NEWS: 40 Million Credit Cards "Hacked"

Internet Security has taken a giant step back as a computer hacker has stolen upwards of 40 million credit card accounts.
The Hacker was traced to a company in Atlanta which processes transactions for banks and merchants. They say that Security "vulnerabilities" in their computer software allowed an unauthorized individual access to the card holder data. This just proves how unsafe online credit card databases can be. And one wonders what the "vulnerabilities" really are.



I wonder why the vulnerabilities that allowed the user to steal almost 40 million credit card names, bank information and account numbers weren't found and taken care of sooner. Maybe they were unknown or the Credit Card companies didn't think they would pose a threat.

Anyways seeing as the individual worked for the company which proccessed transactions for the credit cards stated I would therefore assume that he/she would have had access to the accounts anyways.

I don't know what to make of this, but all of us would agree that someone should be held accountable and that internet security regarding credit cards should increase tremendously. Everyone here should think twice before giving out your credit card online.

Related News Links:
news.yahoo.com
msnbc.msn.com
money.cnn.com

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:

Government Sponsored ID theft to bring in "the chip"?


[edit on 6-19-2005 by CPYKOmega]

I heard about this on the news the other night. I couldnt believe it. What is this....the 3rd or 4th time now? The banks, citifinancial, now credit cards! It sounds like someone has a plan, but what on earth is this person or group of people planning to do with all this info. What could they do? Does anyone have any ideas?

I think that the people who are doing this... IE stealing millions of credit card numbers and bank information are the ones who issue the credit cards in the first place. My theory is that they need more online security and more money to help themselves further advance their agendas.

For example, the rash of viruses that come out each day. The numbers keep getting greater and greater. Norton Antivirus updated their virus defs almost once every 2-3 days, thus making more money as you need to renew your subscription to norton every 6-12 months on average. ($25.00 every year for virus defs??? ) Could Norton, Mcafee, Microsoft be the ones hiring the hackers to create these different breeds of viruses?? Who Knows??

Back to the topic... If you read the stories above they clearly indicate that the person responsible for the 40 million credit card info stolen works for a company in Atlanta which processes transactions for banks and merchants. So basically he works for the credit card company itself!!!

Maybe its a long shot, but what would the implications be if the credit card companies themselfs created all this. It could happen.

Lenders commonly use sub contractors to process their payments and information. It is actually done more than you are made aware of. If this is about idenitity theft than it is normal for it to come from an employee as is most white collar crimes.

Question is, does all this financial information hacking fit the pattern of identity theft? I do believe there is more to this then meets the eyes but I seriously doubt it has anything to do with identity theft.

One seems to wonder with the 40+ million credit cards stolen and Identity Theft rising dramatically... there has to be more then meets the eye happening. For example... why would 1 person and 1 person alone steal 40 million credit cards. He/She would have 20 BILLION dollars (if not found out right away) to use for whatever he/she sees fit. (This is if each card only had a $500 limit) Now what would a single person do with 20 billion dollars? It would not be able to be spent within the time alloted before the authorities know you have stolen it. Thus we have to come to the conclusion that he was either hired by someone to steal the cards, a certain organization needed him to steal the cards for them, or the person who stole the cards was just plain stupid.

Any thoughts??

I responded in a similar thread on PTS but will just briefly repeat myself on one idea. A few years back the Privacy Act was passed which prevented/restricted finanical institutions from just handing out your info and selling it. One theory could be that to circumvent the law the info is "accidently" lost/stolen only to wind up back in the hands the law was designed to prevent.

Another theory that would be more along a conspiracy one (which I tend not to lean toward that often) is gov't access without looking guilty. The "theives" could just be stealing it for the gov't but I would have thought the gov't could just access it anyways so not so sure of that theory.

I do strongly believe there is a bigger picture and the pattern is not that of identity theft.