Date: Mon, 20 Apr 92 0:35:50 CDT
From: Net Wrider <
[email protected]>
Subject: File 10--"Hacker Ring Broken Up" (NYT)
"A Nationwide Computer-Fraud Ring Run by Young Hackers Is Broken Up"
SAN DIEGO, April 18 (AP) -- The authorities say they have cracked a
nationwide network of young computer hackers who were able to break
into the electronic files of at least one credit-rating company and
make fraudulent credit-card purchases that may have run into the
millions of dollars.
For the last four years or more, as many as 1,000 members of the
informal underground network have shared information about how to
break computer security codes, make charges on other people's credit
cards and create credit card accounts, said Dennis Sadler, a detective
with the San Diego police, whose officers stumbled upon the network
last month while investigating a local case of credit-card fraud.
The hackers also learned how to break personal security codes for
automated bank teller machines, Mr. Sadler said, and obtained
telephone access codes to make long distance calls without paying.
"These kids can get any information they want on you -- period," Mr.
Sadler told the San Diego Union-Tribune, which first reported on the
ring of hackers in an article on Friday. "We didn't believe it until
it was demonstrated to us."
The investigation has led to two arrests in Ohio and to the seizure of
computers and related material in New York City, the Philadelphia area
and Seattle, Mr. Sadler said. But he described those cases as merely
off-shoots of the main investigation, which he refused to discuss in
detail, saying that the inquiry was continuing and that scores of
arrests were pending around the country.
Computer criminals typically make fraudulent credit-card purchases by
gathering detailed information from the electronic files of credit
reporting agencies, banks and other businesses. MasterCard
International reported $381 million in losses from credit-card fraud
around the world last year, and Visa International says its fraud
losses amounted to $259 million in 1989, about 0.1 percent of its
worldwide sales.
At least part of the investigation here is focusing on information
that the hackers obtained illegally from computers at Equifax Credit
Information Services, an Atlanta-based credit-reporting agency.
Tina Black, a spokeswoman for the company, said, "We're still in the
process of investigating, and we're working very closely with San
Diego police."
Equifax, one of the nation's three largest credit bureaus, has a data
base of about 170 million credit files, but Ms. Black said fewer than
25 files had been compromised.
Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253
