Identity Theft News

Hacker allegedly stole $10M from US financial firms

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Ehud Tenebaum, an Israeli-born hacker, allegedly breached the network security of two U.S. banks, credit and debit card distribution company, and a payment processor that may have resulted in $10 million in losses, according to Wired Magazine who obtained court documents concerning the case.

The documents state that the Secret Service had been investigating Tenebaum since October 2007 in regards to "an international conspiracy" to infiltrate U.S. financial institutions, Wired reported. Part of the case included agents investigating network security breaches at OmniAmerican Credit Union and Global Cash Card.

The Secret Service reportedly found the attacks on those financial firms involved a SQL injection attack that exploited a vulnerability in the company's database software, which gave the hacker credit and debit card numbers.

The 29-year-old, who goes by the handle The Analyzer, was in the news a decade ago for reportedly infiltrating Pentagon computers and was also arrested last year in Canada for allegedly stealing $1.5 million from banks in that country.

Some security officials have pointed to this case as an example of the poor data security some financial firms in the U.S. have and that businesses should protect against identity theft.ADNFCR-1765-ID-19093701-ADNFCR

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