Career Choice Tip: Cybercrime Is Mostly Boring • Hacker News Board

Re: Career Choice Tip: Cybercrime Is Mostly Boring

#101

Post by thephyber » Sat, May 30, 2020, 11:12 PM UTC

RandomBacon wrote: post #93

raincom wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, they don't ask you any thing. However, banks/car dealerships/etc have to file CTRs(Currency Transaction reports). It is good that you withdrew $13K in one shot. Structured withdrawals (4k, one day, 5k three days later, another 4k ten days later) will be flagged by AML software of any financial institution. And folks in the compliance team will file SAR(Suspicious activity report). Lesson: when you legitimately n…

Thank you, it sounds like you have some insight about the process. I'm aware of structuring, but I don't think most people are. I've heard about it only once in the news where a store owner had his money seized because he was trying to avoid depositing more than $10,000 at a time, over a long time period. IIRC, this was the case: https://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2015/05/05/...

Re: structuring, the most famous example I know of is Dennis Hastert[1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Hastert#Indictment

Re: Career Choice Tip: Cybercrime Is Mostly Boring

#102

Post by thephyber » Sat, May 30, 2020, 11:23 PM UTC

dillonmckay wrote: post #54

anonymousDan wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin?

Can you not use iTunes? Become an artist, sell albums, people buy and gift your albums using iTunes gift cards?

I've also heard that long distance prepaid calling cards had the same fungibility + market.

I'm not sure if either are still viable as it seems like money laundering is a treadmill where the older techniques become liabilities and require constant refreshing of tactics.

Re: Career Choice Tip: Cybercrime Is Mostly Boring

#103

Post by thephyber » Sat, May 30, 2020, 11:41 PM UTC

ackbar03 wrote: post #49

Nextgrid wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most corporate security is about compliance, audits, regulation and balancing the need for security with the needs of the (often stupid) users. Very little of it is actually tech. There is pentesting and malware analysis for the actual "tech" stuff but it is quite a small market to be honest.

>but it is quite a small market to be honest. I get that impression too. I do some cybersecurity type stuff as a hobby and was hoping to make a business out of it somehow but it doesn't seem to be a easy market to crack.

> somehow but it doesn't seem to be a easy market to crack

There are 2600 companies in the space and they almost all do one small thing (and lots of them don't do it terribly well).

It turns out what every company wants is more of a comprehensive turnkey solution than exists, or at least a highly modular framework that can accept modules from other vendors. Companies generally don't understand that security is an attribute of everything, it isn't an end product. Hence executives would rather pay for a blinky box than remember to incorporate security planning into every other expense. Also most companies aren't willing to pay much to a cybersecurity vendor because cybersecurity is largely seen as a cost center and not a profit center (because that's accurate most of the time).

I got into bug bounties for a little while, but the work is tough. Selecting a program which pays out enough and doesn't have all of the low-hanging fruit picked is difficult. It's the kind of work where very well organized bounty hunters will take the lion's share of the winnings, which doesn't lend itself well to developers who can make a healthy salary elsewhere.

Source: I work for a cybersecurity startup.

Re: Career Choice Tip: Cybercrime Is Mostly Boring

#104

Post by jl2718 » Sun, May 31, 2020, 10:28 AM UTC

The thing that sealed the deal for me to never go back was meeting all the old mafia dumbasses that actually went to jail for so-called ‘cybercrime’. These guys could hardly read. Before computers they were shaking down hot dog vendors and smuggling drug money through hair salons. They drove expensive cars, wore lots of jewelry, and had a bunch of drug addict women falling all over them.

No thanks. I met a girl from Harvard and discovered that I actually liked talking to a smart human about real things. There was no comparison.

Re: Career Choice Tip: Cybercrime Is Mostly Boring

#105

Post by thatfunkymunki » Sun, May 31, 2020, 10:02 PM UTC

throwaway9482 wrote: post #53

ackbar03 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>but it is quite a small market to be honest. I get that impression too. I do some cybersecurity type stuff as a hobby and was hoping to make a business out of it somehow but it doesn't seem to be a easy market to crack.

What’s military cyber security like and how does it compare with consumer or enterprise security? I‘d wager the appeal of cyber security is mostly in the domain of military. Think stuxnet or NSA

Nah, having been on active duty being involved in cyber warfare and later joining the corporate world, the latter is so much more advanced and interesting, with generally a lot better people.

Re: Career Choice Tip: Cybercrime Is Mostly Boring

#106

Post by throwaway9482 » Sun, May 31, 2020, 10:43 PM UTC

thatfunkymunki wrote: post #105

throwaway9482 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s military cyber security like and how does it compare with consumer or enterprise security? I‘d wager the appeal of cyber security is mostly in the domain of military. Think stuxnet or NSA

Nah, having been on active duty being involved in cyber warfare and later joining the corporate world, the latter is so much more advanced and interesting, with generally a lot better people.

Hm interesting