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NetSol to alert cops over domain hijacking

Kevin Murphy, April 4, 2011, Domain Registrars

Network Solutions intends to “notify the proper authorities” after a high-profile customer had his account hijacked over the weekend.
Stephen Toulouse, head of policy and enforcement for Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE, lost access to stepto.com, including his web site and email, for several hours yesterday, after a disgruntled teenaged gamer persuaded a member of NetSol’s support staff to hand over the account.
In a statement published on its blog, the domain name registrar said it was an “isolated incident directed at a specific customer account”, adding:

We maintain a well developed processes to ensure that Social Engineering attempts or any identified security concerns are immediately alerted to a Supervisor, who will expedite the investigation, usually with the help of the Network Solutions Security team. In this case, the procedure was not followed, and we apologize for any trouble caused to our customer.
Our Security team continues to investigate this matter. Additionally, because we take this matter very seriously, we intend to notify the proper authorities with the evidence that we have gathered, so that they may investigate the person(s) responsible for the fraud.

According to a new YouTube video released by the person claiming responsibility for the attack, “Predator”, he’s 15. He blamed Toulouse for his frequent Xbox LIVE bannings.
While he said he perpetrated the attack to highlight insecurities in Xbox LIVE, he also offered to hijack other gamers’ accounts for up to $250.
Comments posted in response to his first post-attack video claim to reveal his true identity, but of course comments on YouTube are not what you’d call reliable evidence.
The video itself does reveal a fair bit of information, however, so I can’t imagine tracking him down will be too difficult, especially if Microsoft has his parents’ credit card number on file.
His YouTube channel also has videos of him operating a botnet. That’s a whole lot more serious.

Xbox security chief gets domain hijacked

Kevin Murphy, April 3, 2011, Domain Registrars

The head of Xbox Live policy and enforcement at Microsoft has had his domain name compromised by a disgruntled gamer using a social engineering attack on Network Solutions
Stephen Toulouse, who goes by the screen name “Stepto” and has the domain stepto.com, seems to have also lost his email, hosting and, as a result, his Xbox Live account.
He tweeted earlier today: “Sigh. please be warned. Network solutions has apparently transferred control of Stepto.com to an attacker and will not let me recover it.”
Somebody claiming to be the attacker has uploaded a video to YouTube showing him clicking around Toulouse’s Xbox account, whilst breathlessly describing how he “socialed his hosting company”.
It’s a bit embarrassing for Toulouse. He was head of communications for Microsoft Security Response Center for many years, handling comms during worm outbreaks such as Blaster and Slammer.
Now at Xbox Live, he is, as the attacker put it, “the guy who’s supposed to be keeping us safe”.
But it’s probably going to be much more embarrassing for Network Solutions. When the tech press gets on the story tomorrow, difficult questions about NSI’s security procedures will no doubt be asked.
Toulouse has already made a few pointed remarks about the company on his Twitter feed today.
Social engineering attacks against domain name registrars exploit human, rather than technological, vulnerabilities, involving calling up tech support and trying to convince them you are your victim.
In this case, hijacking the domain seems to have been a means to control Toulouse’s email account, enabling the attacker to reset his Xbox Live password and take over his “gamer tag”.
The same technique was used to compromise the Chinese portal Baidu.com, that time via Register.com, in late 2009. That resulted in a lawsuit, now settled.
The attacker, calling himself Predator, was apparently annoyed that Toulouse had “console banned” him 35 times, whatever that means.
He seems to have left a fair bit of evidence in his wake, and he appears to be North American, so I expect he’ll be quite easy to track down.
Predator’s video, which shows the immediate aftermath of the attack, is embedded below. It may not be entirely safe for work, due to some casually racist language.
UPDATE (April 5): The video has been removed due to a “violation of YouTube’s policy on depiction of harmful activities”. I snagged a copy before it went, so if anybody is desperate to see it, let me know.