LexisNexis hack suspects
p2pnet.net News:- Three hackers who are suspects in the LexisNexis data loss investigation say they had no bad intentions.
“The hackers, ages 16, 19 and 20, spoke with Wired News by phone Monday and said that in January and February they accessed LexisNexis data – which included the Social Security number, birth date, home address and driver’s license number of numerous celebrities and hacker friends – to claim bragging rights, rather than to steal identities or sell the information to identity thieves, as some published reports have stated,” says Wired News.
And two law enforcement authorities involved in the investigation say they’ve found no evidence, so far, “to indicate that the three hackers used the data to steal identities,” says the post, although they cautioned, that the investigation was still underway.
The three, suspects in the Secret Service’s Operation Boca Grande (Spanish for big mouth) “which resulted in raids last week on nine people in four states,” asked Wired News to keep their names secret because they haven’t yet been arrested or charged with a crime.
“A number of the suspects are members of a hacking group called Defonic Crew, who hang out on a forum at Digitalgangster.com where hackers trade information and brag about exploits. Of the three suspects Wired News spoke with, only Cam0 is a member of Defonic,” says the story, adding:
“Cam0 is also a suspect in the recent security breach of socialite Paris Hilton’s T-Mobile account and was investigated last summer after admitting to Wired News that he hacked America Online and stole AOL Instant Messaging screen names, among other exploits. He has yet to be charged for the AOL breaches but told Wired News on Monday that the AOL activity, which he began in 1997, was the “gateway drug” that emboldened him and other members of Defonic Crew to graduate to other hacking projects.
“If there was a security breach (at AOL), we were all a part of them…. That’s how we all started,” he said. “We all met up on AOL breaking into their crap. If it wasn’t for AOL none of this (LexisNexis stuff) would have happened.”
This April, LexisNexis reported 310,000 people had been endangered when hackers broke into its Seisnet subsidiary, “a data brokering company that compiles information from federal records and probably holds information [on] most US citizens,” continues PC Pro”.
It was originally thought only 32,000 accounts had been affected.
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See:-
Wired News – Database Hackers Reveal Tactics, May 25, 2005
endangered – LexisNexis breach: more, p2pnet, April 13, 2005
May 26th, 2005 at 4:38 am
Seisnet? Oh, where do I remember that name from? Oh yes, weren’t they the company who was the systems integrator for MATRIX? (Son of “Total Information Awareness”) I seem to recall that MATRIX was a scheme whereby the Feds pushed off the TIA-like ‘requirements’ onto the States to implement. One by one, many of the participating states pulled out of the deal, leaving only 5 and then the whole thing collapsed and was supposedly shut down about 2-3 months ago.
The fact that a group of teenaged AOL hackers managed to get behind the firewall of Seisnet makes me feel so much better.