Research the group members identified in the video “Hackers: Operation Get Rich

Question

Research the group members identified in the video “Hackers: Operation Get Rich or Die Tryin’”—Albert Gonzalez, Stephen Watt, Damon Patrick Toey, Humza Zaman, and Christopher Scott. Pick a member of the gang and describe his motivation when he started with this hacking operation. Describe how that motivation evolved until the operation was finally shut down. In responding to classmates, comment on why you think the gang member with so much talent in computers would choose the criminal path of this operation rather than other lucrative high-tech paths.

Explanation / Answer

Albert Gonzalez (born 1981) is a computer hacker and computer criminal who is accused of masterminding the combined credit card theft and subsequent reselling of more than 170 million card and ATMnumbers from 2005 through 2007—the biggest such fraud in history.

Gonzalez and his accomplices used SQL injection to deploy backdoors on several corporate systems in order to launch packet sniffing (specifically, ARP Spoofing) attacks which allowed him to steal computer data from internal corporate networks.

During his spree, he was said to have thrown himself a $75,000 birthday party and complained about having to count $340,000 by hand after his currency-counting machine broke. Gonzalez stayed at lavish hotels but his formal homes were modest.

Gonzalez had three federal indictments:

On March 25, 2010, Gonzalez was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.

Gonzales along with his crew were featured on the 5th season episode of the CNBC series American Greed

Early life

His parents, who had immigrated to the United States from Cuba in the 1970s, bought him his first computer when he was 8. By the age of 9, he was reported to be actively removing computer viruses.

Gonzalez, a Cuban-American, attended South Miami High School in Miami, Florida, where he was described as the "troubled" pack leader of computer nerds. In his senior year at the school, he and friend used the library computer to hack into computer systems of the government of India[citation needed] where they left messages about their culture.[citation needed] Reportedly India had to cancel government checks as a result.[citation needed]Gonzalez was not charged and was warned to stay away from a computer for six months. In 2000 he moved to New York City where he lived for three months before moving to Kearny, New Jersey.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse R
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.