500,000 Aussie credit cards hacked

A group of hackers from Eastern Europe has racked up $25 million in fraudulent transactions after stealing half a million Australian credit cards, the Australian Federal Police has revealed.

With investigations continuing the federal police could not release more detailed information but could confirm that they were working with law enforcement bodies in other countries in a joint effort to bring down the organised hacking ring.

"The Australian Federal Police can confirm it is currently investigating a series of merchants whose individual computer systems have been compromised," a spokeswoman told The Age.

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"The compromise is believed to have involved approximately 500,000 credit cards and resulted in more than $25 million in fraudulent transactions."

Local Secure Business intelligence site, SC magazine, reports that the Eastern European criminal syndicate had hacked into a poorly set up network run by a small Australian business.

The magazine, which specializes in data security, said that the syndicate found its victims by trawling the internet for vulnerable point of sale (POS) terminals.

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Detective Superintendent Brad Marden told SC Magazine that Australia’s major banks have placed the cards on high alert pre-empting a spate of fraudulent transactions should the cards be sold off on underground criminal forums.

“The Australian business, which Det. Sup. Marden did not name citing the ongoing criminal investigation, operated a highly vulnerable network from which the 500,000 credit cards were stolen,”

The businesses highly vulnerable network was only “protected with default passwords and carried both benign and unsecured transactional data. The company had left RDP activated so it could monitor stocks,” reported the magazine.