Personal data susceptible to hackers

Hackers are to blame for most thefts of credit card numbers, medical records and other information of a million Massachusetts residents, The Boston Globe said.

The newspaper, citing state documents, said all the breaches happened in the past two years.

"Many thousands" of them had been reported from June to November and included confidential information from major institutions such as Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and JPMorgan Chase Bank, the Globe said

Some of the information ended up in the wrong hands because of the theft of a laptop computer or loss of computer data tape. But most breaches can be traced to hacker breaking into computer networks, the Globe said.

Businesses and other institutions must develop a "culture of security" to protect the sensitive documents they control, said Barbara Anthony, undersecretary of consumer affairs and business regulation.

All such institutions are required to inform customers and state regulators about any breaches in security that might cause identity theft. Breaches include the leak of names, and numbers for Social Security, driver's license, bank account, and credit or debit cards, the newspaper reported.

"In 60 percent of the cases, the breaches were due to criminal acts. Forty percent were negligence," said Anthony of 807 breach notifications received by the state by November. US News

Estonians, Russian, Moldovan charged in credit card hack

WASHINGTON — Alleged computer hackers from Estonia, Russia and Moldova have been indicted in a scheme that netted nine million dollars from cash dispensers, the US Justice Department said on Tuesday.

"This investigation has broken the back of one of the most sophisticated computer hacking rings in the world," said acting US attorney Sally Quillian Yates of the Northern District of Georgia.

Sergei Tsurikov, 25, of Tallinn, Estonia, Viktor Pleshchuk, 28, of St. Petersburg, Russia, and Oleg Covelin, 28, of Chisinau, Moldova, have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Atlanta, Georgia, the department said.

It said a fourth person known only as "Hacker 3" was also indicted on charges of hacking into a computer network operated by Atlanta-based credit card processing company RBS WorldPay, part of the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Tsurikov, Pleshchuk, Covelin and "Hacker 3" were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit computer fraud, computer fraud, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft.

They were accused of compromising the data encryption on payroll debit cards, which are used by some companies to allow employees to withdraw their salaries directly from a cash dispenser, or ATM.  AFP

Accused credit card hacker lived large in Miami

MIAMI BEACH, Florida
Nestled near a row of sultry, silvery-green palm trees and an infinity pool, room 1508 at the National Hotel on South Beach is a portrait of Art Deco luxury. It is also where, on May 7, 2008, federal agents seized two computers, $22,000 in cash and a Glock 9 gun from a man known on the Internet as “soupnazi.”
His real name is Albert Gonzalez, and he was with his girlfriend when federal agents arrived. Just as the setting was not run-of-the-mill, neither was the arrest. Gonzalez was charged with hacking into business computer networks and stealing credit and debit card accounts — and in an embarrassing twist, he had once been an informant for the U.S. Secret Service.
This week, Gonzalez, 28, was indicted in New Jersey on more federal charges. Now the biggest credit card hacks of the decade — totaling 170 million accounts — have been pinned on Gonzalez.
Industry analysts marveled at the scope of the operation — which Gonzalez allegedly dubbed “Get Rich or Die Tryin’.” One compared it to a hackers’ version of the 1980s gangster movie “Scarface.”
“Albert Gonzalez is definitely the Tony Montana of credit card theft,” said Sean Arries, a computer security expert at the Miami-based Internet technology company Terremark.
Gonzalez has been in custody since his 2008 arrest in Miami Beach. He awaits federal trials in New York and Massachusetts, along with the New Jersey charges. If convicted he faces life in prison.
Gonzalez’s lawyer, Rene Palomino Jr., wouldn’t address the charges in detail, saying that the case is in a “very delicate stage” and that Gonzalez is trying to resolve it. The attorney said Gonzalez and federal prosecutors were close to reaching a plea deal in the New York and Massachusetts cases this week, before the New Jersey indictment was added.
People who know Gonzalez say he is a nerdy, shy man who got mixed up in a shadowy world.

Christian Science Monitor