485,000 Credit Cards' Info Cached on US Govt Site

By Sushuma March 17, 2000 10:41 AM

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(MSNBC)-In the largest known case of cybertheft, a hacker stole data on more than 485,000 credit cards from an e-commerce site, then stored the database on an undisclosed US government agency's website.?Although credit card companies notified banks, many of the compromised accounts still remain open because the banks neither closed them nor notified customers of the theft, which occurred in January 1999.?A letter from Visa USA to member financial institutions revealed that the card info - including expiration dates and cardholder names & addresses - was stolen by a hacker.?The store of data was discovered on an unspecified government computer system during an audit, before March 1999.?The ongoing investigation has traced the perpetrator to Eastern Europe.?More...

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