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Online thieves scam state of Utah out of $2.5 million

arstechnica.com — Utah is rather embarrassed over its discovery that scam artists were able to steal some $2.5 million out of the state's coffers using a combination of modern technology and old-fashioned know-how.

Who dugg this? Made popular Feb 16, 2009

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  • MLGLies, on 02/16/2009, -3/+64The password was Utah
  • alex7575, on 02/16/2009, -8/+40Holy *****! The internet has reached Utah!!!
  • inactive, on 02/16/2009, -1/+27Living in Utah, it looks like we'll give it to thieves...
    but none to schools
    Go Utah!
  • inactive, on 02/16/2009, -2/+27I'm embarrassed to live in Utah.
  • Spor, on 02/16/2009, -3/+25I don't think I have ever seen an article on Utah that had a positive spin. For ***** sake Utah, do something right.
  • anexanhume, on 02/16/2009, -0/+18They were able to freeze 1.8 million, but that's still pretty sad.
  • Otnehs, on 02/16/2009, -2/+17To: Treasury@Utah.gov
    From: CzerkaRepairCo@yahoo.com

    Hello, I am forwarding an invoice for various jobs performed and payment concerns.
    Please respond ASAP so I can give you my bank account info in which to deposit the
    fees.

    Sincerly,
    Czerka Repair Co.

    Attachment: [NigerianInvoice.xlsx]
  • NeoNightmareX, on 02/16/2009, -3/+15I'm still embarrassed to live in Utah.*
  • omgwhataguy, on 02/16/2009, -1/+12Dear Utah, I am write you to inform of a long lost relative and his treasure have passed away. To claim your inheritance, you must wire a $2,000 USD processing fee to the Ministry of Truth.
  • Alucard010, on 02/16/2009, -0/+9Utah was one of the first states to have the internet. The University of Utah was one of the initial 4 imps of the ARPANET.
  • cl2yp71c, on 02/16/2009, -9/+15The home of bigots and pyramid schemes got what it deserved.
  • Rockstarsid, on 02/16/2009, -3/+8O_0
  • peazley, on 02/16/2009, -1/+6I moved to Utah from Seattle, not Mormon. And I have to say I am impressed with the internet here. In Seattle I had to have comcast and the fastest they provided at the time was 8mbps for $75/month, now its more like 12mbps or so my friends say. But here in Utah I have a 50mbps down and 25mbps up fiber connection for $65. Its no filtered, though I've heard people say that, I've had no problems accessing any site that I used to in Seattle. And its not like comcast doesn't monitor anything....
  • RebornInFlames, on 02/16/2009, -0/+5Guarantee you it was a bunch of tweakers from in-state with phony Minnesota IDs, one probably worked for a processing office and nabbed the vendor number.
    Tweakers ain't smart enough for hacking, they are just very opportunistic.
    Remember, Utah is.... 70% Mormons, 25% Tweakers 5% Regular people who wonder why the ***** they still live there (like me)
  • Benjigga, on 02/16/2009, -1/+6I lived in Utah for the first 20 years of my life, rarely traveling, and generally thought it was a pretty cool place. Then I moved to the fishing island of Kodiak, Alaska and thought I had found the coolest place in the world to live. Now that I live in an actual cool city (Seattle) I realize that Kodiak really sucks in comparison... you can imagine where that puts Utah on my list. No matter how bad my life gets, it will always cheer me up by telling myself "Well, at least I'm not in Utah."

    Get out of that state, the real world is pretty awesome.
  • DreamVsPs2, on 02/16/2009, -7/+12They have computers in Utah?
  • j4rcher, on 02/16/2009, -4/+9Mor(m)ons...
  • groo68, on 02/16/2009, -1/+5They learned about it the hard way.
  • devnullDood, on 02/16/2009, -0/+4Utah Utes broke the BCS!
  • jas168, on 02/17/2009, -0/+4The reevaluating the word "spin" and keeping in mind the bias of digg should help locate the problem.
  • tmschmal, on 02/16/2009, -0/+4Let look at this in a different light. If Utah wanted to have better security systems in place to prevent this type of scam ahead of time, it would probably cost them several million dollars. I'm not saying that to prevent this exact attack would take millions, but to prevent all unknown attacks would. So their choices are to either spend many millions up front, or lose $700K now that an attach has occurred. They obviously had some security measures in place (as well as Bank of America) to catch this soon enough to recover most of the cash.

    Most security systems aren't designed to be perfect, they are just designed with the cost/benefit of adding additional security in mind. When they reach an acceptable level of trade off between risk and cost of additional security it is considered 'good enough'.

