UAE network intrusions in Feb and Aug yield credit card fraud - victims include US embassy employees

["Chris Walsh" <chris () cwalsh org>]

Hackers break into UAE credit network to fund US purchases

Hugh Naylor

Last Updated: September 04. 2008 11:34PM UAE / September 4. 2008 7:34PM GMT

Abu Dhabi // An international investigation is under way to find
hackers believed to have stolen information from financial servers in
the UAE to make fraudulent credit and debit card purchases in the US.

The scheme came to light after a number of employees at the US Embassy
– and a handful of other US citizens – had unauthorised purchases show
up on their credit and debit cards in recent months, prompting the
embassy to issue a warning on its website.

"To date, all of the reported fraudulent charges have been made from
the United States," the message said. "We are aware of no fraudulent
transactions originating in the UAE."

MasterCard is co-operating with law enforcement officials and banks to
investigate the issue, Chris Monteiro, the head of the company's
worldwide communications, wrote in an e-mail.

Visa, when contacted, did not respond to questions or comment on the case.

However the manager of an anti-fraud division at a credit union in
North Carolina, in the US, speaking on the condition of anonymity,
said Visa had warned that there had been "a network intrusion" in the
UAE between February and August.

Visa told her that the intrusion had happened "at the processor
level", which she said suggested that computer hackers had penetrated
the electronic records of organisations that acted as middlemen
between merchants and credit card companies such as Visa and
MasterCard.
[...]

Full article is at
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20080904/NATIONAL/726459427/1010&profile=1010

The embassy website message appears to be
https://www.osac.gov/Reports/report.cfm?contentID=89435
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