Laptop engineer caught trying to hack into a bank account gets 9 months jail

[iptech]

3:36pm UK, Friday August 06, 2010
Tom Parmenter, Sky News correspondent

A laptop engineer who was caught by Sky News trying to hack into a bank account has been sentenced to nine months in prison.

Grzegorz Zachodni was caught in an undercover sting as part of an exclusive investigation into the service offered by computer repair shops. The 30-year-old worked at Laptop Revival in Hammersmith in March 2009 when our reporter dropped in a laptop with a seemingly simple fault. The machine was actually loaded with covert software to monitor what files were accessed and the webcam had been set to film some of the work.
The spy software revealed that Zachodni worked on the laptop for 20 minutes and used the time to look at photos of the reporter in a bikini that had been marked private. In another private file he had accessed her login details for Facebook, eBay and bank account details. He then went onto to try to access the bank account online on six occasions.

Sky News passed the investigation onto the Metropolitan Police's Economic and Specialist Crime Unit who went on to charge Zachodni with attempted fraud. Detective Constable Chris Young said: "Hopefully this conviction will be a warning to the computer repair industry that the copying or use of customer's private and personal information is not acceptable." Judge Edmunds said: "You were, in every sense of the words, caught red-handed by this operation. "There is a need to deter others in your position from abusing the trust placed in them."

Original news source

Edit: The original TV News Report can be found HERE

 

[JimboK]

Watched this on Five News a bit earlier. Shocking that a technician would even think about doing that.

In addition to trying to break into the customers bank account they found the planted loose RAM and re-seated it then phoned the customer to say the laptop needed a new motherboard!

 

[Thedog]

Watched this on Five News a bit earlier. Shocking that a technician would even think about doing that.

Not more shocking than anyone else doing that...

Obviously this guy deserves what he has coming but Im not sure how legal it is to set up a webcam to automatically record someone without notice?

 

[sedigital]

He may be guilty, but the news agency is equally as guilty of entrapment. However, employees with integrity are valuable - if you have them keep them.

 

[Hooked]

He may be guilty, but the news agency is equally as guilty of entrapment. However, employees with integrity are valuable - if you have them keep them.

No, entrapment is where you make someone do something that they wouldn't otherwise do. There's no entrapment here.

 

[iptech]

Not more shocking than anyone else doing that...

Obviously this guy deserves what he has coming but Im not sure how legal it is to set up a webcam to automatically record someone without notice?

What, you think it should be illegal to install software of your own choosing on on your own laptop?

 

[Hooked]

What, you think it should be illegal to install software of your own choosing on on your own laptop?

It depends on where it happens, some states have wiretapping laws that extend past phone calls. That's not a valid defense in criminal court, but he might have a lawsuit against the guy who recorded him (he wouldn't win much, if any, money though).

 

[ATTech]

He may be guilty, but the news agency is equally as guilty of entrapment. However, employees with integrity are valuable - if you have them keep them.

That's not entrapment. As hooked said, entrapment means that they were enticed into doing something that they wouldn't normally do. An example would be an undercover cop pulling up next to you and revving his engine and encouraging you to race him.

I don't see how anybody here can say that any of this is illegal (What the news studio did). Recording somebody without their consent isn't a crime. Otherwise, how would you explain all of those shows that showcase crazy and dumb criminals?

 

[SThompson86]

That is so cracka fantastic like yea

 

[iptech]

That is so cracka fantastic like yea

That is so nonsensical, juvenile and idiotic like WTF?

 

[SThompson86]

Yea I heard that crackafantastic from a Dirt Nasty song and I thought it was Te Totally Ultra off the chain like insane in the membrain O EM GE like YEA thats the stuff WOrd to yA catfish Hound DoG iPTeCh Getcha Somee I cant even find an Emotocon to truly encapsulate the words the I just typed.

 

[vdub12]

I saw that video a few months ago.

This kind of stuff really pisses me off. People do this stuff and then customers question the whole industry.

I have a system here for a tuneup right now that i almost didn't get because the lady was afraid of her quick books data being looked at.

Only after giving her a speech about my professionalism and the fact that I have worked on multiple computers in this specific real estate office in the past and almost every agent has hired me at some point and everyone had nothing but good words to say about me.

How do we separate ourselves from this a$$ holes.

 

[Thedog]

What, you think it should be illegal to install software of your own choosing on on your own laptop?

I do not know the laws in all countries but in Sweden it is illegal to film anyone without noticing. For example if you want surveillance even on your own property you have to set up signs that the area has cameras.

 

[iptech]

I do not know the laws in all countries but in Sweden it is illegal to film anyone without noticing. For example if you want surveillance even on your own property you have to set up signs that the area has cameras.

This offence took place in the UK, the video surveillance capital of the world, only the ineffectual liberals will worry about a crook getting caught out like this. He got what he deserved.

 

[Thedog]

This offence took place in the UK, the video surveillance capital of the world, only the ineffectual liberals will worry about a crook getting caught out like this. He got what he deserved.

Oh "We are the most watched over people in the whole world" as Pete Dunnham says in Green Street Hooligans

 

[JimboK]

Obviously this guy deserves what he has coming but Im not sure how legal it is to set up a webcam to automatically record someone without notice?

If it was not-legal to set-up a webcam to automatically record someone don't you think his defence team would have used this to get the case thrown out of court?

 

[goldmercury]

And of course none of us techs have never ever looked in the my pics folder of a clients computer, honest...

 

[vdub12]

And of course none of us techs have never ever looked in the my pics folder of a clients computer, honest...

The data on a customers computer is private, period.

The only reason you would have to look in any directory is if it directly relates to your job.

If I am restoring data then yes I will open a few pictures to make sure nothing is corrupted but I take a blind eye to them. The only way to keep a customers trust is to respect there privacy.

If you are breaking that trust then maybe you should not be a tech.

 

[goldmercury]

the my pictures folder is always the 1st or 2nd flder a customer asks to be recovered - i find this most of the time to be true

as for the webcam recording the tech this could be classed as entrapment

 

[vdub12]

Why is everyone sticking up for the tech in this story?

He's a dirt bag that makes us all look like crooks. It's people like this that give us all a bad name. All it takes is a potential customer seeing this story and there off to a big box store to get there computer work done thinking that they can trust a big name more then us.

When it comes to the surveillance I am glad they did it and I am glad he got busted. If a guy comes in to my house and steals all my stuff I don't want him to get away with it because I had a camera set up. How is that entrapment? Did the camera make him act like a freaking dirt bag.