A Jailed Hacking Kingpin Reveals All About Cybercrime Gang (bbc.com) 19
Slashdot reader alternative_right shares an exclusive BBC interview with Vyacheslav "Tank" Penchukov, once a top-tier cyber-crime boss behind Jabber Zeus, IcedID, and major ransomware campaigns. His story traces the evolution of modern cybercrime from early bank-theft malware to today's lucrative ransomware ecosystem, marked by shifting alliances, Russian security-service ties, and the paranoia that ultimately consumes career hackers. Here's an excerpt from the report: In the late 2000s, he and the infamous Jabber Zeus crew used revolutionary cyber-crime tech to steal directly from the bank accounts of small businesses, local authorities and even charities. Victims saw their savings wiped out and balance sheets upended. In the UK alone, there were more than 600 victims, who lost more than $5.2 million in just three months. Between 2018 and 2022, Penchukov set his sights higher, joining the thriving ransomware ecosystem with gangs that targeted international corporations and even a hospital. [...]
Penchukov says he did not think about the victims, and he does not seem to do so much now, either. The only sign of remorse in our conversation was when he talked about a ransomware attack on a disabled children's charity. His only real regret seems to be that he became too trusting with his fellow hackers, which ultimately led to him and many other criminals being caught. "You can't make friends in cyber-crime, because the next day, your friends will be arrested and they will become an informant," he says. "Paranoia is a constant friend of hackers," he says. But success leads to mistakes. "If you do cyber-crime long enough you lose your edge," he says, wistfully.
Penchukov says he did not think about the victims, and he does not seem to do so much now, either. The only sign of remorse in our conversation was when he talked about a ransomware attack on a disabled children's charity. His only real regret seems to be that he became too trusting with his fellow hackers, which ultimately led to him and many other criminals being caught. "You can't make friends in cyber-crime, because the next day, your friends will be arrested and they will become an informant," he says. "Paranoia is a constant friend of hackers," he says. But success leads to mistakes. "If you do cyber-crime long enough you lose your edge," he says, wistfully.
It'll never stop (Score:4, Informative)
...until the punishment is terrifying.
Simple as that.
Re: It'll never stop (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, because if draconian punishment has ever done anything for our society it's to stop crime dead in its tracks. NOT.
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Sorry, I'll go back to writing utopian fiction
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Reading TFA would have shown you that Penchukov is Ukrainian and lived there most of the time. He lived in Donetsk until Russian missiles hit his apartment, if TFA then says when he moved to Switzerland then I missed that part. His problem - living in Ukraine - was that he was rich and had to bribe local officials more or less on a daily basis, eventually he had to start hacking again to pay the bribes, before he moved out of the country to escape that problem.
Some of his associates were Russian, and some
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Trump appreciates you donating him permanent space in your thoughts.
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I doubuit, given how much he is preoccupied with Biden and Obama in his head. Might be the reason why he is so incoherent.
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Reading the summary shows no perspective of a future punishment would affect him and his likeness. They don't think of the consequences of their actions. They just think of keep going without getting caught. See:
He did not think about the victims,
His only real regret seems to be that he became too trusting with his fellow hackers,
Success leads to mistakes.
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You have to have punishments to stop the people who are stopped by the threat of them. Those people do exist. We don't think about them much because the existing deterrents work just fine on them.
But you also shouldn't waste your time either believing that they will deter everyone, nor that stronger punishments will deter statistically more people. There are always those who think they won't get caught, and those who don't care.
Somehow authoritarians always forget the carrot. The stick isn't invalid, it jus
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What is so difficult to comprehend about "But you also shouldn't waste your time either believing that they will deter everyone, nor that stronger punishments will deter statistically more people. There are always those who think they won't get caught, and those who don't care."?
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Neither side cares about the other, and wants the simplest way of dealing with the other. The criminal cares not for the law and seeks to flout it, the law cares not for the criminal and seeks to end their criminality. You will never convince either side in that state because convincing them requires empathy for the other side that they just don't have. Some times with good reason, others not so much.
The person who thinks that an even greater "terrifying punishment"
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re: Not simple as that, at all.... (Score:2)
We live in a society where like it or not? We marginalize crimes that involve theft of property or money, vs violent crimes against people.
Hacking almost never escalates to the level of it badly injuring or killing other humans. (You *might* argue it did if you could prove people hacking firmware or software running life support machines in hospitals was involved, or direct attacks on a person's pacemaker? But even outliers like this would be more the realm of the CIA than individual hackers.)
But even IF y