“This is the American Express Fraud Department” – Two Dozen Carders Arrested on 4 Continents June 26, 2012
Posted by Chris Mark in cybersecurity, Industry News.Tags: Amex, BOA, Carders, data theft, DSS, Fatal System Error, fbi, mark consulting group, PCI, Sting, visa
1 comment so far
Lnight my wife received an email about a suspcious transaction on our Amex card. Turns out it was a fraudulent transaction and my wife’s card had been stolen. I was writing a blog post on this very subject when a Google alert informs me of this article on Foxnews. “Two Dozen Arrested in Online Financial Fraud Sting”. According to the article: “Two dozen people on four continents have been arrested in an elaborate sting targeting a black market for online financial fraud, federal officials in New York said Tuesday.
U.S. officials called the crackdown in United States, Europe, Asia and Australia the largest enforcement effort ever against hackers who steal credit card, bank and other information on the Internet — a practice known as “carding.” The officials claimed the two-year FBI sting protected more than 400,000 potential victims and prevented losses of around $205 million.”
On that note, I recommend that you take a look at the book “Fatal System Error”…gives very good insight into the underworld of Carding.
“Pinky and the Brain” – Chris & Heather Mark’s Articles in Transaction World Magazine June 21, 2012
Posted by Chris Mark in cybersecurity, Industry News, InfoSec & Privacy.Tags: compliance, credit card, cybersecurity, data breach, information security, PCI DSS, privacy, transaction world
add a comment
I heard yesterday from the EIC of Transaction World Magazine that they will be publishing one of my articles in their August 2012 issue. Stay tuned! I have written for TW numerous times over the past 7 years or so and Heather has written for them consistently since about 2005. You can read her current article here and see archives of Heather’s articles at this link. If you are not in the payments industry and want to know about the exciting world of credit card issues, check out TransactionWorld. It has great articles covering everything from compliance, to security, interchange, and more. Here are two links to a couple of my previous TW articles..1) Why Regulation Cannot Prevent CyberCrime and 2) Lessons from the Heartland Breach…clearly in this relationship Heather is the Brain and I am Pinky 😉
“See, Hear & Speak no Evil”- Google Censorship Requests June 18, 2012
Posted by Chris Mark in Industry News, privacy.Tags: Censorship, cybersecurity, freedom of speech, google, InfoSec, mark consulting group, privacy, requests, satire
1 comment so far
Google today released information related to the censorship requests by Governments around the Globe. While many are familiar with China and other nations restricting access, it is interesting to see so many “Western” countries requesting censorship. An interesting example is the Canadian Government requesting the removal of “…YouTube video of a Canadian citizen urinating on his passport and flushing it down the toilet. “ To their credit, Google did NOT comply with this request. In another request, Google “…received a request from the Central Police in Italy to remove a YouTube video that satirized Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s lifestyle.” Again, Google did not comply. The interesting part of these requests is that they request removal of material that is typically considered a right of free speech and protest. Satire has been used as a form of protest in West for centuries (look at Voltare, Oscar Wilde…etc.etc.) and civil disobedience (urinating on a passport, is a good example) has certainly been used as form of protest. One has to wonder whether how much more information ‘free’ governments have kept from the public. You can see the Google removal requests here.
Of Payments, Privacy and Social Networks June 13, 2012
Posted by Heather Mark in Industry News, InfoSec & Privacy.Tags: Apple Store, checking in, Girls Around Me, Heather Mark, mark consulting group, privacy, security
add a comment
By now, many of you have probably heard about the smartphone app creatively and aptly named “Girls Around Me.” For those that have not heard, it is essentially an application that aggregates the “check in” location data of women using Facebook, foursquare, and other social, location based services. It then displays for the user the locations and names of “girls around” him (or her, I don’t think the app discriminates). The app promises to “turn your town into a dating paradise.” For privacy professionals, the app sparks an interesting debate. Is privacy infringed if the person in question volunteers the information. On one side of the argument are those that would say “no – if the user has volunteered information then privacy is not compromised by the application.” The converse of that argument, however, is one that centers on a definition of privacy that hinges on the appropriate use of information. If the user did not volunteer the information in an effort to join this “dating paradise” then privacy is certainly infringed. Certainly, one can see that the application in the wrong hands has the potential for misuse. But, what if we use the information for good, rather than evil? (more…)
Oh My!! More than 6 Million LinkedIn Passwords Stolen! June 6, 2012
Posted by Chris Mark in cybersecurity, Data Breach, Industry News.Tags: Chris Mark, cybercrime, cybersecurity, InfoSec, LinkedIn, privacy, security, Stolen Passwords
add a comment
Change your LinkedIn password now! According to an article on CNN, over 6 million LinkedIn passwords were stolen by Russian hackers. LinkedIn also confirmed in their own blog post that some of the posted passwords did match LinkedIn accounts. According to the story: “The 6.5 million leaked passwords were posted Monday on a Russian online forum, camouflaged with a common cryptographic code called SHA-1 hash. It’s a format that’s considered weak if added precautions aren’t taken. Roughly half of the “hashed” passwords have already been decoded and posted online in human-readable text.” You can read more about how Hashes are cracked using Rainbow tables in the awesome post here.
Global Security, Privacy, & Risk Management 