http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-5192742.html?tag=mn_hd

Software e-tailer alerts customers to breach
By Cecily Barnes
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
March 20, 2001, 9:30 a.m. PT

Online software store AtomicPark.com notified approximately 500
customers this week that a hacker stole credit card numbers from its
Web site last week.

The company, which advised customers to immediately contact their
credit card providers, said the hacker has made at least one charge on
an Internet pornography site using stolen information. The person has
also attempted to divert as much as $25,000 from a corporate credit
card to Indonesia, the company said.

"We've taken measures to make sure this can't happen again, and we've
brought on the FBI," said William G. Abraham, a sales coordinator with
AtomicPark.

AtomicPark discovered the security breach after being contacted by a
customer inquiring about an unauthorized charge, Abraham said. The
company then determined that the hacker had set up a so-called sniffer
system, which let him or her access credit card numbers as they were
being input into the system.

"The (person) sets up a clone bank, so that when the stuff gets
entered in here, it also gets entered over there," Abraham said. "Our
database has significantly more than 500 credit card numbers in it;
that's why with this program there was only a very small window where
(he or she) got 500."

The company on Monday sent the following e-mail notification to the
approximately 500 customers it believes had their information
compromised in the attack:

"Unfortunately, this message is to inform you that during the week
ending 3/17/01, the security of our Web site, AtomicPark.com, was
breached from an intruder. Regrettably, we are unable to divulge in
the details of the scenario because of an investigation with the FBI,
but we can tell you that the investigation thus far suggests that
there are approximately 500 customers that are at risk. You are being
notified because you are unfortunately in that group of 500 customers
that are at risk."

Joe Etherage was one of the e-mail recipients. He said he immediately
contacted his credit card company and had them cancel his account.

"I think after this experience, I think I'll just go with larger
vendors," Etherage said. "It was pretty much a shock to find out their
site had been breached."

Security breaches have become increasingly common on the Internet,
with hackers often obtaining personal customer information, including
credit card numbers.

Earlier this month, Amazon.com-owned Bibliofind was forced to shut
down its Web site after some 98,000 customer accounts were exposed. In
January, a security hole at Travelocity.com exposed the personal
information of up to 51,000 customers, and a breach at Egghead.com in
December potentially exposed its entire 3.7 million-customer database.

Perhaps the most high-profile security breach took place last October
when hackers succeeded in breaking into Microsoft's corporate network.
Some security experts said they believed that if hackers could
infiltrate a system as large and protected as Microsoft's, then
nobody's site was safe.