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| Science & Technology |
| Israel Hack: Officials Vow To Hit Back After Credit Card Security Breach |
| 2012-01-08 |
| Israel said on Saturday the online publication of thousands of its citizens' credit card details by a hacker who says he is based in Saudi Arabia was comparable to terrorism, and promised to hit back. The data theft, which appeared to focus on commercial websites, was one of the worst Israel has said it has faced. While government officials and credit card companies said the financial damage was minimal, the breaches were welcomed by the Palestinian militant group Hamas and have heightened concerns about the potential use of stolen information by the Jewish state's foes. Such cyber-attacks are "a breach of sovereignty comparable to a terrorist operation, and must be treated as such", Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said in a speech, adding that Israel had not yet ruled out the possibility that the hacking had been carried out by a group "more organised and sophisticated ... than a lone youth". "Israel has active capabilities for striking at those who are trying to harm it, and no agency or hacker will be immune from retaliatory action," he said, without elaborating. The hacker, identifying himself as Saudi-based OxOmar, said on Thursday he had leaked private information about more than 400,000 Israelis. Credit card companies said around 25,000 numbers, some of them expired, had been posted as of Friday. After Israeli media ran what they described as interviews conducted with OxOmar over email, the Haaretz newspaper said a blogger had tracked the hacker down and determined he was a 19-year-old citizen of the United Arab Emirates studying and working in Mexico. An aide to Ayalon, Lital Shochat, said Israel was aware of the report but had not yet requested help from Mexican authorities. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #2 Mexico has all sorts of unexplained deaths by cartel hits. Just saying.... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2012-01-08 16:13 |
| #1 Credit cards have what can best be described as some of the better 1960s security around. The CC companies absolutely refuse to improve it, even though it costs them and their card holders a fortune every year to keep doing things that way. Realistically speaking, they could easily include a strongly encrypted 2d matrix bar code that could be scanned with any cell phone with a camera and display, and then the CC company would show the face of the card holder. They could also use as a check a thumbprint scan compared to one they had on file, after a PIN input. Between the two, it would be extremely hard to carry out a fraud with a stolen card. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2012-01-08 15:31 |