TJX Breach Began With WEP Crack

An anonymous reader sends us to the Wall Street Journal for a detailed report on what is known to date about the TJX data breach. It seems that the loss of over 45 million credit card numbers and more than 450,000 SSNs, driver's license numbers, and military identifications began with someone using a "telescope-shaped" antenna at a wireless link at a Marshall's near St. Paul, Minnesota in July 2005. The link was encrypted using WEP, which had been known to be broken since 2001. The crackers who got into the TJX central databases are believed to be Romanians or Russians with ties to the Russian mobs. The eventual cost of the TXJ fiasco could exceed $1 billion — not including the numerous lawsuits filed against the retailer.

Comments

They got lucky

[MechaShiva]

Fortunately, the mobsters only used a telescope shaped device to improve their range.

Imagine if they had known enough to make a satellite dish, of sorts...

you can do this yourself for online transactions

[Artifex]

Many credit card companies now allow you to generate temporary card numbers with user-set caps on spending, on their websites.