FYI: Revealed: 8 million victims in the world's biggest cyberheist [Best Western Hotel group]

[Chris Salter]

Hello Ukcrypto,

FYI

sundayhearald | Revealed: 8 million victims in the world's biggest
cyber heist.
August 24, 2008.

EXCLUSIVE: Sunday Herald uncovers theft of data from every guest in
1300 Best Western Hotels in past 12 months

By Iain S Bruce.

Opening Paragraphs.

AN INTERNATIONAL criminal gang has pulled off one of the most
audacious cyber-crimes ever and stolen the identities of an estimated
eight million people in a hacking raid that could ultimately net more
than £2.8billion in illegal funds.

A Sunday Herald investigation has discovered that late on Thursday
night, a previously unknown Indian hacker successfully breached the IT
defences of the Best Western Hotel group's online booking system and
sold details of how to access it through an underground network
operated by the Russian mafia.

It is a move that has been dubbed the greatest cyber-heist in world
history. The attack scooped up the personal details of every single
customer that has booked into one of Best Western's 1312 continental
hotels since 2007.

Amounting to a complete identity-theft kit, the stolen data includes a
range of private information including home addresses, telephone
numbers, credit card details and place of employment.

"They've pulled off a masterstroke here," said security expert Jacques
Erasmus, an ex-hacker who now works for the computer security firm
Prevx. "There are plenty of hacked company databases for sale online
but the sheer volume and quality of the information that's been stolen
in the Best Western raid makes this particularly rare. The Russian
gangs who specialise in this kind of work will have been exploiting
the information from the moment it became available late on Thursday
night. In the wrong hands, there's enough data there to spark a major
European crime wave."

Although the security breach was closed on Friday after Best Western
was alerted by the Sunday Herald, experts fear that information seized
in the raid is already being used to pursue a range of criminal
strategies.

End Quote

For Full Text see
http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2432225.0.0.php
or
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6b8lu2

Chris

-- 
 Chris Salter                      mailto:ukcrypto@originalthinktank.org.uk
 Cornwall United Kingdom        http://www.originalthinktank.org.uk/