ID thieves search ultimate pot of gold - databases
Thieves who supply online criminals with stolen IDs are increasingly going for the big score: stealing directly from banking-transaction databases.
In by far the largest caper reported to date, intruders recently cracked into the systems used by Atlanta-based payments processor CardSystems Solutions. The take: 40 million account records for holders of MasterCard, Visa USA, American Express and Discover cards.
A California privacy law that requires businesses and agencies to disclose thefts of personal data has heightened awareness of the issue. But the record theft underscores concern that the pace of identity theft appears to be accelerating, security experts and law enforcement officials say.
Customer transaction databases are "the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow," says Ted Julian, vice president of strategy at Application Security.
Stolen personal data have come to be bought, sold and traded on the Internet, much like soybeans and pork bellies on the commodities market, as merchants and banks drive to make e-commerce more convenient.
