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From CNN, 16 May 2003, http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/05/16/cybercrime.feds.ap/index.html
Federal officials have arrested 135 cyber criminals and have seized over
$17 million in assets as a part of "Operation E-Con." Alleged
crimes include setting up fraudulent bank web sites to steal account
information from unsuspecting customers and taping and selling unreleased
movies. Among the agencies who participated in the sting are the FBI, the US
Postal Inspection Service, and the Federal Trade Commission.
From SANS, 8 March 2001, http://www.sans.org/newlook/alerts/NTE-bank.htm
"In the largest criminal Internet attack to date, a group of Eastern European
hackers has spent a year systematically exploiting known Windows NT vulnerabilities to
steal customer data. More than 1,000,000 credit cards have been taken and more than 40
sites have been victimized."
"More than 40 victims located in 20 states have been identified and notified in
ongoing investigations in 14 Federal Bureau of Investigation Field Offices and 7 United
States Secret Service Field Offices. "
From InfoWorld, 16 February 2001, http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/01/02/16/010216hnspree.xml
Hackers broke into such prominant web sites as the New York Times, Compaq, Intel,
AltaVista, Hewlett-Packard, and Go.Com during the second week of February, 2001.
From SecurityFocus.Com, 6 December 2000,
http://www.securityfocus.com/templates/article.html?id=122
A 25 year old hacker penetrated the University of Washington Medical Center's computer
network, and stole medical records for over 4000 patients in June of 2000. Network
staff at the Center didn't notice any evidence of the intruder until mid-July. By
that time, trojans had been installed on many Linux and NT systems, and the data stored on
them had already been compromised.
From Reuters, 27 October 2000,
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/...
In what Microsoft has called a ``deplorable act of industrial espionage'', their
network was recently compromised and it is suspected that the attackers may have stolen
source code to some of Microsoft's products. The attack was first noticed when
passwords were seen leaving the Microsoft campus, destined for a location in St.
Petersburg, Russia. Microsoft remains confident, however, that the integrity of the
source code on their network remained intact.
From ZDNet, 27 September 2000,
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2634016,00.html
Hackers could threaten U.S. skyways, due to "serious and pervasive problems'' with
the FAA's computer systems and security process management.
From ZDNet, 11 September 2000,
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2626673,00.html
Human error in a new e-Commerce system resulted in the exposure of 15,700 customer
names and credit cards to cyber thieves. The database file that held the
confidential information had not been properly protected, and the attackers were able to
retrieve that data from the servers. Western Union was praised, however, on the way
that they handled the breach.
From ZDNet, 21 June 2000,
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2592093,00.html
On June 21st, 2000, the domain name "nike.com" was hijacked and redirected to
a new site, dedicated to a protest which will occur on September 11, 2000. Nike
successfully regained control of their domain by 12-noon that day, but visitors were still
receiving the hijacked information for some time afterwards.
From BBC World News, 8 June 2000, http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_782000/782099.stm
The ILOVEYOU virus "is believed to have affected at least 45 million computer
users and caused billions of dollars of damage."
From Wired News, 29 March 2000, http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,35264,00.html
A 19-year-old Houston cracker agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy
for teleconferencing fraud and computer cracking in one of the government's most notorious
cybercrime cases, court documents show. GlobalHell, the hacker group that the teen
belonged to, is said to have caused at least $1.5 million in damages to various U.S.
corporations and government entities, including the White House and the U.S. Army.
From Computer World Online News, 17 February 2000, http://www.computerworld.com/home/print.nsf/all/000217ED42
On February 15, 2000, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was asked Tuesday to
shut down its Internet connection until it improves its Net security.
From IDG News Service, 9 February 2000, http://www.pcworld.com/ontheweb/article/0,1978,15193,00.html
On February 9, 2000 hackers performed coordinated, distributed, denial-of-service
attacks against Amazon.com, Buy.com, eBay, E-Trade, and ZDNet, slowing, and in some cases
completely denying, access to the sites for nearly 2 ½ hours.
From CNN, 8 February 2000, cnn.com
In what company officials are describing as a "fast" and "intense"
assault on its network, U.S.-based Web sites of Yahoo Inc. and some of its companion sites
were unreachable for about three hours February 7th, 2000, denying access to millions of
potential users. Amazon.com, eBay, and Buy.com were also severely attacked later that
week.
From Computer World Online News, 7 January 2000,
http://www.computerworld.com/home/print.nsf/all/000107DB3A
President Clinton will seek $2.03 billion next year for computer security and critical
infrastructure programs, an approximately 17% increase over this fiscal year's budget of
$1.75 billion.
From Information Security Magazine, December 1999, “1999
Infosecurity Year-in-Review”
- In September 1999, a two new Y2K-related virus/worms were discovered, which sent user's
IDs and passwords out over the Internet via e-mail. Microsoft reported finding eight
different versions of the e-mail in circulation.
- On April 22nd, 1999, a computer technician at the Seattle-area "Blarg! Online"
ISP, discovered that improperly installed shopping-cart software, used widely on the
Internet to simplify online purchasing, allowed anyone to see confidential data, such as
credit card numbers, affecting at least several hundred, and possibly many thousands, of
e-commerce sites where the software was improperly installed.
- On April 22nd, 1999, according to newswire reports, the Chernobyl computer virus struck
hundreds of thousands of computers in Asia and the Middle East, with Turkey and South
Korea each reporting 300,000 damaged computers.
From SANS, 08 November 1999, http://www.sans.org/newlook/resources/IDFAQ/solar_sunrise.htm
In February 1998, hackers launched an attack against the Pentagon and MIT in what the
Department of Defense called "the most organized and systematic attack to date."
From Computer World Online News, 18 October 1999, http://www.computerworld.com/home/news.nsf/all/9910181sans
In 1998, a Massachusetts teen-ager broke into the Bell Atlantic telephone system and
disabled communication at the Worcester airport, preventing the airport's control tower
from turning on runway lights for incoming flights.
From PC World News, 28 May 1999, http://www.pcworld.com/pcwtoday/article/0,1510,11177,00.html
On May 27th, 1999, hackers attacked the FBI’s own web presence, forcing them to
take the site down.
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Trends: "CERT/CC Overview
Incident and Vulnerability Trends", 8/17/2000
"Infosec
Year in Review '99", ICSA.Net, 1999
More...
Security Spending:
"Security breaches cause
$15 billion in damages", Datamonitor, Nov. 2000
More...
Dont's:
"The Seven Worst Security Mistakes
Senior Executives Make", SANS, May 1999
*Information Security Magazine |
