Uber-hacker Max Vision misses the killswitch
Cohorts unravel secret life
Having already done time in prison, Max Butler - aka Max Vision - went to great extremes to cloak his new and allegedly-illegal activities from prying eyes. But court documents filed in a case charging him with five new counts of fraud suggest that despite the care he took, much of his undoing came at his own hands - and the hands of associates he trusted the most.
The hacker, who in 2001 pleaded guilty to unleashing a worm that accessed computers at a US Air Force base, employed a "killswitch" on his PC that allowed him to destroy incriminating data at a moment's notice, according to an affidavit.
"If Butler is within reach of his computer, he needs only 'two keystrokes' to destroy the evidence on the computer," Christopher Aragon, an associate of Butler's who was arrested in May for identity theft, told investigators.
The San Francisco native also kept two residences. One was allegedly reserved for conducting illegal hacking, such as breaking into data processing centers and financial institutions. It was rented under a false name - in at least one case "Daniel Chance" - and paid in advance by a money order signed by a person who worked for Butler.
And he maintained at least four online identities, including Iceman, Aphex, Digits and Darkest. While he allegedly used some of the handles to openly engage in the trafficking of stolen credit cards, he worked hard to keep a clean reputation for Iceman. He used the ID in public forums on Cardersmarket, a website he allegedly operated that offered information and discussions concerning various forms on online fraud.
Follow the Credit
For a while, the secrecy worked well. Butler, according to court documents, would largely work in obscurity as he used large antennas to pull sensitive data transmitted over Wi-Fi networks. By limiting what associates and outsiders knew about him and his activities, he made it hard for authorities to build a case against him.
Then, through a combination of bad luck and poor judgment, Butler's enterprise began to unravel. In May, Aragon was arrested in Newport Beach, California for allegedly using counterfeit American Express gift cards to buy about $13,000 worth of designer purses in a single day. He is awaiting trial.
This was a problem for Butler, according to court documents, because Aragon was one of the people who bought credit card numbers Butler obtained.
"Aragon's group would manufacture or re-encode credit cards with the stolen credit card information and have his 'crew' use those cards to make in-store purchases," the 28-page affidavit alleges. Much of the merchandise was then sold on eBay by an user who went under the name "Stylish_shelly."
Following the arrest, Butler went so far as to flee San Francisco for Vancouver and discard a cell phone that linked him to Aragon. But according to the affidavit, Butler made some crucial mistakes. For one, he used a prepaid credit card that had been purchased by Aragon during his stint in Vancouver. And a few days later, he used it to buy a new phone.
Regcast training : Hyper-V 3.0, VM high availability and disaster recovery
Next page: Less Than Confidential Informant
COMMENTS
Online transactions
How do you pay for credit card information? Obviously you can't use a credit card as your payment option..
@ Coli :As I learned from my Chinese former neighbor
it's a huge "thing" amongst the smallest fish in the criminal pond. The same folks that assist in the smuggling of millions of illegal immigrants also put a great many of them to use in all sorts of small time scams- a few dozen cards here, a few bills swiped from the bin there. I've got homeless guys in my neighborhood looking for "recycling", but often you see them grabbing anything that looks like a statement or bill along with the cans and bottles. Methamphetamine users bring in stolen mail by the pound to get their poison, which is often collected in huge bundles in successful police raids all the time (imagine how much mail *isn't* recovered!). Identity theft (which has at least three arrest warrants out for "Ivan Wu" right now) being coordinated by organized crime, preying upon the naive immigrants or the downright moral-less illegal ones looking for a quick materialistic fix or the bragging rights of being "big time gangstas" creates thousands of petty crooks. If each only copies a few dozen cards before arrest, if each only steals a couple of identities working that restaurant as an "undocumented" waiter or snagging some careless paperwork while doing "day labor" remodelling some rich guy's house, that adds up to many thousands of illegal transactions in a very short time. Spread this across the entire nation, or the entire modern world, and you get an idea of how big this gets, without the need of government or even cooperating criminal organization.
Low hanging fruit
Huzzah for the feds but who will address the real problem with carding?
The 800 stone primate that no one seems to want to address is institutionalized carding sometimes done with government cooperation. This guy is a thief but he is not the reason you can by card numbers so cheaply or so easily.
IT infrastructure monitoring strategies
What you need to know about cloud backup
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Top 10 SIEM Implementer’s Checklist
Steps to Take Before Choosing a Business Continuity Partner
