There ought to be a special category in the Darwin Awards for people who do stupid things with computers - in fact, this category alone could probably swamp all the others, were it not for the Darwin Awards' somewhat onerous requirement for the nominee to have removed themselves from the gene pool.
However, today's news brings word of someone - probably more than one, in fact - who looks likely to remove themselves from society at large in a spectacularly dumb way. This genius planted a fake ATM in a hotel lobby, in order to skim data from the cards of unsuspecting users. Only, they didn't choose just any old hotel. Oh, no.
They chose the Riviera, in Las Vegas.
Just before it was to host the DEFCON hacker convention, this last weekend.
Not many unsuspecting users at DEFCON, I'd say. In fact, the place was probably full of professional paranoids. Not surprisingly, one of the organisers spotted the bogus machine and it was hauled away by local law enforcement.
If the perps weren't awesomely dumb, but actually knew what they were doing, then you have to admire their chutzpah. Naw, on second thoughts, they had to have been dumb as a post.
More details at http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9136179/Fake_ATM_doesn_t_last_long_at_hacker_meet
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