AT&T employees took bribes to plant malware on the company's network
AT&T employees took bribes to unlock millions of smartphones, and to install malware and unauthorized hardware on the company's network, the Department of Justice said yesterday.
These details come from a DOJ case opened against Muhammad Fahd, a 34-year-old man from Pakistan, and his co-conspirator, Ghulam Jiwani, believed to be deceased.
The DOJ charged the two with paying more than $1 million in bribes to several AT&T employees at the company's Mobility Customer Care call center in Bothell, Washington.
The bribery scheme lasted from at least April 2012 until September 2017. Initially, the two Pakistani men bribed AT&T employees to unlock expensive iPhones so they could be used outside AT&T's network.
[...] This initial stage of the scheme last for about a year, until April 2013, when several employees left or were fired by AT&T.
That's when Fahd changed tactics and bribed AT&T employees to install malware on AT&T's network at the Bothell call center. Between April and October 2013, this initial malware collected data on how AT&T infrastructure worked.
According to court documents unsealed yesterday, this malware appears to be a keylogger, having the ability "to gather confidential and proprietary information regarding the structure and functioning of AT&T's internal protected computers and applications.
The DOJ said Fahd and his co-conspirator then created a second malware strain that leveraged the information acquired through the first. This second malware used AT&T employee credentials to perform automated actions on AT&T's internal application to unlock phone's at Fahd's behest, without needing to interact with AT&T employees every time.
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(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday August 06 2019, @07:17PM
I would swear I read this same story about Verizon a few years back...
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2, Funny) by fustakrakich on Tuesday August 06 2019, @07:23PM (7 children)
They are being charged also, right?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday August 06 2019, @07:39PM (5 children)
It looks like they were permitted to quit, or resign, or otherwise just walk away from the job without being prosecuted. I guess AT&T was hoping to keep all that crap under wraps, preventing the public learning how easy it is to corrupt the system.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday August 06 2019, @07:59PM (3 children)
None of that matters. The AG has to charge them also. They are the actual perpetrators. Or is bribery the only charge here?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday August 06 2019, @08:18PM (2 children)
I'm not sure that follows. The government can grant immunity, among other things, so, no, the AG doesn't have to charge one criminal to prosecute another. The AG can prosecute the mastermind of a criminal conspiracy, and let the small actors walk.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday August 08 2019, @04:58AM
Their testimony without evidence is worthless hearsay, and if you have evidence, you don't need to grant immunity to anybody for their testimony. The people who took the bribe should at least suffer the same fate as the the ones that offered it.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday August 09 2019, @01:52PM
Except when it's the little guy acting alone, in which case it becomes, "I have no choice! The law is the law and I have to uphold it!"
This sig for rent.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Tuesday August 06 2019, @09:17PM
So now they can charge or fine AT&T for the coverup?
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2, Interesting) by easyTree on Tuesday August 06 2019, @11:24PM
If customers have to go such lengths to get away from their mobile provider, it sounds like AT&T are the problem =)
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday August 06 2019, @07:23PM (6 children)
Competition?
I don't think the NSA wiretap black-box closets went away or anything.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 06 2019, @07:34PM (1 child)
The problem, according to AT&T, is that the company lost $5M per year in fees (whereas the NSA pays their monthly "access" fees).
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Wednesday August 07 2019, @01:52AM
The problem was, according to AT&T, that customers saved $5million per year by not having to pay AT&T's extortionate unlocking fees.
No problem is insoluble, but at Ksp = 2.943×10−25 Mercury Sulphide comes close.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday August 06 2019, @08:01PM (3 children)
The NSA black boxes are "O.K., they work for the government, G-men installed 'em." Muhammad Fahd and his deceased associate, no so much.
More interesting is: who was backing Fahd with the money for the bribes?
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday August 06 2019, @08:08PM (2 children)
They work for the Pakistani government. What's the problem?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 06 2019, @08:38PM (1 child)
They weren't Russian.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 07 2019, @04:26AM
They could be really tanned North Koreans though. Anyone did the Kimchi test on them?
(Score: 3, Touché) by sjames on Tuesday August 06 2019, @07:52PM (1 child)
A few AT&T employees were induced to violate the terms of their employment and as a result, AT&T were unable to hold other people's property hostage?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 06 2019, @10:47PM
And service improved.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by rob_on_earth on Wednesday August 07 2019, @08:16AM
This is why we can never let any back doors exist that "only" law enforcement can use.
There will always be, access by mistake, access for curiosity, access for personal gain and access for malicious purposes.
There are a number of reports about UK officers using law enforcement databases to track friends, ex friends, and stalk potential "friends".
and the stereo-typical "Indian-call center"(not necessarly in India) have also been the source of many under the table pay-for-users-details stories in the press.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 07 2019, @08:41AM
Enough said.