Updated September 12, 1995 12:00 pm PT Edited by Sarah Varney (sarahv@cnet.com) bullet Feds Nab Cell Phone Crackers in BBS Sting _________________________________________________________________ Feds Nab Cell Phone Crackers in BBS Sting picture U.S. Secret Service agents nabbed six men accused of stealing cellular phone numbers, in a sting operation that used an online bulletin board to entice the suspects. The operation, which involved six states, used a bulletin board catering to online miscreants trafficking in stolen data. The sting was set up in January. Rather that using scanners to intercept cell phone numbers, the crackers allegedly purloined the numbers directly from AT&T Corporation. But AT&T isn't the only corporate victim out there. Today's Wall Street Journal details an online caper in which banking giant Citicorp was victimized. In the intricate case, approximately $400,000 was withdrawn via illicit online transactions, the WSJ reports. While both the cell phone sting and the Citicorp caper were motivated by good old-fashioned greed, last week's America Online security breach was most likely a prank. According to Nick Daniels of Internet For All, a small informal hackers group, breaking into a major online service such as AOL is a point of pride among the hacker elite. "AOL is the biggest [service] and anyone who cracks it has a story to tell their grandkids," says Daniels. Sources say that the AOL incident was most likely the work of the The Hacker's Guild. "The word is that members did this, and the rules say a hack like this should have been cleared" with the Guild, adds Daniels. The AOL incident comes under the heading of "target type A," which means "clear it before you kill." "You have to tell the guild what you're doing so they know what members do and what small time punks do--yah know it's a pride thing," says Daniels. _________________________________________________________________ Copyright © c|net, inc., 1995, all rights reserved