Gilmour-Latham got a call asking why she was sending
the caller multiple adult text messages per day. Her account records proved
the calls were not coming from her phone. Neither she nor her mobile company
could explain how the messages were sent. After finding no way to block the
unsavory messages, she changed her mobile number to avoid further
embarrassment by association.
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e. A federal grand jury in Fort Lauderdale claimed that four
executives of a rental-car franchise modified a computer-billing program to
add five gallons to the actual gas tank capacity of their vehicles. Over
three years, 47,000 customers who returned a car without topping it off ended
up paying an extra $2 to $15 for gasoline.
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f. A mail-order company programmer truncated odd cents in
sales-commission accounts and placed them in the last record in the
commission file. Accounts were processed alphabetically, and he created a
dummy sales-commission account using the name of Zwana. Three years later,
the holders of the first and last sales-commission accounts were honored.
Zwana was unmasked and his creator fired.
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g. MicroPatent, an intellectual property firm, was notified that
their proprietary information would be broadcast on the Internet if they did
not pay a $17 million fee. The hacker was caught by the FBI before any damage
was done.
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h. When Estonia removed a Russian World War II war memorial,
Estonian government and bank networks were knocked offline in a distributed
DoS attack by Russian hackers. A counterfeit letter of apology for
removing the memorial statue was placed on the Web site of Estonia’s prime
minister.
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i. eBay customers were notified by e-mail that their accounts
had been compromised and were being restricted unless they re-registered using
an accompanying hyperlink to a Web page that had eBay’s logo, home page
design, and internal links. The form had a place for them to enter their
credit card data, ATM PINs, Social Security number, date of birth, and their
mother’s maiden name. Unfortunately, eBay hadn’t sent the e-mail.
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j. A teenager hijacked the eBay.de domain name and several
months later the domain name for a large New York ISP. Both hijacked Web
sites pointed to a site in Australia.
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k. Travelers who logged into the Alpharetta, Georgia, airport’s
Internet service had personal information stolen and picked up as many as 45
viruses. A hacker had set up a rogue wireless network with the same name as
the airport’s wireless access network.
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l. Criminals in Russia used a vulnerability in Microsoft’s
server software to add a few lines of Java code to users’ copies of Internet
Explorer. The code recorded the users’ keyboard activities, giving the
criminals access to usernames and passwords at many banking Web sites. The
attacks caused $420 million in damage.
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m. America Online subscribers received a message offering free
software. Users who opened the attachments unknowingly unleashed a program
hidden inside another program that secretly copied the subscriber’s account
name and password and forwarded them to the sender.
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n. Rajendrasinh Makwana, an Indian citizen and IT contractor who
worked at Fannie Mae’s Maryland facility, was terminated at 1:00 P.M. on
October 24. Before his network access was revoked, he created a program to wipe
out all 4,000 of Fannie Mae’s servers on the following January 31.
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o. A man accessed millions of ChoicePoint files by claiming in
writing and on the phone to be someone he was not.
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p. A 31-year-old programmer unleashed a Visual Basic program by deliberately
posting an infected document to an alt.sex Usenet newsgroup using a stolen
AOL account. The program evaded security software and infected computers
using the Windows operating system and Microsoft Word. On March 26, the
Melissa program appeared on thousands of e-mail systems disguised as an
important message from a colleague or friend. The program sent an
infected e-mail to the first 50 e-mail addresses on the users’ Outlook
address book. Each infected computer would infect 50 additional computers,
which in turn would infect another 50 computers. The program spread rapidly
and exponentially, causing considerable damage. Many companies had to
disconnect from the Internet or shut down their e-mail gateways because of
the vast amount of e-mail the program was generating. The program caused more
than $400 million in damages.
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q. Microsoft filed a lawsuit against two Texas firms that
produced software that sent incessant pop-ups resembling system warnings. The
messages stated “CRITICAL ERROR MESSAGE! REGISTRY DAMAGED AND CORRUPTED” and
instructed users to visit a Web site to download Registry Cleaner XP at a
cost of $39.95.
