Its been a GREAT week, if you're a criminal hacker!

What a week. I went on holiday in Saint Croix. Went snorkeling. On the shoreline, floating by me was a Blue Cross Blue Shield medical card with a Tennessee womans name and Social Security Number. These are the things that happen to me.

So.........Criminal hackers continue to step up to the plate. Security professionals are fighting, and sometimes losing, the battle. Here’s one week’s worth of hacks:

Lexis Nexis, which owns ChoicePoint, an information broker I recently blogged about that was hacked in 2005, was just hacked again this week. On Friday, LexisNexis Group notified more than 32,000 people that their information may have been stolen and used in a credit card scam that involved stealing names, birth dates and Social Security numbers to set up fake credit card accounts. The cybercriminals broke into USPS mailboxes of businesses that contained LexisNexis database information, according to a breach notification letter sent by LexisNexis to its customers. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is investigating the matter. (Check your credit reports and examine hacked1 your credit card statements carefully!)

CNET reports that hackers broke into FAA air traffic control systems, too. The hackers compromised an FAA public-facing computer and used it to gain access to personally identifiable information, such as Social Security numbers, for 48,000 current and former FAA employees. In a House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee testimony, it was stated, “FAA computer systems were hacked and, as the FAA increases its dependence on modern IP-based networks, the risk of the intentional disruption of commercial air traffic has increased.”

Computerworld reports that a hacker has threatened to expose health data and is demanding $10 million. Good for him, bad for the Virginia Department of Health Professions. The alleged ransom note posted on the Virginia DHP Prescription Monitoring Program site claimed that the hacker had backed up and encrypted more than 8 million patient records and 35 million prescriptions and then deleted the original data. “Unfortunately for Virginia, their backups seem to have gone missing, too. Uh oh,” posted the hacker. Holding data hostage is nothing new, but it is ransom1 becoming increasingly common.

The Register reports that bot-herders have taken control of 12 million new IP addresses in the first quarter of 2009, a 50% increase since the last quarter of 2008, according to an Internet security report from McAfee. The infamous Conficker superworm has occupied all the headlines, and makes a big contribution to the overall figure of compromised Windows PCs, but other strains of malware collectively make a big contribution to this number. McAfee’s Threat Report notes that the US is home to 18% of botnet-infected computers.

While you can’t do much about others being irresponsible with your data, you can protect your identity, to a degree. Consider investing in identity theft protection and always keep your Internet security software updated.

Robert Siciliano, identity theft speaker, discusses Ransomware.

Tags: expert, identity, mcafee, prevention, protection, security, speaker, theft, uniball

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Comment by Xproject187 on May 23, 2009 at 6:44am: Yeah I was kinda shocked when My TTS software read the post out loud because there sure ain't nothing funny about it to Me. Just the other day I went to use My Card & the store manager told Me that I needed to get in touch with my bank. Once I did I was told by the bank manager that the credit card company had canceled My card due to a hacker gaining access to a machine somewhere in the world & compromised many card numbers. So mean while I'm running around with no card & waiting for a new one. I mentioned to the teller the fact that I wanted to go ahead & close the account & open a new one but the Bank Manager. said there was no need to (Lazy). So now I gotta keep an even closer eye on things, Heck the inconvenience alone is enough to piss You off ,not to mention the worry ?
But the real question is " Why are these Mega-Million dollar companies not penalized for there clear negligence ?"
~x~

Comment by Sasuke Uchiha on May 13, 2009 at 1:22am: gotta love the fact that governments try keeping all of this under wraps. What makes me laugh, is that some of the time, its a rogue employee that just wants some payback and WHAM they hit the mother load. Thanks for the info on this boss man!

Comment by Glenn on May 11, 2009 at 8:41pm: "its just funny when security companies are at their own fault for hacker related issues by leaving loopholes and backdoors for those creative enough to exploit them :)"

Yeah, and it's even funnier that it's your and my information that gets compromised. I'm not amused at all...these "security companies" need to hire some people that actually know what they're doing and stop risking millions of people's personal information and lives.

Comment by Mark on May 10, 2009 at 5:13am: I agree with Aceray and reaper.

If your on windows, they give regular updates to stop this along with antiviruses, malware and firewalls.
If your on Linux - Even better :D

No exscuse really.

Comment by Acerayl on May 9, 2009 at 1:56pm: Wow, amazing how some hackers have turned. But yet again, it comes down to the usual things that just about all computer specialist have been preaching to the world for years. I can't tell you how many time I have herd help desk at places like Best Buy tell their customers to back up their data. And with so many free online backup solutions, DVD-R's so cheap, and Flash Drives and External Drives so cheap, there is really no excuse to back it up and/or keep a "off site" or off your computer drive just for those files with a backup.

Comment by CoolBreeze on May 9, 2009 at 7:43am: Interesting, I agree It's amazing how few of these you hear about!

Comment by reaper on May 9, 2009 at 3:37am: its just funny when security companies are at their own fault for hacker related issues by leaving loopholes and backdoors for those creative enough to exploit them :)

security is up to the user not a company......keep your computer in check and you should be alright

Comment by SassySweetBren on May 8, 2009 at 5:33pm: Amazing and we only hear about a few of these things on the news.

Now, we have you thank goodness.