Live data from Hacker News

How does one get hired by a top cybercrime gang?

krebsonsecurity.com

21–30 of 152 posts

Re: How does one get hired by a top cybercrime gang?

#21
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't say what these coders make. But, as with the dealers, it's likely tax free, so even "minimum wage" is better than it sounds.

yeah but considering the risks it's actually very, very bad.

The hospital costs for uninsured low level drug dealers who have a lead allergy must be astronomical.

Re: How does one get hired by a top cybercrime gang?

#22
post #3

Quite frankly she doesn’t come across as very smart, and certainly not very technologically sophisticated. The idea that you run into a problem and use Google to solve it hardly constitutes skill development. It is interesting that they’re hiring based on job boards. I don’t know how normal gangs recruit but I’d guess it’s a lot of word of mouth. It seems when there are real honest alternatives out there for skilled…

> It is interesting that they’re hiring based on job boards.

I remember reading how even cartels hire people through normal job listings. IIRC, there was some sordid article regarding this, where the cartels will list out jobs for "security" jobs, think regular security guard work, event security detailing, etc.

They'd then drive out the candidates to some remote and closed-off training site, push them hard, and just kill anyone that didn't make the cut.

Re: How does one get hired by a top cybercrime gang?

#23
post #4

This reminds me of the story in Freakanomics about the street level drug dealers making basically minimum wage, with the majority of the money going to high level traffickers who are typically firewalled through layers of middlemen.

Many of the people that sell drugs aren't concerned with what they make. The money is under the table so it does not interfere with other welfare assistance they get. Additionally, many of these people are not able to work for someone else because they aren't used to structure. Think of the people you bought pot from when you were a kid, they were most likely a woman working some easy to replace job with a man who did absolutely or damn near nothing.

Re: How does one get hired by a top cybercrime gang?

#24
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn’t in any way downplay your point, I just noticed this sentence and it made me think: “The idea that you run into a problem and use Google to solve it hardly constitutes skill development.” It’s probably natural for most folks on HN to consider “googling problems” an obvious, basic first solution - but I’m always stunned by how many people in real life, outside of the IT industry, don’t have that path in th…

Pretty sure 20% of my value as a professional web builder and resident family tech support rep is my ability or willingness to "Google" something. I'm being 100% serious - I attribute most of my tech knowledge simply to my curiosity, and willingness to search out a solution. Many people (including my own kids) are happy to A) not know or B) ask someone else (me).

Don't think this is new either. Before we even had internet access at work people would ask me for help with excel or some other program and the first thing I would do would be to use built in help. Many folks just don't understand how much help a book/helpfile/internet can be.

Re: How does one get hired by a top cybercrime gang?

#25
post #6
post #3

Quite frankly she doesn’t come across as very smart, and certainly not very technologically sophisticated. The idea that you run into a problem and use Google to solve it hardly constitutes skill development. It is interesting that they’re hiring based on job boards. I don’t know how normal gangs recruit but I’d guess it’s a lot of word of mouth. It seems when there are real honest alternatives out there for skilled…

> The idea that you run into a problem and use Google to solve it hardly constitutes skill development. What does, according to you?

[deleted]

Re: How does one get hired by a top cybercrime gang?

#26
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn’t in any way downplay your point, I just noticed this sentence and it made me think: “The idea that you run into a problem and use Google to solve it hardly constitutes skill development.” It’s probably natural for most folks on HN to consider “googling problems” an obvious, basic first solution - but I’m always stunned by how many people in real life, outside of the IT industry, don’t have that path in th…

>I wonder if there’s an opportunity to teach a “how to search” class in schools. We did this in a public middle school around 2002-2003 with boolean searches. Was this unique to my experience or has this been a common thing for awhile?

[deleted]

Re: How does one get hired by a top cybercrime gang?

#27
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn’t in any way downplay your point, I just noticed this sentence and it made me think: “The idea that you run into a problem and use Google to solve it hardly constitutes skill development.” It’s probably natural for most folks on HN to consider “googling problems” an obvious, basic first solution - but I’m always stunned by how many people in real life, outside of the IT industry, don’t have that path in th…

I encounter often the opposite problem where I'm regularly telling people who are flailing around on Google to deal with some unexpected problem, "I don't know, but you know you will? An Oncologist/IP-attorney/electrician/etc. Instead of using Google to find a pile of amateurs' competing anecdotes, perhaps you can use it to find an actual expert who can help you?"

Very true. "Just google it" works for a very specific subset of problems. In most disciplines, especially "real world" ones outside of computing, there is no easily googleable answer to most problems. Lawyers get a hard time for answering every question with "it depends" but unfortunately, that's the domain a lot of people work within and it's the right answer most of the time.

Re: How does one get hired by a top cybercrime gang?

#28
post #3

Quite frankly she doesn’t come across as very smart, and certainly not very technologically sophisticated. The idea that you run into a problem and use Google to solve it hardly constitutes skill development. It is interesting that they’re hiring based on job boards. I don’t know how normal gangs recruit but I’d guess it’s a lot of word of mouth. It seems when there are real honest alternatives out there for skilled…

[deleted]

Re: How does one get hired by a top cybercrime gang?

#29
post #5
post #3

Quite frankly she doesn’t come across as very smart, and certainly not very technologically sophisticated. The idea that you run into a problem and use Google to solve it hardly constitutes skill development. It is interesting that they’re hiring based on job boards. I don’t know how normal gangs recruit but I’d guess it’s a lot of word of mouth. It seems when there are real honest alternatives out there for skilled…

This doesn’t in any way downplay your point, I just noticed this sentence and it made me think: “The idea that you run into a problem and use Google to solve it hardly constitutes skill development.” It’s probably natural for most folks on HN to consider “googling problems” an obvious, basic first solution - but I’m always stunned by how many people in real life, outside of the IT industry, don’t have that path in th…

XKCD to the rescue! [1]

[1] https://xkcd.com/627/

Re: How does one get hired by a top cybercrime gang?

#30
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn’t in any way downplay your point, I just noticed this sentence and it made me think: “The idea that you run into a problem and use Google to solve it hardly constitutes skill development.” It’s probably natural for most folks on HN to consider “googling problems” an obvious, basic first solution - but I’m always stunned by how many people in real life, outside of the IT industry, don’t have that path in th…

I encounter often the opposite problem where I'm regularly telling people who are flailing around on Google to deal with some unexpected problem, "I don't know, but you know you will? An Oncologist/IP-attorney/electrician/etc. Instead of using Google to find a pile of amateurs' competing anecdotes, perhaps you can use it to find an actual expert who can help you?"

I see what you're saying, and I guess like most, I've experienced both:

* A trivial technological problem that leaves my family helpless though it's literally the first hit on Google

* A critical life-impacting issue, usually health but sometimes things like taxes or mortgage or household maintenance - things where trustworthy experts exist and are readily available here - and they go to random sketchy Facebook groups and get random advice from random people (frequently involving Crystals or essential oils but I digress into whole other rant :P )

Post reply on HN