Feds Indict 55 For Cyber Crime Fraud

[security curmudgeon <jericho () attrition org>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>

http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/attacks/232300772

By Mathew J. Schwartz
InformationWeek
December 19, 2011

Federal authorities Friday announced the indictment of 55 people for 
participating in a cyber crime fraud ring that relied on insiders to steal 
hundreds of people's personal details from a bank and a car dealer, among 
other organizations. The stolen information was then used to defraud both 
the victims, as well as the organizations at which the insiders worked.

"These insiders used their positions to gain access to client data, and 
then sold that data to make money for themselves and their accomplices," 
said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., in a statement.

All told, the various defendants--charged in five separate 
indictments--stole information relating to 200 people or organizations, 
and in many cases used the stolen information more than once. Authorities 
have accused the defendants of stealing more than $2 million just from 
financial institutions, including American Express, Chase Bank, Citibank, 
Discover, and TD Bank. The charges relates to crimes allegedly committed 
between May 2010 and September 2011.

Authorities said the arrests were part of an 18-month investigation, which 
remains ongoing. During the course of that investigation, the New York 
Police Department's Financial Crimes Task Force, the Manhattan District 
Attorney's Office, as well as investigators from other agencies, including 
the U.S. Postal Service, employed "court-ordered eavesdropping, physical 
surveillance, computer forensics, and extensive analysis of credit card, 
banking, and phone records" to trace the crimes back to the accused.

[...]
_______________________________________________
Dataloss Mailing List (dataloss () datalossdb org)
Archived at http://seclists.org/dataloss/
Unsubscribe at http://datalossdb.org/mailing_list

Small, inexpensive USB drives pose huge threats to organizations left unprotected. 
Download Chapter 1 of CREDANT Technologies eBook
Data Protection to the Rescue
http://www.credant.com/campaigns/external_media_ebook/chapter1/lp/