Seattle Police Say 'wardrivers' Are Hitting Small Businesses
Robert McMillan writes on PC World:
Seattle police are investigating a group of criminals who they say have been cruising around town in a black Mercedes stealing credit card data by tapping into wireless networks belonging to area businesses.
The group has been at it for about five years, according to an affidavit signed by Detective Chris Hansen, a fraud investigator with the Seattle Police Department.
"A number of area small and medium-sized businesses have been targeted in these network intrusions, which have also involved a pattern of financial and personal identifying information (such as credit card information)," Hansen wrote in his affidavit, dated April 13. He declined to comment for this story.
Hansen believes the group has been "wardriving" the Seattle area in a customized 1988 Mercedes Benz, looking for companies using an unsecure Wi-Fi standard called Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP). WEP has well-documented security flaws and has been considered for years to be unsecure, but was widely used in routers built between about 2000 and 2005. Many consumers and small businesses still use it.
More
here.
Love Your Mother: Earth Day 2011
Love your Mother Earth.
She's the only one we have.
- ferg
Carder Pleads Guilty to Fraud Involving $36 Million in Losses
Kim Zetter writes on Threat Level:
A hacker and carder has pleaded guilty to trafficking in more than half a million stolen card numbers that resulted in $36 million in fraud losses.
Rogelio Hackett, Jr., 26, pleaded guilty Thursday in Virginia to one count of access device fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.
The hacker was arrested in 2009 for selling stolen bank card numbers in online criminal forums and IRC chatrooms. When authorities searched his home at the time, they found more than 675,000 stolen credit card numbers on his computers and in e-mail accounts. According to court records [.pdf], more than $36 million in fraudulent transactions have been attributed to the stolen numbers found in Hackett’s possession. Authorities don’t say how many of these transactions were committed by him or by others.
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Mark Fiore: Dumber Than Rocks
More Mark Fiore brilliance.
Via The San Francisco Chronicle.
- ferg
In Passing: Chris Hondros
March 14, 1970 - April 20, 2011
In Passing: Tim Hetherington
1970 – April 20, 2011
Oak Ridge National Lab Shuts Down Internet After Cyberattack
Jaikumar Vijayan writes on ComputerWorld:
The Oak Ridge National Laboratory, home to one of the world's most powerful supercomputers , has been forced to shut down its email systems and all Internet access for employees since late last Friday, following a sophisticated cyberattack.
The restrictions on Internet access will remain in place until those investigating the attack know that for sure that it has been completely contained, said Barbara Penland, ORNL's director of communications.
The lab is expected to restore external email service sometime on Wednesday, however no attachments will be allowed for the time being.
Penland said several other national laboratories and government organizations were targeted in the same attacks, which appear to have been launched earlier this month.
The measures at Oak Ridge were implemented late on Friday night after initial investigations showed that those behind the attacks were attempting to steal technical data from lab's systems and send it to an external system, Penland said.
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