Chatrooms used for sharing hints and tips in growing business of ID theft
Published:
26 July 2003 y., Saturday
Thieves are using chat rooms to sell stolen credit card details and advise others how to hack websites containing credit information, security experts have warned.
Groups using internet relay chat (IRC) are playing a growing role in online credit card fraud.
A report by the Honeynet Project, which monitors criminal activity on the internet, shows that online thieves are becoming increasingly sophisticated. The credit card details are not only used to purchase products but to clone the card owner's identity.
In order to monitor and record this activity, the Honeynet researchers set up computer systems, called 'honeynets' or 'honeypots', intended to be easy targets for hackers. The researchers then tracked the hackers to the IRC channels.
Dr Bill McCarty and his students at Azusa Pacific University monitored activities on more than a dozen IRC channels relating to credit card fraud after a hacker infiltrated one of their traps.
He warned that such criminal activity is not confined to the US. "We saw people from the UK in these rooms trading information," he told vnunet.com.
The software programs used in these rooms can systematically search out vulnerable websites containing credit information, determine which bank issued a card, harvest the three-digit card verification number and even let thieves determine the available credit card limit.
They can check a card number's validity and personal information about its owner.
In one IRC chat group a user was selling credit card numbers for 50 cents to $1 each, while another wanted lessons on cracking online sites containing credit card information.
But this is only the tip of the iceberg of the growing problem of identity theft, the cost of which runs into millions every year.
Over the past year in the US at least seven million people have fallen victim to identity theft of some sort, according to a survey by analyst Gartner.
A report from the UK Fraud Advisory Panel said that the number of identity thefts in the UK has grown from 27,270 in 2001 to 42,029 last year, costing victims an estimated £62.5m annually and the UK economy £1.3bn a year.
Šaltinis:
vnunet.com
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
Software company announced new structure_ of it_s business.
more »
Microsoft's Bing search engine will be the sole provider of search and paid search technology for all of Yahoo's websites. Yahoo will sell premium search ads for both companies.
more »
Thales UK today announces that its Cat III Instrument Landing System (ILS)1 has received UK approval for installation at Bournemouth Airport.
more »
Postbank customers can now pay their fuel bills at Shell service stations and withdraw cash as stations in Hamburg, Germany, have been converted to the new technology from Wincor Nixdorf International.
more »
Japanese company Crescent has simulated a series of emergency situations that people may have to deal with in the workplace. By practicing with these simulations they can learn how to cope with a real-life crisis.
more »
The touchscreen device built on Google's Android platform equates to a bold attempt by HTC to take on Apple's popular iPhone - not by creating a copycat - but by building an attractive alternative.
more »
A devious piece of criminal coding that has been quietly at work in a clutch of ATMs at banks in Russia and Ukraine has recently been discovered.
more »
In the person-to-person transfer business, text messaging is so 2008.
more »
Bank Central Asia, one of Indonesia's largest banks, has partnered with Wincor Nixdorf International to rejuvenate its branch network.
more »
What's cooking at Tokyo's International Food Machinery and Technology Expo? For this robo-chef, it's okonomiaki, Japanese pancakes.
more »
Taking attendance at Aoyama University used to be a chore, but no longer as the Japanese school is giving over 500 iPhones to students and faculty in an effort to enhance the classroom experience.
more »