A new report from the U.S. Treasury Department found that a majority of bank account takeovers by cyberthieves over the past decade might have been thwarted had affected institutions known to look for and block transactions coming through Tor , a global communications network that helps users maintain anonymity by obfuscating their true location online. The findings come in a non-public report obtained by KrebsOnSecurity that was produced by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a Treasury Department bureau responsible for collecting and analyzing data about financial transactions to combat domestic and international money laundering, terrorist financing and other financial crimes.
Bebe Stores Confirms Credit Card Breach
In a statement released this morning, women’s clothier chain bebe stores inc.
Banks: Credit Card Breach at Bebe Stores
Data gathered from several financial institutions and at least one underground cybercrime shop suggest that thieves have stolen credit and debit card data from Bebe Stores Inc. , a nationwide chain of some 200 women’s clothing stores
Be Wary of ‘Order Confirmation’ Emails
If you receive an email this holiday season asking you to “confirm” an online e-commerce order or package shipment, please resist the urge to click the included link or attachment: Malware purveyors and spammers are blasting these missives by the millions each day in a bid to trick people into giving up control over their computers and identities.
Sony Breach May Have Exposed Employee Healthcare, Salary Data
The recent hacker break-in at Sony Pictures Entertainment appears to have involved the theft of far more than unreleased motion pictures: According to multiple sources, the intruders also stole more than 25 gigabytes of sensitive data on tens of thousands of Sony employees, including Social Security numbers, medical and salary information. Screen shot from an internal audit report allegedly stolen from Sony and circulating on file-trading networks. Several files being traded on torrent networks seen by this author include an global Sony employee list, a Microsoft Excel file that includes the name, location, employee ID, network username, base salary and date of birth for more than 6,800 individuals
KrebsOnSecurity on CBS’s ’60 Minutes’
In case any of you loyal readers missed it, KrebsOnSecurity.com and its author were featured in a 60 Minutes interview last night on the credit and debit card breaches that have hit countless retailers and consumers over the past year. I spent more than a dozen hours with 60 Minutes producers, film crews and the host of this segment — CBS’s Bill Whitaker , so I’m glad they were able to use as much footage as they did. Leading up to the filming, the producer of the show asked some very incisive questions — some of which I didn’t know the answers to myself — and I was hoping the segment would address some of the less discussed issues that contribute to this epidemic of card breaches.
Black Friday, Cyber Monday for Crooks, Too!
Underground cybercrime shops that sell credit and debit card accounts stolen from retailers are slashing prices and promoting their own Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales as fraudsters gear up for the busy holiday shopping season. Card data stolen from main street retailers, a.k.a.
Skimmer Innovation: ‘Wiretapping’ ATMs
Banks in Europe are warning about the emergence of a rare, virtually invisible form of ATM skimmer involving a so-called “wiretapping” device that is inserted through a tiny hole cut in the cash machine’s front. The hole is covered up by a fake decal, and the thieves then use custom-made equipment to attach the device to ATM’s internal card reader
Adobe Pushes Critical Flash Patch
For the second time this month, Adobe has issued a security update for its Flash Player software. New versions are available for Windows , Mac and Linux versions of Flash. The patch provides additional protection on a vulnerability that Adobe fixed earlier this year for which attackers appear to have devised unique and active exploits
Spam Nation Book Tour Highlights
Greetings from sunny Austin, Texas, where I’m getting ready to wrap up a week-long book tour that began in New York City, then blazed through Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle. I’ve been trying to tweet links to various media interviews about Spam Nation over the past week, but wanted to offer a more comprehensive account and to share some highlights of the tour