NEW YORK (AP) — It doesn’t surprise experts that some
debit and credit card numbers stolen from Target’s computer systems may
have surfaced among nearly 100 fake credit cards seized by police in
Texas this week.
Even so, they say the bust is unlikely to lead
authorities directly to the hackers behind the breach, given the vast,
labyrinthine nature of the global market for stolen data.
According
to police in McAllen, Texas, two Mexican citizens arrested at the
border used account information stolen during the pre- Christmas Target
breach to buy tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise. But
the U.S. Secret Service said Tuesday its investigation into the
possibility of a link between the Target data theft and the arrests
remains ongoing.
Target says hackers stole about 40 million debit
and credit card numbers from cards swiped at its stores between Nov. 27
and Dec. 15. The thieves also took personal information — including
email addresses, phone numbers, names and home addresses — for another
70 million people.
In the aftermath of the breach, millions of
Americans have been left to wonder what’s become of their precious
personal information. Chester Wisniewski, senior security adviser for
the computer security firm Sophos, says in cases where such a massive
amount of information is stolen, criminals generally divide the data
into chunks and sell the parcels in online black markets.
In many
ways, those markets behave much like any legitimate marketplace ruled by
the forces of supply and demand. Groups of higher-end cards are worth
significantly more than those with lower credit limits and so are cards
tied to additional personal information, such as names, addresses and
zip codes, which make them easier to use.
After thieves purchase
the numbers, they can encode the data onto new, blank cards with an
inexpensive, easy-to-use gadget. Or they can skip the card-writing
process and simply use the card numbers online.
Crooks often have
the option to buy cards last used in their area. That way, Wisniewski
says, the cards attract less attention from the banks that issued them.
According
to police, the pair arrested at the U.S.-Mexican border used cards
containing the account information of Target shoppers from South Texas.
Police say the two used fraudulent cards to purchase numerous items at
national retailers in the area.
The underground markets always
have a steady supply of card numbers on sale and their locations are
always moving as they try to elude law enforcement, says Daniel
Ingevaldson, chief technology officer at Easy Solutions Inc., a firm
that sells anti-fraud products and tracks the activity of the online
black markets. A big jump in inventory usually indicates there’s been a
breach of a major retailer. That’s what Ingevaldson’s firm saw in the
cases of both Target and Neiman Marcus, which also recently reported a
breach.
While many of these online bazaars and forums are based in
Russia and Eastern Europe, much of the chatter is in English and
appears to have been written by Americans, Ingevaldson says.
The types of criminals who buy the card numbers run the gamut, ranging from purely online white-collar
crooks to street gangs.
"In
reality, card numbers can be bought by anybody with access to the
forums and a few Bitcoins in their pocket," Ingevaldson says.
Wisniewski
says the people who buy card numbers online and produce the fake cards
aren’t the ones who try to use them. Using the cards is the riskiest
part of the fraud scheme, so the task is usually farmed out to others
who are often recruited through spam emails. The recruiters then send
them fraudulent debit and credit cards and instruct them to buy large
quantities of expensive merchandise or gift cards in exchange for a
small percentage of their value.
Card users, once caught, often
only have a handler’s email address to share with police, making it
nearly impossible to find the recruiters, Wisniewski says.
Both
analysts say Russia and former Soviet countries are a hotbed for hackers
behind these kinds of schemes. The region has a large population of
highly educated computer science professionals and law enforcement is
extremely lax when it comes to fraud that occurs overseas and not in the
hackers’ home country.
Wisniewski and Ingevaldson also believe
the original authors of the malicious software used in the Target breach
are likely based in Russia or Eastern Europe, as some reports on the
breach have suggested. But it’s unlikely the original programmers do any
hacking themselves. They can make a nice living simply selling the code
to those who do.
"Keep in mind, it isn’t illegal to write these
kind of codes, just to use them," Wisniewski says. "And selling them is a
lot less risky than taking cards into an Apple store."
___
Bree Fowler can be reached at http://twitter.com/APBreeFowler
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.