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r. As many as 114,000 Web sites were tricked into running
database commands that installed malicious HTML code redirecting victims to a
malicious Web server that tried to install software to remotely control the
Web visitors’ computers.
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s. Zeus records log-in information when the user of the infected
computer logs into a list of target Web sites, mostly banks and other financial
institutions. The user’s data is sent to a remote server where it is used and
sold by cyber-criminals. The new version of Zeus will significantly increase
fraud losses, given that 30% of Internet users bank online.
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t. It took Facebook 15 hours to kill a Facebook application that
infected millions of PCs with software that displays a constant stream of
pop-up ads. The program posted a “Sexiest Video Ever” message on Facebook
walls that looked like it came from a friend. Clicking the link led to a Facebook
installation screen, where users allowed the software to access their
profiles and walls. Once approved, the application told users to download an
updated, free version of a popular Windows video player. Instead, it inserted
a program that displayed pop-up ads and links. A week later a “Distracting
Beach Babes” message did the same thing.
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u. Robert Thousand, Jr. discovered he lost $400,000 from his
Ameritrade retirement account shortly after he began receiving a flood of
phone calls with a 30-second recording for a sex hotline. An FBI
investigation revealed that the perpetrator obtained his Ameritrade account
information, called Ameritrade to change his phone number, created several
VoIP accounts, and used automated dialing tools to flood the dentist’s phones
in case Ameritrade called his real number. The perpetrator requested multiple
monetary transfers, but Ameritrade would not process them until they reached
Thousand to verify them. When the transfers did not go through, the attacker
called Ameritrade, gave information to verify that he was Thousand, claimed
he had been having phone troubles, and told Ameritrade he was not happy that
the transfers had not gone through. Ameritrade processed the transfers, and
Thousand lost $400,000.
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v. The Internet Crime Complaint Center reports a “hit man” scam.
The scammer claims that he has been ordered to assassinate the victim and an
associate has been ordered to kill a family member. The only way to prevent
the killings is to send $800 so an Islamic expatriate can leave the United
States.
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w. In an economic stimulus scam, individuals receive a phone
call from President Obama telling them to go to a Web site to apply for the
funds. To receive the stimulus money, victims have to enter personal
identification information, complete an online application, and pay a $28
fee.
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6.10 On a Sunday afternoon at a hospital in the Pacific Northwest, computers became sluggish, and documents would not print. Monday morning, the situation became worse when employees logged on to their computers. Even stranger things happened—operating room doors would not open, pagers would not work, and computers in the intensive care unit shut down. By 10:00 A.M., all 50 IT employees were summoned. They discovered that the hospital was under attack by a botnet that exploited a Microsoft operating system flaw and installed pop-up ads on hospital computers. They got access to the first computer on Sunday and used the hospital’s network to spread the infection to other computers. Each infected computer became a zombie that scanned the network looking for new victims. With the network clogged with zombie traffic, hospital communications began to break down. The IT staff tried to halt the attack by shutting off the hospital’s Internet connection, but it was too late. The bots were inside the hospital’s computer system and infecting other computers faster than they could be cleaned. Monday afternoon IT figured out which malware the bots were installing and wrote a script, which was pushed out hourly, directing computers to remove the bad code. The script helped to slow the bots down a bit.
a. What could the hospital do
to stop the attack and contain the damage?
b. Which computer fraud and
abuse technique did the hackers use in their attack on the hospital?
c. What steps should
the hospital have taken to prevent the damage caused by the attack?
Aftermath:
6.1
1.
How did Shadowcrew members concealed their
identities?
2. How has the Internet
made detecting and identifying identity fraudsters difficult?
3. What are some of the
most common electronic means of stealing personal
4. What is the most
common way that fraudsters use personal data?
5. What measures can
consumers take to protect against the online brokering of their personal data?
6. What are the most
effective means of detecting identity theft?
1. 7. What
pieces of personal information are most valuable to identity fraudsters?
The rest of the story:
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