From the thank-goodness-for-dumb-criminals dept. Amber Lee of KOAT in Albuquerque reports: Three men and two women are in custody on suspicion of running what police say was a identity theft ring. Investigators say what started as a purse snatching turned into something much bigger, when one of the suspects left behind an obvious clue. “In…
Author: Dissent
Heartland Breach: Inside Look at the Plaintiffs’ Case
Two stories today take a look at the the master complaint (pdf) filed last month in U.S. Southern District Court in Houston. Linda McClasson of BankInfoSecurity.com provides a timeline and re-hash of the breach that incorporates allegations from the lawsuit, including statements made by Heartland before and after the breach and the statement made by…
Web mail scam propagates itself
The BBC reports: The industry-wide phishing scam that has affected popular web mail services such as Hotmail and GMail, is spreading, according to experts. Security firm Websense says it has noticed a sharp rise in spam emails from Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail accounts. This is because infected accounts are sending personalised e-mails to contacts suggesting…
Personal documents found in Palm Springs dumpster
WPBF reports that personnel files containing “Social Security cards, tax papers, driver’s licenses, copies, peoples’ information, home IDs, everything” were found in a dumpster. Some of the documents had the CLP Skilled Trade Solutions logo on it — a company located right next to the dumpster. Many of the personnel files appeared to be from…
Operation Phish Phry reels in 100 in U.S. and Egypt
The largest number of defendants ever charged in a cyber crime case have been indicted in a multinational investigation conducted in the United States and Egypt that uncovered a sophisticated “phishing” operation that fraudulently collected personal information from thousands of victims that was used to defraud American banks. This morning, authorities in several United States…
Researcher refutes phishing account of hijacked Hotmail passwords
Gregg Keizer reports: One researcher isn’t buying Microsoft’s and Google’s explanation that hijacked Hotmail and Gmail passwords were obtained in a massive phishing attack. Mary Landesman, a senior security researcher at San Francisco-based ScanSafe, said it’s more likely that the massive lists — which include approximately 30,000 credentials from Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail and other…