Robert Listerman, CPA, CITRMS, is a member of FRAUD Facts, an association that specifically provides support to Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialists (CITRMS). Below is a recent alert received from the association. You do not need to be a CITRMS to be a member of FRAUD Facts. Click here to learn more.
For additional news please see the past 12 months of Google alerts under the Recent ID Theft News (Current Month followed by 11 months past) tab below.
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FRAUDFacts Alert Recent email received Aug 23, 2008:
Source: SundayHerald.com
EXCLUSIVE: Sunday Herald uncovers theft of data from every guest in 1300 Best Western Hotels in past 12 months
By Iain S Bruce
Excerpt:
AN INTERNATIONAL criminal gang has pulled off one of
the most audacious cyber-crimes ever and stolen the identities of an estimated
eight million people in a hacking raid that could ultimately net more than
£2.8billion in illegal funds.
A Sunday Herald investigation has discovered that late on
Thursday night, a previously unknown Indian hacker successfully breached the IT
defences of the Best Western Hotel group's online booking system and sold
details of how to access it through an underground network operated by the
Russian mafia.
It is a move that has been dubbed the greatest cyber-heist in world history. The attack scooped up the personal details of every single customer that has booked into one of Best Western's 1312 continental hotels since 2007.
Amounting to a complete identity-theft kit, the stolen data
includes a range of private information including home addresses, telephone
numbers, credit card details and place of employment.
"They've pulled off a masterstroke here," said security
expert Jacques Erasmus, an ex-hacker who now works for the computer security
firm Prevx. "There are plenty of hacked company databases for sale online but
the sheer volume and quality of the information that's been stolen in the Best
Western raid makes this particularly rare. The Russian gangs who specialise in
this kind of work will have been exploiting the information from the moment it
became available late on Thursday night. In the wrong hands, there's enough data
there to spark a major European crime wave."
Read the full article: http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2432225.0.0.php
FRAUDFacts http://www.fraudfacts.com/
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