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A Treasure Trove For Hackers

Posted on July 2, 2009 by Dissent

Forensics experts at the Dublin office of consultancy Ernst & Young have found evidence that prominent companies in Ireland are allowing home-based employees to download sensitive company and client data to their personal computers.

Second-hand computer hard drives containing sensitive information – including hundreds of customer bank, Laser and credit-card account details, car registration information, staff PPS numbers, internal corporate information and e-mail details – were purchased on Irish auction website eBay.ie from owners who, in most cases, had not even bothered to erase the drives.

[..]

Of eight disks purchased on eBay, only three had been erased by the owner. Typical of what was found on the disks:

A brand-name online payments company (disk purchased for €5.79 including P&P). Information recovered:

  • Technical files relating to a popular bill payment solution which included technical specification documents and consultancy firm reports in relation to the bill payment solution;
  • PPS numbers of staff and customers;
  • Hundreds of customer bank account numbers and sort codes;
  • Hundreds of Laser card numbers and expiry dates;
  • Hundreds of credit card numbers and names;
  • Significant amount of e-mails detailing customer data;
  • Internal corporate information, staff details etc.

A well-known Irish car dealership (disk purchased for €10.79 including P&P). Hard disk for sale on ebay.ie with comment in ad: “Used to be in a Dell computer but I removed it. I didn’t bother deleting the files off it but this can be easily done.” Information recovered:

  • Bank account numbers;
  • Customer names and addresses;
  • Customer invoices and bank details;
  • Customer car registration information.

Read more in The Irish Times.

Related posts:

  • eBay hit with massive security breach, asks all users to change passwords (updated)
  • eBay Privacy Breach Exposes Customer Names on Google (Updated)
  • Commentary: Repeated insider breaches at TD Bank should trigger federal regulator investigation (update 1)
Category: Breach IncidentsBusiness SectorCommentaries and AnalysesExposureFinancial SectorNon-U.S.

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