Six more U.S. retailers hit by Target-like hacks

Security firm IntelCrawler also identified a 17-year-old Russian it says wrote the BlackPOS malware, a version of which was used against Target

 

IDG News Service - Cybercriminals have stolen payment card data from six more U.S. retailers using similar point-of-sale malware that compromised Target, a computer crime intelligence company said Friday.

The conclusion comes from a study of members-only forums where cybercriminals buy and sell data and malicious software tools, said Dan Clements, president of IntelCrawler, which conducted the analysis.
The retailers have not been publicly named, but IntelCrawler is providing technical information related to the breaches to law enforcement, Clements said in a telephone interview Friday.
IntelCrawler has also identified a 17-year-old Russian who it says created the BlackPOS malware, which intercepts unencrypted payment card data after a card is swiped. Security experts believe malware based on BlackPOS was used against Target.
The teenager, who goes by the online nickname "ree4," sold more than 40 copies of BlackPOS to cybercriminals in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, according to forum postings IntelCrawler analyzed.
Clements said IntelCrawler is "90 percent" sure of its finding, based on the forum postings and sources it communicated with.
The forum posts indicate the teenager sold the malware for US$2,000 or for a share of the profits that came from monetizing stolen payment card details, Clements said.
BlackPOS was also sold to "carding" websites such as .rescator, Track2.name and Privateservices.biz that trade in stolen card details, according to IntelCrawler.
BlackPOS was originally called Kaptoxa, which is Russian slang for potato. Clements said the Russian teenager eventually renamed the malware BlackPOS during a fresh marketing push.
Dallas-based security company iSight Partners wrote in a report earlier this week on the Target hack, which it called the "Kaptoxa operation." It says the hackers used a high level of skill to gain stealthy access to the retailer's network.
Since early 2013, IntelCrawler has seen a brisk trade in login credentials for POS terminals on underground forums, suggesting cybercriminals are still finding gaps in industry security recommendations for how payment card data is handled.
Cybercriminals were selling "remote desktop protocol" credentials for POS terminals, which would allow them access to the machines, Clements said.
In many cases, default passwords had not been changed on the terminals, which were located in the U.S., Australia and Canada, he said. In other cases, cybercriminals were successfully trying many combinations of usernames and passwords to find the right one, known as a brute-force attack.

 

 

Sunanda Pushkar's death sudden, unnatural, reveals autopsy report

2.30 pm: In some starling revelations, the Board of senior AIIMS doctors who conducted the autopsy on Sunanda Pushkar, concluded that the post mortem suggests that it was a case of 'sudden unnatural death'.

However, Dr Sudhir Gupta, Autopsy Board AIIMS ruled out the presence of poison in her body. Dr Guota also mentioned that there were i njury marks on Sunanda's body.

Her remians have been handed over to Shahsi Tharoor who is in the ambulance with Sunanda's body.
2.15 pm: The post mortem of Sunanda Puskhar's body has been completed at AIIMS and her remains handed over to husband Shashi Tharoor. The last rites of Pushkar are likely to be conducted at the Lodhi Road crematorium later on Saturday evening.

Sources said some of Pushkar's family members, including her brother and son Shiv Menon, visited AIIMS where the autopsy was conducted by a three-member panel of senior doctors.

12.30 pm: A board of three doctors, led by Dr Sudhir Gupta, on Saturday began conducting the post mortem of Sunanda Puskhar, wife of minister of state for Human Resources Development Shashi Tharoor, who was found dead in a Delhi hotel room. All proceedings are being videographed.

Earlier, a day after Sunanda was found dead, police suspected it could be a case of accidental overdose (accidental poisoning) of medicine leading to failure of respiratory system.

They have been informed by forensic experts in the absence of normal tell-tale signs of suicide. This possibility is quite high.

If somebody consumes overdose of anti-depressants, the person, all of a sudden, discovers he/she can't breathe since it leads to paralysis of lung muscles.

Sunanda Pushkar

Police sources said on Saturday at the time when her body was discovered, she was on the bed, in the normal sleeping posture, wearing a night suit (top and pyjama). They said she had covered her body with a blanket, but did not cover her face.

"Nothing unusual was found inside the room to suggest there were any signs of her struggle," police sources had said, adding, there were some blue marks on her body, but forensic experts had said earlier, sometimes it happened naturally after a person's death. 

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/nothing-ususual-in-sunandas-room-to-suggest-struggle-sdm-to-probe-death/1/338448.html

Two students shot at Philadelphia high school

(Reuters) - Two students were shot and wounded on Friday at a charter high school in northern Philadelphia, police said, in the latest string of school shootings that have helped fuel a national debate over gun laws.
The injuries were not believed to be life-threatening, according to Philadelphia Police spokeswoman Christine O'Brien.
Investigators have not said who fired the shots. A boy was taken into custody, but later cleared, said Philadelphia Police Lieutenant John Stanford.
"Initially, he was thought to be the shooter, but investigators were able to determine the kid was not a shooter, Stanford said. "He was there but I don't believe he was involved."
Another boy turned himself in and was being interviewed by police late Friday night, Stanford said. A third boy was also supposed to turn himself in, but had not yet done so.
Local television station 6ABC reported that a 15-year-old girl and boy had been shot in the school gymnasium.
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey told reporters Friday evening they were still investigating the motive. The afternoon shooting at the Delaware Valley Charter High School was caught on video, he said.
Earlier, police used Twitter to urge the suspected shooter to surrender.
"SHOOTER - Turn yourself in. Get it over with now," they said.
The wounded students were listed in stable condition at a local hospital, the television station said.
The incident follows a shooting on Tuesday at a New Mexico middle school, where a 12-year-old boy is accused of opening fire with a shotgun and seriously wounding two students.
In October, a 12-year-old boy in Sparks, Nevada, opened fire at his school, killing a teacher and wounding two students before killing himself.
The shootings come amid a contentious national debate on gun control that intensified after a young gunman killed 26 people at an elementary school in Connecticut in December 2012.
(Reporting by Daniel Kelley; Additional reporting by Marina Lopes and Lisa Maria Garza; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst, Gunna Dickson, Sharon Bernstein and Lisa Shumaker)