Operating under the nickname "The Analyzer," Ehud Tenenbaum collaborated with a team of hackers to steal more than $1 million. A longtime super hacker, Tenenbaum popped up on the government's radar back in 1998 when he hacked into the Pentagon's computer system. The Department of Defense has since codenamed the incident "Solar Sunrise."
This time around, Tenebaum ran afoul of the Canadian authorities. The now-29-year-old computer whiz teamed up with three other Canadians to hack into Direct Cash Management, a company that sells prepaid debit and credit cards. Tenenbaum and his team broke into the company and raised the limit on cards they acquired from the company. Their total haul: about $1.4 million (Canadian).
All told, Tenenbaum was looking at six counts of fraudulent credit card use in Canada, where he's still being held without bail because of a warrant obtained by the United States that kept him in a Canadian jail until the New York grand jury could hand down the indictment.
Online analysts called Tenenbaum's techniques "unsophisticated" but conceded that they work. The hacker used Trojan-horse techniques as well as old-fashioned exploits to sneak into systems, including the Air Force and Navy, NASA, MIT, and several Ivy League universities. About the only system he failed to hack was the mainframe for the Israeli military.
According to U.S. authorities, Tenenbaum is still in Canada and awaiting extradition. Bob Nardoza, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, said that Tenenbaum's indictment is to the point.
"It's not a very extensive indictment," he said.