Security breach could expose 40M to fraud (40 million credit cards captured by computer virus)

Associated Press | June 18, 2005 | JOE BEL BRUNO

[sweetliberty]

"Makes me want to turn into my grandfather and shove all my savings under a mattress, in cash"

I cut up the credit cards about 3 years ago. Didn't even deal with bank for a about the same time. I decided to open an account for convenience not too long ago, and I have to tell you, I worried far less about my money when I was keeping it all in cash. Now I'm nervous every time I go to check my account balance, fearing that someone will have hacked in and cleaned me out. Used to be I pretty much trusted that the money that was in the bank was secure. Now, I don't trust it at all.

[One Dight]

Yes, and once medical records are digitized, they will be stolen as well. I've been reading too often this 'oops we lost 40 million cardholders information' headline. It's time to head to the cabin in the woods to seperate ourselves from all this 'convenience'.

[familyop]

"If BSD became the OS standard nation and even world wide, hackers, phishers, phreaks, spammers etc would be ripping intoi it line by line and finding vulnerability after vulnerability as well."

UNIX systems are already the standard as Internet servers. MS code is downright sloppy and doesn't have nearly as many users and developers who can see the code for oversight. And BSD kernel code (especially NetBSD and OpenBSD) is much more cleanly written than that of Linux. I've not seen a NetBSD release operating system ever lock up without it being caused by failing hardware (something I did see in Debian Linux a few times and continue to see once in a while with some Linux software running with a BSD system here). BSD and Linux systems are also replacing MS servers for intranets in quite a few corporations, including MS itself (Red Hat systems in one instance that I know of).

Viruses are not often written to target Unix systems, because security holes are found too quickly for it to be worth their effort--usually before they can write viruses to exploit holes.

To be able to compare general levels of vulnerability between different kinds of systems, one must study different kinds of systems rather than relying on the garbage issued by market columnists.

All of that said, different kinds of systems are useful for different kinds of offices. Many business admin. office employees would really struggle to migrate from using Microsoft Office to something like Star Office (or to write a sentence in good English). Have a look at pages on security behind the following, if you like. Otherwise, proceed with the religion/advocacy of your choice.

http://www.openbsd.org/

http://www.netbsd.org/

[general_re]

Not necessarily, but I'm figuring that the security breach occurred on a Windows computer.

Bad bet, IMO - anyone with a lick of sense would air-gap that webserver from the critical systems, regardless of OS. That's how we did it when I was in banking, and we ran our webserver on Solaris, so it's not a Windows thing. Personally, I'd bet it's one of two things. One, an inside job, or two, they're not as careful with their security as they should be. All you need is one person leaving their password on a Post-It where the janitor can find it, and it really doesn't matter what your OS.

[Palladin]

I am becoming more and more convinced that Mastercard is owned and operated by the Mafia.

These "OOPS!" incidents are occurring with more frequency.

[HAL9000]

Personally, I'd bet it's one of two things. One, an inside job, or two, they're not as careful with their security as they should be.

Well, theory #2 is totally obvious, isn't it?

Let's suppose that the Wall Street Journal report is correct, and their network was penetrated by a virus that allowed an intruder to access their internal network and steal millions of credit card accounts. Which platform is most vulnerable to viruses?

[general_re]

Let's suppose that the Wall Street Journal report is correct...

Let's not, and wait for the facts to come out, is my thinking.

[IAMNO1]

"This was pre-9/11, and even then, a large amount of the fraudulent transactions were suspected to be tied to terrorist groups"

Can't really support my contention here, but I'm starting to believe that a portion of these security breaches may in fact be terrorists feeling out of our defenses, in their next big arena of attacks on our homeland security, cyberspace.

What does identity theft currently cost this nation per year? What if it suddenly jumped up 1,000 times, or a million times, what it is today? Could cause great chaos in our financial markets. Food for thought.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Nor did Bill Gates.

Not trying to start a whole ruckus here...I'm just curious...what specific information from this article did you see that indicates Microsoft is to blame for these security f***ups?

[HAL9000]

what specific information from this article did you see that indicates Microsoft is to blame for these security f***ups?

The word "virus".

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

The word "virus".

If, in fact, it was a virus....I'd be agreeing. But that seems to be a bit unclear as yet.

[null and void]

The rules!!!!

[null and void]

Nope. Congress' solution to any problem is always the least effective and most intrusive possible.

[goldstategop]

Reputable companies take care to safeguard credit card transactions with tamper-proof software and other security measures. I've never had a problem shopping online but you never know.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[sodpoodle]

You do know your tag line is misspelled?

Were you going for "very" "Barry" or "Bury"?

[liberty2004]

Oh, and they need to protect personal information. They sure don't cut their customers any slack. They shouldn't get any, either.

What many credit card companies charge is immoral. I agree they should get no slack. Dealing with fraud is a few legitimate functions of govt. These credit card companies need to be punished big time when they loose customer data.

[theDentist]

We should also mention that the company did not use encryption on their files to cut back on costs.

[snowsislander]

Currently, GLBA only applies to financial institutions providing services to consumers, including MasterCard.

MasterCard cannot just hold up their hands and point at their service provider -- third party service providers must be vetted also under GLBA, and if one has not been, then MasterCard is at fault.

[Labyrinthos]

Nor did Bill Gates.

What makes you think that a MS product was responsible for the security breach?

[snowsislander]

The thief deserves most of the blame, but the idiot who left the door open deserves some too. Bill Gates should be keelhauled for his lousy OS designs.

Our financial systems are also poorly designed, especially the one for checking.