Posted on 11/01/2008 12:25:56 PM PDT by yorkie
Trying to get a handle on computer crime is always hard, made more difficult by the Alice-in-Wonderland nature of the Internet (On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog, etc.).
However, each new data point on computer crime and the risks of identity theft appears more frightening.
On Friday morning, the RSA FraudAction Research Lab reported it had uncovered a digital cache of more than a half million credit card numbers and online bank account logins and passwords that have been acquired during the past two-and-a-half years by what the researchers believe is a Russian online gang.
These caches of stolen identity information are created automatically by digital Trojan horse programs that steal the information from computer users after they have taken over their systems. The Trojans are usually distributed by networks of zombie computers known as botnets.
(Excerpt) Read more at bits.blogs.nytimes.com ...
A rich source of below $200 dollar ‘donors’ for Obama’s campaign fundraising ... names and such to place fraudulent $200 donations from Saudi/Dubai coffers don’tchaknow!
"WASHINGTON (AP) - The State Department is warning nearly 400 passport applicants of a security breach in its records system that may have left them open to identity theft.
Most of those applicants live in the Washington, D.C. area. A spokesman says their passport applications containing personal information, including Social Security numbers, may have been illegally accessed back in March and used to open fraudulent credit card accounts."
Useful data for bundling campaign donations.
Useful data for bundling campaign donations.
But, filling out an application for my new passport? How can that information be guaranteed to be secure?
I don’t know. I don’t have a passport. Sorry.
Nothing can be guaranteed. I’ll stay put and monitor my accounts online.
I'll do the same.
I lost my iPhone a couple of weeks ago and thought I would try T-Mobile and the Android for giggles.
The youngster at the store, an urban setting with a lot of people, asked for my "sosh" (social security number). When I balked, he told me to get out of the store that he couldn't help me. I called T-Mobile to complain, but they weren't interested.
I blame the government for allowing it to get out of hand.
Yes, the SSN requirement for phones bugged me too, particularly with the level of employee at these places.
I think the major weakness is the vast number of vulnerable Windows PCs taken over for bots.
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