$25 million stolen from credit cards

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Overseas hackers have stolen a grand total of $25 million from Australian credit cards

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) have revealed international hackers have stolen $25 million and 500 000 credit card numbers from Australians in an attack on an unnamed small business.

While the AFP is still investigating, a spokeswoman said to The Sydney Morning Herald that they were looking at ‘a series of merchants whose individual computer systems have been compromised.’

Earlier this week SC magazine reported that the Romanian hackers responsible for the attack were part of the same group which last year hit over 150 Subway restaurants in the US.

That attack resulted in 80 000 customers’ credit card details being stolen, along with millions of dollars worth of illegal transactions and four arrests.

Australian Federal Police (AFP) Detective Superintendent Brad Marden, speaking to SC, said the hackers are exploiting businesses who don’t have adequate IT security.

‘The network was setup by some local suppliers who didn’t understand IT security,’ Det. Sup. Marden said. ‘It was a disaster waiting to happen.

‘[The syndicate] has moved into other countries to attack with the same methodologies, and [the attacks] will happen again sometime in the future.’

Earlier in the year The Age reported that businesses as small as fish and chip shops were being targeted by hackers looking to make a quick buck.

According to them, hackers are opting for a large number of vulnerable targets like small businesses rather than spending the time required to hack into a more secured supermarket chain.

Marc Bown, of IT security firm Trustwave, said it’s an easier way for them to make the same money: ‘[Hackers are] not going to spend twice as long trying to compromise a supermarket chain when they can go and compromise 50 fish and chip shops that have much weaker levels of security and which will ultimately give them the same end goal,’ he said.

‘It’s going to cost them a lot less to go after the weaker targets than to spend all of their effort going after a single high-security target.’

Dep. Sup. Marden said that while the numbers may suggest the attack was large, it’s smaller than previous attacks from across the globe.

Credit card heists

As the AFP said, our credit card theft pales in comparison to other attacks from around the world. While $25 million and 500 000 credit card numbers may seem like a lot, let your jaw-drop a little lower as you see other heists from around the globe.

Citibank/UPS ‘Loss’

• 2005
• 3.9 million customers’ details stolen
• We’re a bit undecided on this one because the credit card details were supposedly lost as opposed to stolen, but that does nothing to make the almost 4 million customers whose details disappeared into thin air feel better.

The TJX heist

• 2007
• 1 million customers’ details stolen
• Credit card thief-extraordinaire Albert Gonzalez was behind this heist, stealing a reported $1 billion from the department store chain using a simple hacking method.

The 7-Eleven heist

• 2009
• 140 million customers’ details stolen
• One of Albert Gonzalez’s last heists before he got arrested, this raid made 7-Eleven shell out over $12 million to repay affected customers.

The CardSystems Inc. heist

• 2005
• 36 million customers’ details stolen
• 2005 was a bad year for credit card owners. While the financial extent of the attack isn’t clear, reports indicate this attack was an inside job.

The Best Western heist

• 2008
• 8 million customer’ details stolen
• This attack potentially bagged the still-unknown hackers $4 billion from guests’ credit card numbers. What’s more, the heist took almost a year before being detected.

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