http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2432225.0.revealed_8_million_victims_in_the_worlds_biggest_cyber_heist.php



By Iain S Bruce

Sunday Herald

August 24, 2008 



AN INTERNATIONAL criminal gang has pulled off one of the most audacious 

cyber-crimes ever and stolen the identities of an estimated eight 

million people in a hacking raid that could ultimately net more than 

2.8billion in illegal funds.



A Sunday Herald investigation has discovered that late on Thursday 

night, a previously unknown Indian hacker successfully breached the IT 

defences of the Best Western Hotel group's online booking system and 

sold details of how to access it through an underground network operated 

by the Russian mafia.



It is a move that has been dubbed the greatest cyber-heist in world 

history. The attack scooped up the personal details of every single 

customer that has booked into one of Best Western's 1312 continental 

hotels since 2007.



Amounting to a complete identity-theft kit, the stolen data includes a 

range of private information including home addresses, telephone 

numbers, credit card details and place of employment.



"They've pulled off a masterstroke here," said security expert Jacques 

Erasmus, an ex-hacker who now works for the computer security firm 

Prevx. "There are plenty of hacked company databases for sale online but 

the sheer volume and quality of the information that's been stolen in 

the Best Western raid makes this particularly rare. The Russian gangs 

who specialise in this kind of work will have been exploiting the 

information from the moment it became available late on Thursday night. 

In the wrong hands, there's enough data there to spark a major European 

crime wave."



[...]





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Received on Mon Aug 25 2008 - 02:17:28 PDT