Alarm over theft of credit cards
Friday, 8 August 2008
Fazle Rashid from New York
Beware computer users in Bangladesh. It could be a tool for stealing company money. Federal prosecutors here in the US, alarmed by the theft of credit cards, have acknowledged ' computer networks and the internet are an indispensible part of the world economy. But even as they provide extraordinary opportunities for legitimate commerce, they also provide extraordinary opportunities for criminals'.
Eleven persons have been indicted here for stealing more than 41 million credit and debit card numbers. The buglars focused on some reputed retail outlets. One of them brought this to the notice of the authorities becoming suspicious of some fishy transactions.
The prosecutors have identified Albert Gonzalez as the main culprit. He has been framed for computer fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, conspiracy and other charges. Gonzalez and his associates scanned the wireless networks of the retailers to find security holes. The officials said the thieves put on sale credit card numbers enabling withdrawal of thousands of dollars from ATMs.
The criminals 'compromised wireless access points of a retailer and used them to download payment information from the computers'. One retailer had incurred expenses running into $130 million on matters related to break-in. The Investigators do not have the tally of the amount stolen so far. It must have been a fabulous sum because Gonzalvez was forced to forfeit more than $1.6 million.
In another case, a criminal gang used software tools usually reserved for computer network administrators to infect thousands of PCs in corporate and government programmes that steal passwords and other information, New York Times quoted a security researcher as saying. The efforts to prevent criminals stealing passwords and do other damages have made very little progress.
This gang is said to be based in Moscow and it was controlling over 100,000 infected computers. The new attack is a byproduct of the way modern computer network are administered, where authority is centralised and software updates for thousands of machines are automated, an analyst said. The gang behind the system is said to have infected over 378,000 computers over the past several months. In each case, the infected computer would capture and transmit personal information to a centralised database that kept track of the spies in the network.
A fraud made an unauthorised wire transfer of $90,348 from one account with the Bank of America to Parex Bank in Latvia. The fraud was successful in withdrawing $20,000 from the transaction by employing false identity.
Beware computer users in Bangladesh. It could be a tool for stealing company money. Federal prosecutors here in the US, alarmed by the theft of credit cards, have acknowledged ' computer networks and the internet are an indispensible part of the world economy. But even as they provide extraordinary opportunities for legitimate commerce, they also provide extraordinary opportunities for criminals'.
Eleven persons have been indicted here for stealing more than 41 million credit and debit card numbers. The buglars focused on some reputed retail outlets. One of them brought this to the notice of the authorities becoming suspicious of some fishy transactions.
The prosecutors have identified Albert Gonzalez as the main culprit. He has been framed for computer fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, conspiracy and other charges. Gonzalez and his associates scanned the wireless networks of the retailers to find security holes. The officials said the thieves put on sale credit card numbers enabling withdrawal of thousands of dollars from ATMs.
The criminals 'compromised wireless access points of a retailer and used them to download payment information from the computers'. One retailer had incurred expenses running into $130 million on matters related to break-in. The Investigators do not have the tally of the amount stolen so far. It must have been a fabulous sum because Gonzalvez was forced to forfeit more than $1.6 million.
In another case, a criminal gang used software tools usually reserved for computer network administrators to infect thousands of PCs in corporate and government programmes that steal passwords and other information, New York Times quoted a security researcher as saying. The efforts to prevent criminals stealing passwords and do other damages have made very little progress.
This gang is said to be based in Moscow and it was controlling over 100,000 infected computers. The new attack is a byproduct of the way modern computer network are administered, where authority is centralised and software updates for thousands of machines are automated, an analyst said. The gang behind the system is said to have infected over 378,000 computers over the past several months. In each case, the infected computer would capture and transmit personal information to a centralised database that kept track of the spies in the network.
A fraud made an unauthorised wire transfer of $90,348 from one account with the Bank of America to Parex Bank in Latvia. The fraud was successful in withdrawing $20,000 from the transaction by employing false identity.