[ISN] US Embassy probes hacking of online visa appointment system

From: InfoSec News (alerts@private)
Date: Thu Jun 14 2007 - 23:24:31 PDT


http://www.rjr94fm.com/news/story.php?category=2&story=36819

June 13, 2007

RJR News has been informed that the United States Embassy has launched 
an intensive probe into what is reported to be the recent hacking of its 
online non-immigrant visa appointment system.

While the extent of the breach is unclear, it is understood that unknown 
persons managed to access the on-line immigrant visa appointment system 
and tampered with the names and appointment dates of visa applicants.

A small group of student athletes who were scheduled to attend the 
Reebok Classic earlier this month were unable to do so reportedly due to 
the problem.

Our source says track officials had applied for appointments ahead of 
schedule however they were unable to obtain dates, even up to the day of 
the track meet.

Some of the athletes never made the trip.

The US Embassy in a statement Wednesday afternoon confirmed that it had 
launched an investigation into the attempted manipulation of its online 
non-immigrant visa appointment system.

The Embassy warned members of the public to avoid dealing with persons 
offering to procure early visa appointments.

According to the Embassy a growing number of appointments made on the 
agency's online system contain fictitious information and have been made 
simply to hold a place in the interview schedule.

Embassy officials says fictitious appointments pose problems for 
everyone, and added to the waiting time for legitimate travelers from 
Jamaica to secure a timely appointment.

The Embassy says persons found to be tampering with the appointment data 
base and/or filing fraudulent appointments will be reported to the 
Jamaican authorities for possible criminal prosecution.


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