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The Federal Trade Commission has charged that confidential information of thousands of consumers was compromised because of the lax security practices of CardSystems Solutions, Inc., one of the major companies that process credit and debit card purchases. The company's proposed settlement requires CardSystems to meet strict security standards that are closely monitored by a third party for the next 20 years. In addition, the company faces potential liability from private litigation for losses related to the breach. See http://ftc.gov/opa/2006/02/cardsystems_r.htm
In February, Brazilian police arrested 55 people thought to be members of a gang who phished millions from online bank accounts. The gang's leader is said to be only 19 years old. For details, see http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2006/02/brphishgang.html
A network security hole in Microsoft Windows 2000 provides joyriding hackers an opportunity to spread a computer worm that enslaves all infected machines in zombie armies known as "botnets." One such hacker, who calls himself "Witlog," claims he created his botnet--which soon grew to an army of 45,000 computers, some of them on government networks--purely for fun. He downloaded the source code from another site, changed a few settings, and started it up. "You don't have to know many things to do a botnet like this," Witlog told a Washington Post reporter. For details, see http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2006/03/post.html
In the latest crackdown on global "Nigerian 419" Internet fraud, Dutch and American authorities arrested four conspirators who conned U.S. victims out of $1.2 million with their advance-fee scheme. See http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/03/us_nigerian_scam.html