  • scrotumbrau, on 02/17/2009, -0/+4There are plenty of reasons to bash Utah. The scenery and technology are about the only things you can't bash.
  • Maddoktor2, on 02/16/2009, -1/+5It couldn't happen to a nicer state.
  • zbeast, on 02/16/2009, -0/+3Say I think Louisiana has some cash. Go for it guys.
  • akeserla, on 02/16/2009, -3/+6Guess they used the same judgement as dismissing evolution.
  • CoD4, on 02/16/2009, -1/+4You utah move asap
  • Blue7Alien, on 02/16/2009, -2/+5We do have one of the top fiber optic networks in the country also, inst that surprising?
  • across04, on 02/16/2009, -0/+3So the State of Utah pays out money without a Purchase Order?
    That is a major problem!

    Why would they not pay out to an approved vendor only, with an approved P.O. ?
    Guess their poor internal controls let them down!
  • edwartica, on 02/16/2009, -1/+4As you should be.
  • jmyers349, on 02/17/2009, -0/+3Yeah. We all thank you for your opinion....

    But not all of us are idiots, not all of us are Mormons, not all of us hate gays... the list goes on and on.
  • Farmer77, on 02/16/2009, -0/+3Here is Utah's official state quarter:

    http://www.nbc.com/Late_Night_with_Conan_O%27Brien ...
  • Fustigations, on 02/16/2009, -2/+4arpa / darpa is a government agency... with the headquarters in arlington VA. I don't know that Utah can claim that... the cold fusion was a scam, and even if it was real, it failed, so NO, it was not CREATED in utah. Farnsworth was certainly an important part of the development of the TV, but so much happened with the development all across the world, I don't think you could say it was just him (Beaver, where Farnsworth lived, is the best town name ever by the way)

    I'm sure some nice things were made in Utah, but I wouldn't necessarily call that an impressive list... Though I must say that I quite enjoy the parkland! I still get all twitchy when I hear meddlesome thumpers tell me I can't drink because god doesn't like it, though that may be a bit off topic...
  • jmyers349, on 02/17/2009, -0/+2"They're MORmONS..."

    Not all of us. In fact, only about 60% of Utah is Mormon.
  • cl2yp71c, on 02/16/2009, -3/+5P.S. Joseph Smith is my homeboy.
  • garryw, on 02/16/2009, -2/+41. TV
    2. Arpanet
    3. Cold Fusion (ok it failed)
    4. Artificial Heart

    All created in Utah. Is that not good enough?
  • scrotumbrau, on 02/17/2009, -0/+2The 2002 Olympics and um...uh...well, the 2002 Olympics.
  • LilRabbitFooFoo, on 02/16/2009, -3/+5Agreed. I just got ANOTHER MLM offer from a supposedly smart friend in Utah. Ah the MORmONS.
  • LilRabbitFooFoo, on 02/19/2009, -0/+160% is a ridiculously high percentage for any one religion in any one state. And regardless, your legislature, key businesses, educational institutions, Fiber Internet service, etc. etc. all MOR(m)ON controlled. And you know it.
  • RebornInFlames, on 02/18/2009, -0/+1For sure. My name's actually from a Vader song, but I do like In Flames (old stuff)
  • djholybolt, on 02/17/2009, -0/+1***** Utah.
  • groo68, on 02/16/2009, -1/+2No, you just got the internet, of course you would install new technology if you just built the infrastructure.
  • LilRabbitFooFoo, on 02/18/2009, -0/+1You are COMPLETELY monitored. From everyone around you to everything you do. You can put your head in the sand and pretend it isn't happening in order to get through your day, but that's not going to change the truth about the LDS.
  • damien1989, on 02/16/2009, -0/+1lol, that was clever!
  • inactive, on 04/17/2009, -0/+1bad

    http://www.propakistani.com
  • inactive, on 04/05/2009, -0/+1Check out my List Blog:
    http://listcollections.com
    A list blog covering all manners of topics.
  • Fustigations, on 02/16/2009, -2/+3I don't think "just christian" really covers it... They're on the way to being scientology crazy... I'm all for freedom of religion, and don't really care how you spend your Sundays / Wednesdays / every waking moment as long as it doesn't hurt others... When you run a multi million dollar ad campaign to affect voting in another state because you don't like teh gays, you've earned a special place in my "book of ***** who should shut the hell up or I'll slap them." (metaphorically, because that's a lot of slapping)
  • scrotumbrau, on 02/17/2009, -0/+1And of all the reasons, this is why you're embarrassed? I've got a list going myself.
  • inactive, on 02/26/2009, -0/+1To the two of you above, don't throw me in that bucket with everyone else.
  • maxlightz, on 02/17/2009, -0/+1if there is 1 country i'm OK with bombing it would be Nigeria
  • LilRabbitFooFoo, on 02/18/2009, -0/+1No, garryw, because you are utterly wrong. MOR(m)ON much?!
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