3 million Iranian bank accounts hacked
After finding a security vulnerability in Iran’s banking system, Khosrow Zarefarid wrote a formal report and sent it to the CEOs of all the affected banks across the country. When the banks ignored his findings, he hacked 3 million bank accounts, belonging to at least 22 different banks, to prove his point.
It does not appear as if Zarefarid stole money from the accounts; he merely dumped the account details of around 3 million individuals, including card numbers and PINs, on his blog: ircard.blogspot.ca. I found the link via his Facebook account, along with the question “Is your bank card between thease 3000000 cards?”
At least three Iranian banks (Saderat, Eghtesad Novin, and Saman) have already sent text messages to their clients, warning them to change their debit card PINs. Furthermore, the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) issued a statement announcing that millions of ATM cards have been hacked and urged all card holders to change their PINs, especially if they haven’t done so in the last few months. The warning was repeated on state TV channels.