Malaysian Indicted After Hacking Federal Reserve 132
wiredmikey sends along a security story that looks like it could be one to watch. Lin Mun Poo was arrested shortly after arriving at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport in late October, traveling to the US on business. The 32-year-old resident of Malaysia was observed by an undercover Secret Service agent selling stolen credit card data in a diner. After arresting him and seizing his laptop (which was "heavily encrypted"), authorities discovered evidence of far more serious security breaches. According to documents from the Department of Justice, Lin Mun Poo had hacked into the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and stolen over 400,000 credit and debit card numbers. Also, according to authorities, Mr. Poo managed to hack into FedComp, a data processor for federal credit unions, enabling him to access the data of various federal credit unions. He also hacked into the computer system of a Department of Defense contractor that provides systems management for military transport and other military operations, potentially compromising highly sensitive military logistics information.
Stolen squared (Score:5, Interesting)
He stole stolen credit card numbers? They ended up being twice stolen? And why was the Federal Reserve Bank harboring stolen numbers anyway?
So much for security through obscurity... (Score:2, Interesting)
Why are these things even connected to the internet if there is the danger of cracking them?
Re:So much for security through obscurity... (Score:3, Interesting)
Why are these things even connected to the internet if there is the danger of cracking them?
For the same reason commercial power plants, including nuclear plants, are on the internet and running on stock Windows.
Because many of the people in charge of making these decisions are imbeciles.