http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/metropolitan/929311 June 3, 2001 Associated Press WACO -- A Central Texas bank is one of two banks nationwide whose computer systems were penetrated by two Russian hackers, according to court papers filed in Seattle. Although no customer account information was stolen, officials of Central National Bank, which operates branches in Waco and Temple, said the break-in caught them by surprise. Michelle Dietrich, technical manager for the bank, said bank executives first learned that their system had been targeted when FBI officials notified them in August of the break-in, the Waco Tribune-Herald reported in today's editions. The case is being watched worldwide because of its implications for international computer crime law, officials said. Russian citizens Vasiliy Gorshkov, 25, and Alexey Ivanov, 21, probably had access to the bank's system for about six months before it was detected, Dietrich said. Fortunately, the bank's firewall, a computer security mechanism, performed well and the hackers were only able to access random data that was not usable, she said. "They didn't commit fraud (with the bank's information)," Dietrich said. "No customers were harmed in any way." Gorshkov and Ivanov also hacked into the computer systems of at least 38 other companies, often following the break-in with an extortion demand, the court papers indicate. Although Gorshkov and Ivanov were arrested Nov. 10 in Seattle, the case was not made public until a Seattle grand jury indicted them in April on charges of conspiracy and computer fraud. FBI investigators have said the hackers scanned the Internet for businesses still using Microsoft programs with a known security vulnerability. Central National Bank uses the program, but Dietrich said she is not sure if that is why the Waco bank was targeted, especially since the bank uses a different type of program for security purposes. She said it might have just been a random attack. Dietrich said the only change to Central National's security system will be more extensive monitoring of the bank's network, she said. "(The attack) was kind of an eye-opener to be more cautious, but the (firewall) did its job," Dietrich said. The other bank that was hacked by the men is the Nara Bank of Los Angeles, according to court documents. Officials believe Gorshkov and Ivanov may have been responsible for the highly publicized theft of 15,700 credit card numbers from Western Union in Denver in September and a computer break-in at the e-finance company PayPal of Palo Alto, Calif., the country's largest Internet-based payment company. ISN is hosted by SecurityFocus.com --- To unsubscribe email isn-unsubscribeat_private
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Jun 05 2001 - 06:58:43 PDT