Phone hacks financed terrorism

Authorities in the US and Italy arrested a group of hackers and others who allegedly stole phone service (about 12 million minutes, valued at $55 million), resold it via call centers and phone cards, and used the profit to fund terrorist activities.

Three suspects living in the Philipines allegedly provided Pakistani nationals living in Italy with access to stolen phone lines. According to Philippines authorities, one of the suspects has ties to al Qaeda.

The hackers received about $100 a hack, in payments made by the Madina Trading Co., which provided wire transfers via U.S.-based money-transfer services. The company, owned by one of the call center operators, also paid for the Internet-based phone accounts used by the 11-26 Mumbai attackers to make calls to their handlers.

See, "Alleged Hacking-Terror Effort Thwarted," Wall St. Journal, June 13, 2009, at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124485009253011435.html.

US accidentally posts nuclear secrets

The US federal government mistakenly posted on the Internet a 266-page report -- with pages marked “highly confidential” -- setting out details on hundreds of the nation’s civilian nuclear sites and programs, including maps showing the precise locations of stockpiles of fuel for nuclear weapons.

After inquiries from The New York Times, the document was withdrawn from the Government Printing Office Web site.

See, "U.S. Releases Secret List of Nuclear Sites Accidentally," New York Times, June 2, 2009, at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/03/us/03nuke.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper.

$10 million ransom demand for Virginia patient data

A hacker claims to have broken into a Virginia state website -- the Virginia Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) used by pharmacists to track prescription drug abuse -- deleted records of more than 8 million patients, and has offered to replace the data for $10 million. The hacker posted a ransom note on the PMP website:

"I have your [expletive] In *my* possession, right now, are 8,257,378 patient records and a total of 35,548,087 prescriptions. Also, I made an encrypted backup and deleted the original. Unfortunately for Virginia, their backups seem to have gone missing, too. Uhoh :(For $10 million, I will gladly send along the password."

The Virginia Department of Health Professionals, which operates the site, admits that it has yet to receive computer security upgrades ordered five years ago, in 2004 by then-Governor Mark Warner. The agency said that because of its small size, it was among the last on the list to receive the security upgrades.

"Official: Hacked agency missing security upgrade," Washington Examiner, May 10, 2009, at http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/crime/Official-Hacked-agency-missing-security-upgrade-44673922.html; "Hackers Break Into Virginia Health Professions Database, Demand Ransom," Washington Post, May 4, 2009, at http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2009/05/hackers_break_into_virginia_he.html; "Hacker demands $10M ransom from Virginia," UPI, May 8, 2009, at http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/05/08/Hacker-demands-10M-ransom-from-Virginia/UPI-35631241758949/

Court rules on knowing standard in identity theft cases

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that persons who use fake identification numbers to commit other crimes must know they belong to a real person to be subject to a two-year sentence extension for “aggravated identity theft.” The ruling came in a federal identity theft case concerning illegal immigrants who used false social security numbers to obtain employment.

See, "Justices Limit Use of Identity Theft Law in Immigration Cases," New York Times, May 4, 2009, at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/us/05immig.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper; "Supreme Court limits identity theft law," Los Angeles Times, May 5, 2009, at http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-court-identity5-2009may05,0,7732350.story.

Drug war agent loses secrets on the bus

The British Serious Organized Crime Agency (heralded as Britain's FBI) confirmed that, in 2006, one of its agents lost a computer memory stick containing a list of undercover agents, informants, and details of more than five years of intelligence work. The memory stick was lost when the agent, who traveled to Colombia to work with British intelligence agencies on anti-drug trade operations, left her handbag on a transit bus at the Bogata airport. Fearing the information could fall into the worng hands, intelligence agencies halted operations and relocated dozens of agents and informants. The cost of the aborted operations was £100m.

See, "Bumbling agent lost ‘crown jewels’ of drugs war," Sunday Times, April 26, 2009, at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6169946.ece; "MI6 agent leaves secret details of the war against drugs on bus," Mirror, April 27, 2009, at http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/04/27/mi6-agent-leaves-secret-details-of-the-war-against-drugs-on-bus-115875-21311667/

Hackers strike Pentagon's $300 billion F-35 fighter project

Computer intruders hacked into the Pentagon's $300 billion F-35 Lightning II (Joint Strike Fighter) project. In attacks apparently originating from China, the hackers downloaded huge amounts of data -- but not the most sensitive material, which is stored offline.

See, Wall St. Journal, April 21, 2009, at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124027491029837401.html; see also, "Fighter Jet Hack Far From First Government Breach," PC World, April 21, 2009, at http://www.pcworld.com/article/163533/fighter_jet_hack_far_from_first_government_breach.html

YouTube prank video damages Domino's reputation

Two employees of a Domino's Pizza fanchise created a video at work purporting to show the prepartation of unsanitary food for customer delivery. Released onto the Internet, the video was seen by more than a million YouTube viewers. Customers were disgusted and the prank resulted in a public relations crisis for Domino's. The employees were fired and also arrested on felony charges for distribution of prohibited food.

See, "Video Prank at Domino’s Taints Brand," New YorkTimes, April 16, 2009, at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/business/media/16dominos.html?ref=todayspaper.