Easy Money
- From: "Paul Nutteing (valid email address in post script )" <nutteing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 08:14:17 -0000
Why bother with all the hassle of utility
bills etc when you can just access the www
for a judge's money. They have so many details
they can give them away
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2988471.ece
From The TimesDecember 3, 2007
Websites sell secret bank data and PINs
Alexi Mostrous and Dominic Kennedy
Security breaches that are allowing the financial details of tens of
thousands of Britons to be sold on the internet are to be investigated by
the country's information watchdog.
Without paying a single penny, The Times downloaded banking information
belonging to 32 people, including a High Court deputy judge and a managing
director. The private account numbers, PINs and security codes were offered
as tasters by illegal hacking sites in the hope that purchases would follow.
Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner, will begin an investigation
into the security breach today and Scotland Yard is also investigating.
Experts said that the findings suggested that more personal data than ever
before was going astray. The Times found: More than 100 websites trafficking
British bank details A fraudster offering to sell 30,000 British credit card
numbers for less than £1 each A British "e-passport" for sale, although the
Government insists that they are unhackable.
The discovery comes as public alarm is growing about the dangers of identity
theft. HM Revenue & Customs has yet to retrieve two lost CDs containing the
banking details of 25 million Britons, which ministers admitted had vanished
in the post a fortnight ago. At current underworld prices, these could fetch
more than £100 million if they fell into the hands of hackers.
Q&A: how can I protect myself?
The News of the World disclosed yesterday that it had been handed two discs
mislaid by the Department for Work and Pensions containing the national
insurance numbers of 18,000 claimants.
Last year The Times discovered internet chatrooms where the hacked credit
card details of 400 British people were being sold every day.
A spokesman for Mr Thomas said: "We will be looking at the evidence you have
provided and investigating the circumstances. This looks serious and is a
matter of genuine concern.
"We can take action against UK-based organisations that flout the Data
Protection Act. If some of these websites are not UK-based we will work with
our counterparts in the relevant country."
Mr Thomas will address the Commons Justice Committee tomorrow on the
addional powers that he says are needed to prevent breaches of data
protection. He believes that reckless failure to protect information should
result in prosecution and that his staff should have powers to raid
government and business premises.
Hacking sites act as online bazaars for stolen personal information. They
are well run, hierarchical groups structured like businesses. Some even have
review sections where buyers can recommend a particular fraudster.
Geraldine Hernon, 30, of St Ives, Cambridgeshire, was shocked to hear that
her credit card number, expiry date and security number were online with her
address, telephone number and e-mail address. She said: "I can't believe it.
I will have to change my whole account. It is terrifying that people have
the information. It is personal information. I feel really scared."
The bank details of Robert Seabrook, QC, a deputy judge and former chairman
of the Bar Council, were also freely available. He, too, described the
breach as terrifying. "I am profoundly concerned," he said. "One reads about
the anxieties of data in the public domain but it is disconcerting to hear
something so personal being available. If you can get this sort of thing for
free who knows what is below the water line?"
Neil Munroe, the director of the credit reference agency Equifax and an
expert on internet fraud, said that the depth of information obtained by The
Times was greater than he had ever seen. "The detail you have got is very
disturbing," he said. "Normally we only see credit card numbers coming up
but you have got e-mails, addresses, security and PINs. Everything. It is
very scary."
Senior police officers are concerned that current methods of dealing with
large-scale data protection breaches are unworkable. Detective Chief
Inspector Charlie McMurdie, of the Metropolitan Police e-crime unit, said:
"At the moment people report internet crimes to a local police station but
no one locally has the resources to investigate properly."
Since April customers have been told to report card crimes to their banks
rather than to the police. Mr McMurdie, backed by the main banks, has asked
the Home Office for £1.3 million to fund a central e-crime unit.
ps
What they aren't telling you about DNA profiles
and what Special Branch don't want you to know.
http://www.nutteing.chat.ru/dnapr.htm
or nutteingd in a search engine.
Valid email nutteing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (remove 4 of the 5 dots)
Ignore any other apparent em address used to post this message -
it is defunct due to spam.
.
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