Fergie's Tech Blog

Haxdoor: UK Police Count 8,500 Victims in Data Theft (So Far)

Jeremy Kirk writes on InfoWorld:

British electronic-crime detectives are investigating a massive data theft operation that stole sensitive information from 8,500 people in the U.K. and others in some 60 countries, officials said Tuesday.

In total, cybercriminals targeted 600 financial companies and banks, according to U.K. authorities, who have worked over the past week to identify and notify victims.

Through intelligence sources, U.K. police were given several gigabytes of data -- around 130,00 files -- that came from a server in the U.S., said Charlie McMurdie, detective chief inspector for the Specialist Crime Directorate e-Crime Unit of the London Metropolitan Police. Most of the data related to financial information, she said.

The data was collected by a malicious software program nicknamed Haxdoor that infected victims' computers. Some 2,300 machines were located in the U.K. McMurdie said.

posted by Fergie @ 10/24/2006 02:27:00 PM