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I had to laugh at this one...... :97- :97- :97-

http://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/qod.cfm (http://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/qod.cfm)

Q:
After a truck driver was caught stealing MGM Mirage and Harrah’s customer information both Players Club and Total Rewards changed their Web sites within 24 hours of each other? Was the security breach worse than reported?
A:
Unfortunately, there’s little way of knowing how extensively any security overhauls at either Harrah’s Entertainment or MGM Mirage were. Both companies clammed up when contacted by LVA. However, since neither company’s online security was breached, the damage may be less than feared.
Actually, as data theft goes, it was all very low-tech. As Nashville Scene -– in the only in-depth article written about the heist -– put it, "This trail to the federal pen wasn't forged along the information superhighway or even by colluding with casino employees. It was never quite that sexy."

Sensitive information wound up in unscrupulous hands through a combination of carelessness and misguided thrift. Amazingly, neither MGM nor Harrah’s –- the two largest companies in gaming –- shredded player documents in-house. Instead, they farmed the task out to a Vegas recycling facility (whose identity was successfully kept out of the newspapers during the subsequent imbroglio), which then passed the buck to a Boise Cascade plant in Jackson, Alabama.

French Trucking Co. was entrusted with hauling the documents down to Dixie. In the bundles were Social Security numbers, markers, customer names, credit card numbers, operational documents, etc.

What could go wrong? Everything, basically. A French driver, Jeff Greer, claims to have found the player documents when they just happened to get stuck in the scuff band (a type of internal paneling) of his trailer in March 2007. The Tennessee-based trucker was at least smart enough to recognize the value of the papers in his grasp, even if some of his later actions were –- literally -- criminally stupid.

Using prepaid cell phones to foil call-tracing, he contacted MGM Mirage. "Greer left the impression with the gaming company executives that he had infiltrated their computer system," according to the U.S. Attorney’s office. He wanted money and a consulting contract. When MGM wouldn’t play ball, Greer got shirty: "How would customers like it if they knew their information was available?" he asked at one point.

Even after an attorney advised Greer of the illegality of his actions, the trucker persisted. His next gambit was to raise the stakes. On May 7, he placed an ad on eBay that hawked "A Large Gaming Company’s Family Jewels." The verbiage was accompanied by an opening bid of $100,000 and a picture of a steer’s scrotum.

He then anted up further, demanding $250,000 from MGM, offering to show how the "leak" could be plugged. Greer also threatened to sell the data to Harrah’s, gloating, "I'd rather have your 250 and let you fix your problem quietly than a half a million from Harrah's, and they're going to leak it gradually all over the entire world that y'all can't be trusted with people's information."

Greer then turned around and tried to pull the same shakedown on Harrah’s. The latter, unlike MGM, seemed initially inclined to play ball, according to Nashville Scene, offering Greer $5,000. (According to the FBI, Harrah’s contacted the feds immediately, as had MGM.) If Greer could prove that his information was current and therefore valuable, the offer would escalate to $250,000. He hemmed and hawed. Next, Nashville Scene reports, "Harrah's agreed to his demands with the understanding that Greer would hand over everything he had, explain the leak, and agree to not come back for more."

(The Greer incident is apparently still a sore spot for Harrah’s. Asked for the company’s version of events, Harrah’s replied that it didn’t "want to interfere with a federal investigation or trial," so it couldn't provide a comment. When LVA replied that Greer had already been tried, convicted, and sentenced, we received an even frostier response.)

Afflicted with greed and stupidity alike, Greer decided to ante up yet again. He wanted $100,000 so he could enter the World Series of Poker. In a development that should have aroused his suspicions, Harrah’s only assented to a $250K payoff, but it wanted to meet him at its Memphis-area offices. It wasn’t until this point that Harrah’s and MGM learned how simple Greer’s scam had been … ever the Chatty Cathy, he was only too happy to blab how he’d pulled it off.

Harrah’s having long since alerted the FBI to Greer’s monkeyshines, the cocksure trucker was walking straight into a trap. On May 9, at the Harrah’s office, Greer was met by two agents posing as Harrah’s execs. They talked him into signing a confession, wiretapping and filming him for good measure, in return for the money. Then they slapped the cuffs on him.

Since Greer couldn’t even afford a lawyer following his arrest, justice was swift and certain. After a four-day trial he was convicted and sentenced to 46 months in prison, last Feb. 19. He is scheduled to begin doing time on April 20.

Who are they calling Stupid......

In this economy 4 years of free room and board, tax free isn't such a bad deal........ after that the economy will be hopping and he will have a job all lined up before leaving the joint .....  :72-