To: waverider who wrote (61240 ) 1/10/2000 1:16:00 PM From: T L Comiskey Respond to of 152472
OT...."be careful about posting how many and how much one has of anything. Remember this thread can be seen by the entire planet. ENTIRE."........ The Associated Press N E W H A V E N, Conn., Jan. 10 ? A computer hacker stole credit card numbers from an Internet music retailer and posted them on a Web site after the retailer refused to pay a $100,000 ransom. The retailer, CD Universe, brought in Internet security specialists today to shore up its Web site, as the FBI tried to track down the hacker and customers contacted credit card companies to see if their own cards were compromised. The parent company of CD Universe, eUniverse of Wallingford, had not yet determined how the Web site was compromised or how many customers may have been affected. ?There?s no way to tell. It?s not a good situation,? said Brett Brewer, a vice president of eUniverse. 3000,000 Card Numbers The New York Times reported the hacker claimed to have taken 300,000 card numbers. The company did not know whether any customers? credit card numbers had been used to make unauthorized purchases, although the Times said the unknown extortionist claimed in e-mails that he used some of the numbers to obtain money. ?We haven?t had anybody call us and say, ?Hey, somebody just bought a car with my credit card,?? Brewer said. Brewer said that as an emergency measure, eUniverse was able to cancel customers? credit card numbers that had been stolen and was notifying those cardholders by e-mail. He said the credit card companies would automatically give those customers new cards. American Express Co. said today that its online fraud guarantee will protect its customers from responsibility for unauthorized online charges. In general, credit card holders are responsible for up to $50 of any unauthorized charge. Like many online retailers, CD Universe rode a burgeoning interest in online shopping at Christmas to bust open sales projections for music, movies, videos and games. CD Universe?s sales were $9.1 million last year and are projected to rise to $16 million this year, Brewer said. For the Internet as a whole, sales this past holiday season climbed more than 300 percent from the previous year to as much as $12 billion, above early expectations that sales would double. Hacker Demanded $100,000 The hacker, a self-described 19-year-old from Russia using the name Maxim, sent an e-mail to the Times boasting that he exploited a security flaw in the software used to protect financial information at CD Universe?s Web site. He said he sent a fax to the company last month offering to destroy his credit card files in exchange for $100,000. After he was rebuffed, he used a Web site called Maxus Credit Card Pipeline to distribute up to 25,000 of the stolen numbers, said Elias Levy of SecurityFocus.com, a computer security firm. The site was shut down Sunday morning. ?The Internet creates a whole new class of criminals,? Levy told the Times. The hacker e-mailed the Times the numbers for 198 credit cards as proof of the theft. The numbers were real, said the Times, and the newspaper attempted to contact the credit card owners. At least one owner confirmed she had been a CD Universe customer.