The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #16982   Message #161641
Posted By: Roger the skiffler
12-Jan-00 - 10:10 AM
Thread Name: Credit card warning
Subject: Credit card warning
If this report cut 'n' pasted from today's London Telegraph Online is accurate, and you have used CDUniverse recently you may need to watch your credit card statements.
Internet hacker in credit card plot By Mark Ward

Security - cdUniverse cdUniverse AntiOnline [Computer security web site] The Hackers Home Page Hacker Community - About.com

A HACKER has published the numbers of more than 300,000 credit cards on the internet after a failed attempt to blackmail the company he stole them from.

The 18-year-old, using the alias Maxus, set up a web site last week that listed the 300,000 credit card numbers he stole from the American online music shop cdUniverse after the store refused to pay him $100,000 (£62,000). As news of the hack spread across the internet, messages were circulating in chat rooms from people saying that they were cancelling credit cards or advising anyone who had shopped at cdUniverse to check their statements.

It is thought that some of the stolen numbers have already been used to pay for goods illegally on the internet. The anonymous hacker says he got hold of the credit card numbers from the cdUniverse website because it had not plugged a loophole in a program, called ICVerify, that it was using.

The company confirmed that it had been targeted by a hacker and customer information it had seen was genuine. It said it was working with the FBI, credit card companies and private investigators to work out how the theft occurred and how big it was.

Alex van Someren, of the Cambridge-based security company nCipher, said that e-commerce companies must be constantly aware that people were trying to find ways to break into their computers and web sites. He said: "Every day we deal with someone who has a new idea about how to do it."

RtS