Fraud ring charged with credit card theft

07 August 2008

Fraud ring charged with credit card theft Fraud ring charged with credit card theft

A global fraud ring stole an alleged 41 million credit card numbers between 2003 and 2008, it has been reported.

US secretary of homeland security Michael Chertoff announced that 11 individuals have been charged in connection with the theft of the numbers from nine major retail firms.

Three US citizens, three Ukrainians, an Estonian, two Chinese citizens, one from Belarus and one known only by an e-alias have been charged.

Chertoff said there was now an obligation for officials "to take a careful look at the security systems in place".

Sherry Lang, senior vice-president of targeted firm TJX Cos, said the sheer number of retailers attacked by the cyber criminals demonstrated "the much broader challenges in protecting sensitive consumer data".

The case came to light after US informant Albert Gonzalez was found to be committing crimes while being paid by the government.

He and a team of associates are thought to have used packet sniffers to capture credit card numbers as they were transmitted to retailers' central servers.

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