More computers, more crime

February

Computer Fraud & Security Bulletin

1994

director of information systems auditing for the Toronto branch of Ernst & Young, John Kearns, said, “The emergence of client/server computing is giving an unprecedented number of workers

two others involved in the conspiracy.

access to electronic

encoded account details obtained from a garage.

However,

information

a consultant

resources.”

with Montreal-based

DMR Group Inc, said that the percentage of computers that are true client/server systems is still very low. Most concerned are banks, 60% of which consider data security to be an important issue. Only 27% of health care, 29% of insurance and 30% of manufacturing companies thought security very important.

According

to a report in Computer Weekly, they used plastic saving

and shopping

cards from supermarkets

and garages and, using Stone’s computer skills, However,

the plan to rip-off banks and building

societies

failed after the police were tipped-off.

When the police raided one of the gang’s homes they found

computer

equipment,

hundreds

of

fake cards and an encoder. Homebase and Total shopping

cards were used with bank account

details taken from a till roll at a garage fed into the metallic strips on the back of the cards. However, the scam did not work and on two occasions Barclays’

machines

kept

the

bogus

cards

because the PIN numbers did not match. Stone

More computers,

more crime

was given nine months in prison as the ‘brains of

Viruses, equipment theft, tampering with data, illegal data transfer and desktop forgery are on the

increase

computers, Tribune.

with

states

increased

a report

In Florida,

computer

the

in the

for example,

equipment

state-wide

use of

was recovered,

totalled

keyboards,

drives and other accessories

monitors,

hard

has risen by 30%

since 1989. Non-property increased. viruses

have

also

illegal

use of databases

by

hackers. In the States, The Council of

Business

nine-page

crimes

These include the design of software

and the

computer Better

related

Bureaus

has

published

brochure to help companies

security programme

a

devise a

for their computer systems.

FRAUD NEWS Failed card fraudsters Just following

days

after

a sentence

and co-defendants,

Hamilton

were given

John Currell six and three

months, respectively.

of

$22.9

and less than 5% in 1991. The

of computer

and Clive

Chicago

the theft

million in 1992, an increase of 9% on the previous year. Only 6% of the equipment stolen in 1992 theft

the enterprise’,

Prison sentences for ATM fraudsters The perpetrators of an ATM fraud (see the August 1993 issue of Computer Fraud & Security Bulletin) have been given prison sentences. It is reported in the Democrat & Chronic/e that the two, Gerald Harvey Greenfield and Alan Scott Pace were sentenced to 2.5 years in prison following guilty pleas. The men constructed a fake automatic teller machine which when used copied the personal identification codes from the cards. This information was used to make counterfeit cards with which the men stole more than $107 000 from customer accounts in Connecticut, New York, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia. A third man involved in the scheme, Charles Lyons, pleaded guilty in Federal court to a conspiracy charge. He was sentenced to five months in prison, three years supervised probation and fined $2500. Greenfield and Pace were ordered to pay $464 000 in restitution to the victims of the scam.

sentenced

his release

from

prison

for fraud, Andrew Stone of

Fareham, UK began a new scam. He met up with

01994

Elsevier Science Ltd