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Acxiom Hacking Details Made Public

Posted by michael on from the may-not-need-new-credit-cards-after-all dept.

pgrote writes "As mentioned previously, the Acxiom consumer database company was compromised. More details have emerged including the background of the alleged hacker and the method used to gather access. It turns out he had access since December of 2002 and came in through an unsecured FTP server. The suspect was not a former employee of Acxiom as previously reported, but an employee of data mining company."

11 of 142 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Victims by Exiler · · Score: 2, Funny

    No, actually you'd be like 'oooh, something shiney!' while looking at a random techy toy, because if they didn't tell you about it you wouldn't have been informed and therefore could not have been pissed.

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    Banaaaana!
  2. Exclusive: Method used to gather access! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    get

  3. Translation by Arker · · Score: 5, Funny

    According to law enforcement officials, the person arrested was a known sophisticated hacker.

    Translation from law enforcement language - this was a guy that knows what things like encryption, and ftp are. This was a guy that knows the difference between a megabyte and a megahertz. A real wizard. Be afraid.

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    Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
    1. Re:Translation by Danse · · Score: 4, Funny

      Wow. Sounds like getting busted can do wonders for your self-esteem. Here the guy was probably a basic loser and managed to "hack" into an unsecured FTP server. Then he gets busted for it. Suddenly he's no longer Joe Loser, he's a sophisticated hacker to be feared and respected for his mastery of such arcane skills as using a password cracking app and an FTP app. How can we ever feel safe with such diabolical people out there?

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      It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
  4. pathetic by Feztaa · · Score: 4, Funny

    From the article:

    "Acxiom is proud of its long-standing commitment to the security of our systems and our efforts toward continuous improvements in that area,"

    As far as I can tell, this guy logged into an ftp server and downloaded some publicly accessible files, perhaps after breaking some simple encryption to get a password or something. yes, that's some impressive security they have there...

  5. What's more disturbing... by FuckMeter · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...is the mugshot of the guy responsible. Anyone want to start a pool on how many gallons of Bawls (and other ThinkGeek(TM) caffeinated products) this guy consumed in the 24 hours prior to his arrest??

    Rate Naked People! at Fuck Meter! (Not work-safe)

  6. ftp server by bucketoftruth · · Score: 4, Funny

    Does anyone know the address of the compromised ftp server? I'd like to check if it's still secure. Or someone else can...

  7. Acxiom? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Grief! Did they hack the company name too?

  8. Re:Question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
    So, on a system w/o shadow passwords, cd /etc; get passwd; is all that's needed to get started.

    Well if you're still running a system without shadow password support you need to get your head out of the sand and upgrade or migrate to something that isn't so obsolete. WTF are you running, SCO Unixware?

  9. So when do we see it? by /dev/trash · · Score: 2, Funny

    The IT I am referring to is of course the obligatory: Free Daniel J. Baas websites.

  10. holy moly by Beowulf_Boy · · Score: 4, Funny

    I found out today that this guy is my dads fiance's nephew.

    I've never met him, and apparently he has prior marijuana charges (just look at his pic), but from what I heard from his family, he's absolutely fucked, and is looking at spending the rest of his life in a "federal pound you in the ass prison"