Weird News

[Lamplighter]

I hope the hackers were also smart enough to get
the movie rights to this scheme.
It smacks of George Clooney and Julia Roberts

NY Times
MARC SANTORA
Published: May 9, 2013
In Hours, Thieves Took $45 Million in A.T.M. Scheme

It was a brazen bank heist, but a 21st-century version in which
the criminals never wore ski masks, threatened a teller or set foot in a vault.

In two precision operations that involved people in more than two dozen
countries acting in close coordination and with surgical precision,
thieves stole $45 million from thousands of A.T.M.’s in a matter of hours.

In New York City alone, the thieves responsible for A.T.M. withdrawals
struck 2,904 machines over 10 hours starting on Feb. 19, withdrawing $2.4 million.
<snip>
The hackers, who are not named in the indictment, then raised the withdrawal limits
on prepaid MasterCard debit accounts issued by the National Bank of Ras Al-Khaimah,
also known as RakBank, which is in United Arab Emirates.
<snip>
With five account numbers in hand, the hackers distributed the information
to individuals in 20 countries who then encoded the information on magnetic-stripe cards.
On Dec. 21, the cashing crews made 4,500 A.T.M. transactions worldwide,
stealing $5 million, according to the indictment.

While the street crews were taking money out of bank machines, the computer experts
were watching the financial transactions from afar, ensuring that they would
not be shortchanged on their cut, according to court documents.
<snip>

[glatt]

We live in interesting times.

[Lamplighter]

The Columbian
PDX stripper fights $1K federal fine
5/10/13

PORTLAND — John Brennan, who stripped naked last year
to protest a security check at Portland International Airport,
said he expects to lose the first round of his legal fight against a $1,000 fine.

Still, he plans to press his free-speech argument in an appeal
and push for effective security checks that aren't as invasive.
"I totally support airport screening," Brennan said.
"I just don't want it to be at the expense of my constitutional rights."<snip>

In April 2012, as Brennan started a business trip to California,
he declined to step into a Transportation Security Administration body scanner.
He was asked to walk through a metal detector and submit to a pat-down.
A screener said traces of nitrates, which could indicate an explosive, were detected.
Brennan took off his clothes to show he wasn't carrying anything explosive
and to get the security check over quickly, he said.<snip>

In July, a judge in Multnomah County found Brennan not guilty
of violating a Portland ordinance that forbids exposing genitals in public
and in the presence of the opposite sex.
The judge said Brennan was acting in protest and his strip was protected speech.

A few weeks later, Brennan said, he was told he'd be fined for violating
a rule that forbids passengers to interfere with, assault, threaten or intimidate the screeners.