Fergie's Tech Blog

Hacker Gets Indiana State Credit Card Info

Niki Kelly writes in The (Ft. Wayne) Journal Gazette:

State technology officials sent letters Friday to 5,600 people and businesses informing them that a hacker obtained thousands of credit card numbers from the state Web site.

Although numbers are usually encrypted or shortened to the last four digits, the Office of Technology conceded a technical error allowed the full credit card numbers to remain on the system and be viewed by the intruder.

“Like thousands of web sites, the state’s web site is constantly under attack from hackers,” the letter said. “To repel these attacks, the state has implemented the highest levels of security and submitted itself to regular independent audits to ensure that data is safeguarded.

“Despite these efforts, the state’s web site recently experienced a security breach.”

Chris Cotterill, director of the site, www.IN.gov, said the hacking occurred in early January but wasn’t discovered until Jan. 25.

posted by Fergie @ 2/10/2007 08:37:00 AM