In one of this year’s largest data breaches, financial processing company Fidelity National Information Services revealed on Tuesday that a subsidiary’s employee stole 2.3 million consumer records containing credit card, bank account and other personal information. Although Fidelity said the data was not used for identity theft or other fraudulent activity, it revealed that the employee sold it to a data broker, who then sold it to several direct marketing companies. Fidelity said in a prepared statement that about 2.2 million records stolen from Certegy Check Services contained bank account information; 99,000 contained credit card information.
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Spammers have switched their tactics with the latest “storm worm” run in hopes of getting more of the malicious messages delivered into company inboxes. The newest run, which began late last week, features messages that falsely inform recipients they have received a greeting card from a family member. Some other variants show the message to be coming from an admirer, classmate or colleague.
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Computer users should watch out for a talking virus that infects their machine, an anti-virus company has warned. The BotVoice.A Trojan uses the Microsoft Windows text reader to play the following: âYou have been infected; I repeat you have been infected and your system files have been deleted. Sorry. Have a nice day and bye bye,â according to anti-virus researchers at PandaLabs. The computer repeats the words, while the malware deletes the content of the computer hard drive.
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A stalker has admitted hacking into the email account of the lead singer of the American rock group Linkin Park. Devon Townsend, a former laboratory worker from New Mexico, confessed to using US government computers to access Chester Benningtonâs personal data. The 28-year-old hacked into the singerâs personal email account and the website of his mobile phone provider to access his number and answer-phone messages. She also obtained information about his wife.
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Now that Apple’s iPhone is finally on sale, the race is on to see who can unlock it. Locked phones can only be used with the mobile service from one carrier, a move designed to guarantee carriers recover the cost of subsidising a handset through monthly service charges. But the cost of the iPhone, which is priced at either $499 (ÂŁ250) or $599 (ÂŁ300) depending on the model, is not subsidised by AT&T.
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Researchers are warning of a widespread MySpace drive-by exploit attack meant to compromise machines so more highly-profitable phishing schemes remain successful. MySpace users become infected when they visit a profile page containing malicious JavaScript and then are silently redirected to an Internet Explorer exploit, which was patched in April, Johannes Ullrich, chief research officer of the SANS Internet Storm Center, told SCMagazine.com today.
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A Romanian hacker accused of breaking into the networks of NASA and other federal agencies appeared in a Romanian court on Tuesday. Victor Faur, 26, a native of the western Romanian town of Arad, faces trial there after arrest by state prosecutors in his home country. He faces twelve years in prison, according to numerous published reports.
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Iâve touched on the topic of mobile keyloggers in the past, but as they are quickly growing in popularity I find it important to raise the issue again. Mobile keyloggers for anyone unfamiliar with the topic is cell phone software that records every keystroke one types into their mobile keypad. Much like its computer related predecessor, mobile keyloggers are used as a tracking/recording device.
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A hacker successfully attacked a Web page within Microsoft Corp.’s U.K. domain, resulting in the display of a photograph of a child waving the flag of Saudi Arabia. It was “unfortunate” that the site was vulnerable, said Roger Halbheer, chief security advisor for Microsoft in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The problem has since been fixed. However, the hack highlights how large software companies with technical expertise can still prove vulnerable to hackers.
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