Recently, FBI agents arrested twenty-four people involved in a massive, international credit card fraud and cybercrime ring. This sting, which was first conceived in June of 2010; was called “Carder Profit” and took over two years to reach fruition. The FBI has stated that it prevented over $205 million worth of credit card fraud over the two years of the operation, no small sum considering that even IT security risk assessment teams were not able to prevent information from being stolen in several circumstances!
Eleven suspects were from the U.S; the others were from thirteen different countries including Bulgaria and the United Kingdom. The individuals involved sold thousands of bogus credit cards and stole the identity of thousands of people. (If only they had listened to the advice IT Security Assessment Teams and the news media had given in the past!) Malware, viruses, keystroke loggers and various other “backdoor” programs were installed in different computers, allowing hackers to gain access to people’s private information. One “backdoor” virus allowed fraudsters to turn on the computer’s web camera and spy on the person using the computer! IT security risk assessment teams for several major corporations were unable to prevent the fraudsters from hacking in the databases and stealing information to sell. Others used stolen credit card information to obtain replacement computer parts illegally.
One of those arrested, a man named Mir Islam, known online as “JoshtheGod”- is the founder of Carders.org, a major trafficker in stolen credit cards and a member of the Underground Nazi Hacktivist Group (UGNazi). The group is responsible for several politically and socially motivated attacks against Google, BP, Cloudflare, Twitter and Comcast. Islam was arrested when an undercover agent posing as a credit card trafficker gave him a counterfeit credit card.
While many people think their information may be safe with a major corporation, the reality is that this is not always the case. Many people also don’t bother to update their anti-virus or anti-spyware scanners and pay a heavy price as a result.
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