A 15-year-old hacker, known online as “CosmoTheGod,” was recently sentenced by a California juvenile court to six years in probation in exchange for pleading guilty to felony charges. As part of a group of hackers called UG Nazi, some of Cosmo’s activities included international credit card fraud and hacking Amazon, Apple, AT&T, PayPal, AOL, Netflix, 4Chan, UFC, Microsoft, NASDAQ, and the CIA. The last crime committed by Cosmo before his arrest involved stealing credit card information from a UK-based billing software company called WHMCS, according to Forbes.com.
No Internet Access Until Cosmo’s 21
Following the terms of Cosmo’s probation, he won’t be able to use the internet without consent from his parole office until his 21st birthday. In an interview conducted by Wired.com, he added that “… He is required to hand over all of his account logins and passwords. He must disclose in writing any devices that he has access to that have the capability to connect to a network. He is prohibited from having contact with any members or associates of UG Nazi or Anonymous, along with a specified list of other individuals. He had to forfeit all the computers and other items seized in the raid on his home. Also, according to Cosmo, violating any of these terms will result in a three-year prison term.”
Operation Card Shop
Cosmo was one of those arrested in an operation spanning thirteen countries and involving twenty-four arrests. According to the FBI, the 2-year undercover operation called “Operation Card Shop” was able to pinpoint almost half a million compromised debit and credit cards and to prevent estimated potential losses over two hundred million dollars. Those arrested were involved in “carding”, which refers to illegal activity including access device fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. Two of the major websites involved, UGNazi.com and Carders.org, were also taken offline by the FBI.
Hailed as “the largest coordinated international law enforcement action in history”, eleven of those arrested were from the United States and the rest came from the United Kingdom, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Norway, and Germany. Further arrests were made in Italy and Japan and other countries which cooperated in the operation included Australia, Canada, Denmark, and Macedonia.
“From New York to Norway and Japan to Australia, Operation Card Shop targeted sophisticated, highly organized cyber criminals involved in buying and selling stolen identities, exploited credit cards, counterfeit documents, and sophisticated hacking tools. Spanning four continents, the two-year undercover FBI investigation is the latest example of our commitment to rooting out rampant criminal behavior on the Internet,” stated FBI Assistant Director in Charge Janice K. Fedarcyk on the FBI’s official website.
The Illusion of Online Security
In another Wired.com article written about Cosmo, he said that he feels remorseful about what he’s done and that he’s tried to warn some people before they got hacked by others in his group. Also, due to some of the flaws exposed by Cosmo, AOL and Paypal changed their security procedures. However, based on how easy it was for these cyber crimes to be committed, online security still has a long way to go.
(Featured Image Credit: FBI)
