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Florida Struck With Three Cyber Attacks in One Week

by Terrence O'Brien on February 23, 2009 at 04:58 PM

Florida a Hotbed of Cyber-CrimeFlorida is turning into a hotbed of identity theft and credit card fraud. According to CNET, this week brought news of three major security breaches in Florida that have put the personal information of tens of thousands of regular citizens in danger.

First, Best Buy discovered that an employee at a West Palm Beach location may have been using a device to skim data off of credit cards as they were being swiped for purchases. The retail chain released an advisory saying that up to 4,000 customers' credit card numbers may have been compromised. Needless to say, customers who shopped at Best Buy in November and December should pay close attention to their credit card bills, just in case.

In an even larger breach, the credit card data of up to 21,000 customers at Wyndham Hotels in Florida was siphoned off the company's servers by hackers. The breach was discovered months after the fact, during a "routine administrative review" (though clearly the reviews aren't routine enough). This theft is serious enough that the state Attorney General Bill McCollum has stepped in to urge consumers to pay especially close attention to their credit card statements in the coming months.
Have you ever been the victim of ID theft?
Yes2146 (52.2%)
No1512 (36.8%)
I'm not sure.453 (11.0%)

But those breaches pale in comparison to the failure of security systems at the University of Florida, where the records of 97,000 students and employees were compromised. The university immediately took the systems offline upon learning of the break-in, but have yet to figure out what data -- if any -- was actually stolen, or how the hacker obtained access to the system.
But don't let your guard down just because you're not a Florida resident. The governmental expense and reimbursement site GovTrip.com was recently hacked. The hacked site began redirecting visitors to a site containing malicious code. Used by several government agencies to track expenses for employees, GovTrip is operated by military contractor Northrop Grumman, which also makes Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles.

Security breaches seem to be the flavor of the year, so far. Comforting, no? [From: CNET]

Seven Security Breaches

    45 Million Card Numbers Stolen from TJ Maxx and Marshall's
    TJX Companies Inc., the umbrella corporation of TJ Maxx and Marshall's, was taken for over 45 million card numbers between 2004 and 2007. So much for those alleged TJ Maxx bargains.

    Getty Images

    Thieves Snag 4.2 Million Credit Card Numbers from Supermarket Chain
    Sometime between December, 2007 and February, 2008, data thieves -- infiltrating the credit card authorization system of Hannaford Brothers and Sweetbay grocery stores -- managed to obtain the information of 4.2 million cards. Close to 2,000 cases of fraud were reported.

    17 New Yorkers Busted for ID Theft and Money Laundering
    Back in 2007, the New York-based company Western Express International was found to be a powerful credit-card harvesting operation, responsible for trafficking 95,000 stolen card numbers. Seventeen employees were indicted.

    More Than Four Million Health Records Breached in 2008
    According to research firm DataLoss DB, 4.07 million individuals had their healthcare records compromised last year. We know at least two of them belonged to Britney Spears and Farrah Fawcett, and were sold by a California hospital worker.

    Getty Images

    CardSystems Solutions Taken for 40 Million Accounts
    Having snuck past the security systems of CardSystems Solutions, data thieves compromised around 40 million card accounts in 2005. No word on whether or not the company has considered changing the name to CardSystems Problems.

    Hackers Who Stole Credit Card Numbers from Dave & Buster's Arrested
    Last year, the Justice Department busted an international ring of hackers who had stolen an untold number of credit card numbers from the Dave & Buster's restaurant chain by installing software on the company's national servers. Reported losses were well in excess of $600,000.

    11 Arrested in Theft of 41 Million Credit Card Numbers
    In August of last year, Federal prosecutors charged 11 thieves in the U.S.A., former Soviet states and China with stealing 41 million credit cards' information. A Miami man, Albert Gonzalez, was charged as the group's mastermind.


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Tags: bestbuy, credit card fraud, credit cards, CreditCardFraud, CreditCards, crime, florida, govtrip.com, identity theft, IdentityTheft, security, top, university of florida, UniversityOfFlorida, wyndham

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