Category Archives: Security
$9mil stolen in one day from ATMs
Wired has noted that the RBS WorldPay heist led to a one day loss of nine million dollars:
A carefully coordinated global ATM heist last November resulted in a one-day haul of $9 million in cash, after a hacker penetrated a server at payment processor RBS WorldPay, New York’s Fox 5 reports.
[…]
What’s clear is that this is a great time to be a hacker. In just over one year we’ve seen these kinds of breaches go from virtually unheard of into a multimillion dollar industry.
More than a year, to be fair. Attacks of this nature have been a public reality since at least 2004, but I would argue the decline in the economy is making them all the more worrying and therefore newsworthy.
Car bomb in Arkansas
Not much news yet on what exactly has happened, other than a car bomb has exploded in Arkansas
A car bomb explosion critically injured the head of the Arkansas State Medical Board on Wednesday, detonating in his driveway as he was leaving for work, authorities said.
The state will certainly be on high alert, especially to protect others affiliated with the medical board. I wonder if other states will also go on alert or if the DHS threat level meter will move.
Update 2010: Another doctor in Arkansas possessing a “legally owned” grenade launcher was convicted for the bombing, related to his anger about medical board disciplinary measures.
Authorities said Mann was interviewed by federal agents on the day of the bombing and showed them “at least one grenade launcher he legally owned.” However, he was not arrested until a month later, when city employees found partially buried “high explosive rounds designed to be fired from a grenade launcher” in a wooded area of London, Arkansas, authorities said.
Jurors convicted Mann of possession of 98 unregistered grenades and two counts of possessing machine guns, but acquitted him of possessing an unregistered 12-gauge shotgun. Sangeeta Mann was acquitted of lying to a grand jury investigating the unregistered firearms.
Jewel thief alert
The BBC warns that someone is nabbing expensive jewelry across Europe with a slight of hand. It is the case of a thief in headscarf:
A jewel thief dressed as a wealthy Muslim woman has stolen rings worth hundreds of thousands of euros from dealers across Europe, police say.
The woman, wearing a headscarf, coat and gold-framed glasses, is suspected of swapping gems for replicas.
In one incident in Paris, the woman allegedly stole a 5.5 carat diamond ring worth 635,000 euros (£574,000).
The article says it takes a while before staff realize the jewelry has been replaced, and that they often do not have insurance. Classic example of weak controls creating the opportunity for crime. Either the rings are unique and the thief is doing research to replace them with carefully crafted replicas, or these expensive rings are typical examples of bland and uninspired mainstream objects that can be swapped with just about anything and not be noticed.