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Attacks Continue on Retail Stores, Restaurants |
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Written by Daniel
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Tuesday, 19 August 2008 |
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Criminals exploit wireless vulnerabilities, social engineering to collect large volumes of customer data
By Tim Wilson
Site Editor, Dark Reading
AUGUST 18, 2008 | 5:55 PM Attacks on local retail establishments continue to net criminals large volumes of personal data, despite the recent arrest and indictment of a large group of criminals using the same attack vector.
Authorities late last week acknowledged that a ring of cyber-thieves has stolen tens of thousands of credit card numbers from Louisiana and Mississippi restaurants this year. One bank alone says it has lost more than $1 million as a result of the attacks, according to news reports about the identity thefts.
And across the pond in Ireland, data thieves masquerading as bank technicians have fooled store owners into giving them access to credit card terminals and managed to download the details of over 20,000 credit and debit cards, according to an Irish news outlet.
The attacks come on the heels of a huge arrest and indictment made two weeks ago, when 11 perpetrators allegedly involved in the hacking of nine major U.S. retailers, and the theft and sale of more than 40 million credit and debit card numbers were charged with engineering the largest hacking and identity theft conspiracy ever prosecuted in the U.S. (See Feds Arrest Hackers of TJX, Other Retailers in Huge Conspiracy Bust.) [Comments...] |
