Forwarded from: Joe Klein <jskleinat_private> As with many 'hacks', there are two parties involved. The first party left the 'door open and unlocked' and the second walked through the open door to steal the property. The first party in this case is the management of the company. This management has a fiduciary duty to protect the assets of the company, including its data. Lately, it appears that many companies have decided that it's easer to blame the hacker then perform their "Due Diligence". Until the management of companies "are held responsible", unfortunately, this trend in hacking will continue. -----Original Message----- From: owner-isnat_private [mailto:owner-isnat_private] On Behalf Of InfoSec News Sent: Monday, May 20, 2002 6:23 AM To: isnat_private Subject: [ISN] 13,000 Credit Reports Stolen by Hackers http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/17/technology/17IDEN.htm By JOHN SCHWARTZ May 17, 2002 Hackers posing as employees of the Ford Motor Credit Company have in recent months harvested a trove of 13,000 credit reports - a virtual one-stop shop for fraud and identity theft - with data on consumers in affluent neighborhoods across the country. The company said in a letter to the victims that computer intruders used an authorization code from Ford Credit to get the credit reports from Experian, one of three major reporting agencies. "I've never seen anything of this size," a spokesman for Experian, Donald Girard, said. "Privacy is the hallmark of our business. We're extraordinarily concerned about the privacy issue here, and the trust factor." The inquiries gave the intruders access to each victim's personal and financial information, including address, Social Security number, bank and credit card accounts and ratings of creditworthiness, which can be used to identify the best targets. "This is not just a credit card number; this is the whole kazoo," said Richard Power, the editorial director for the Computer Security Institute, an industry trade group. A criminal could use the data to make credit card charges or even open bank and credit card accounts in the victim's name. - ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org To unsubscribe email majordomoat_private with 'unsubscribe isn' in the BODY of the mail.
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