-=PCTechTalk=- IMPORTANT NOTE IF YOU HAVE/USE CREDIT CARD(S)!!!!!!!

  • From: "Larry Southerland" <larrysoutherland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <the_bullhorn2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <thebullhornsbest@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:36:08 -0400

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Feds Bust Biggest Identity Theft Ring


By DEVLIN BARRETT 

, 

AP

posted: 15 HOURS 10 MINUTES AGO

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WASHINGTON (Aug. 17) - Federal prosecutors on Monday charged a Miami man
with the largest case of credit and debit card data theft ever in the United
States, accusing the one-time government informant of swiping 130 million
accounts on top of 40 million he stole previously.

 <javascript:oKE.pgPopUp('walletpop-credit_topidthefts')> Top Data Breaches

 <javascript:oKE.pgPopUp('walletpop-credit_topidthefts')> 

Scott Barbour, Getty Images

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On Aug. 17, federal investigators announced what is said to be the largest
identity theft ring in U.S. history. Thieves targeted more than 130 million
credit and debit card numbers used at 7-Eleven stores, supermarket chain
Hannaford Brothers and those processed by Heartland Payment Systems.
Heartland, coincidentally, suffered another major breach just last year.

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Top Data Breaches

On Aug. 17, federal investigators announced what is said to be the largest
identity theft ring in U.S. history. Thieves targeted more than 130 million
credit and debit card numbers used at 7-Eleven stores, supermarket chain
Hannaford Brothers and those processed by Heartland Payment Systems.
Heartland, coincidentally, suffered another major breach just last year.

Scott Barbour, Getty Images

Scott Barbour, Getty Images


 
<http://www.walletpop.com/credit/article/albert-gonzalez-charged-with-theft-
of/625932?feeddeeplinkNum=0> 

Top Data Breaches


On Aug. 17, federal investigators announced what is said to be the largest
identity theft ring in U.S. history. Thieves targeted more than 130 million
credit and debit card numbers used at 7-Eleven stores, supermarket chain
Hannaford Brothers and those processed by Heartland Payment Systems.
Heartland, coincidentally, suffered another major breach just last year.

Scott Barbour, Getty Images

The Checkfree attack announced in January 2009 exposed 5 million records and
came at the hand, apparently, of Ukrainian hackers. 

Checkfree Corp. / Fiserv

The data breach at the Bank of New York Mellon Shareowner Services involved
12.5 million records and was the top breach in 2008. 

BNY Mellon Shareowner Services

Hannaford Bros. Supermarkets had a computer system breach that exposed 4.2
million records in 2008, the second-highest tally of the year. 

Stephan Savoia, AP

The data breach at Countrywide in 2008 was only the fifth largest of the
year, with 2 million records exposed, but the company has had such bad
headlines in recent times that the bad news only hit harder. 

Richard A. Brooks, AFP / Getty Images









Albert Gonzalez, 28, broke his own record for identity theft by hacking into
retail networks, according to prosecutors, though they say his illicit
computer exploits ended when he went to jail on charges stemming from an
earlier case.

Gonzalez is a former informant for the U.S. Secret Service who helped the
agency hunt hackers, authorities say. The agency later found out that he had
also been working with criminals and feeding them information on ongoing
investigations, even warning off at least one individual, according to
authorities.

Gonzalez, who is already in jail awaiting trial in a hacking case, was
indicted Monday in New Jersey and charged with conspiring with two other
unnamed suspects to steal the private information. Prosecutors say the goal
was to sell the stolen data to others.

How much of the data was sold and then used to make fraudulent charges is
unclear. Investigators in such cases say it is usually impossible to
quantify the impact of such thefts on account holders.

Prosecutors say Gonzalez, who is known online as "soupnazi," targeted
customers of convenience store giant 7-Eleven Inc. and supermarket chain
Hannaford Brothers, Co. Inc. He also targeted Heartland Payment Systems, a
New Jersey-based card payment processor.

According to the indictment, Gonazalez and his two Russian coconspirators
would hack into corporate computer networks and secretly place "malware," or
malicious software, that would allow them backdoor access to the networks
later to steal data.

Gonzalez faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of the new charges. His
lawyer did not immediately return a call for comment.

Gonzalez is awaiting trial next month in New York for allegedly helping hack
the computer network of the national restaurant chain Dave and Buster's.

The Justice Department said the new case represents the largest alleged
credit and debit card data breach ever charged in the United States, based
on a scheme that began in October 2006.

Gonzalez allegedly devised a sophisticated attack to penetrate the computer
networks, steal the card data, and send that data to computer servers in
California, Illinois, Latvia, the Netherlands and Ukraine.

Also last year, the Justice Department announced additional charges against
Gonzalez and others for hacking retail companies' computers for the theft of
approximately 40 million credit cards. At the time, that was believed to be
the biggest single case of hacking private computer networks to steal credit
card data, puncturing the electronic defenses of retailers including T.J.
Maxx, Barnes & Noble, Sports Authority and OfficeMax.

Prosecutors charge Gonzalez was the ringleader of the hackers in that case.

At the time of those charges, officials said the alleged thieves weren't
computer geniuses, just opportunists who used a technique called
"wardriving," which involved cruising through different areas with a laptop
computer and looking for accessible wireless Internet signals. Once they
located a vulnerable network, they installed so-called "sniffer programs"
that captured credit and debit card numbers as they moved through a
retailer's processing networks.

Gonzalez faces a possible life sentence if convicted in that case.

Restaurants are among the most common targets for hackers, experts said,
because they often fail to update their antivirus software and other
computer security systems.

Scott Christie, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice in New
Jersey, said the case shows that despite the best efforts by companies to
protect data privacy, there are still individuals capable of sneaking in.

"Cases like this do cause companies to sit up and take notice that this is a
problem and more needs to be done," said Christie.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP
news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise
distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

2009-08-17 16:08:16

 




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  • » -=PCTechTalk=- IMPORTANT NOTE IF YOU HAVE/USE CREDIT CARD(S)!!!!!!! - Larry Southerland