Posts Tagged ‘mules’
60+ charged in Zeus cybercrime roundup
U.S. prosecutors have unveiled charges against more than 60 defendants allegedly involved in a global cybercrime scheme that used the Zeus Trojan and other Internet viruses to steal over $ 3 million dollars from U.S. bank accounts.
The scheme was engineered by unnamed hackers based in Eastern Europe who hijacked bank accounts…
“The mouse and the keyboard can be far more effective than the gun and the mask,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara told reporters.
Prosecutors described a complex “money mule” organization in which foreigners who entered the United States on student visas were recruited as “mules” to open bank accounts under fake names. The accounts were then used to receive and transfer the stolen funds, they said.
Federal prosecutors announced charges against 37 defendants, while Manhattan District Attorney prosecutors charged 36 people on top of 19 previously arrested. City and federal prosecutors said a number of those charged were not yet in custody.
London’s Metropolitan Police arrested 19 people on Tuesday in a possibly related case in which 6 million pounds were allegedly stolen from a number of unidentified major world banks.
There still is no patch for stupidity.
TSA says mule skinners need background checks, too
A federal anti-terror law that requires longshoremen, truckers and others to submit to criminal background checks has ensnared another class of transportation worker — mule drivers.
Mule skinners must abide by federal law and apply for Transportation Worker Identification Credentials, TSA says.
Yes, so-called mule skinners — in this case, seasonal workers who dress in colonial garb at a historical park in Easton, Pa. — must apply for biometric Transportation Worker Identification Credentials (TWIC), according to the Transportation Security Administration, which says it is bound by federal law.
The requirement has officials of the Hugh Moore Historical Park perplexed.
“We have one boat. It’s pulled by two mules. On a good day they might go 2 miles per hour,” said Sarah B. Hays, the park’s director of operations.
The park’s two-mile canal does not pass any military bases, nuclear power plants or other sensitive facilities. And, park officials say, the mules could be considered weapons of mass destruction only if they were aimed at something resembling food…
Each of the park workers on the canal boat – who already are Coast Guard certified [an older bureaucracy] – will have to spend $100 apiece for appropriate biometric ID and background check.
