Hacker Posts Details of 3 Million Iranian Bank Accounts

Jeremiah Cornelius writes "Khosrow Zarefarid warned of a security flaw in Iran's banking system providing affected institutions the details, including 1,000 captured bank accounts. When the affected banks, including the largest state institutions didn't respond, Khosrow hacked 3 million accounts across at least 22 banks. He then dropped these details — including card numbers and PINs — on his blog. Three Iranian banks Saderat, Eghtesad Novin, and Saman have already warned customers to change their debit card PINs. 'Zarefarid is reportedly no longer in Iran, though it is unclear when he left.'"

Comments

"though it is unclear when he left"

[Black Parrot]

But not unclear *why* he left.

Re:"though it is unclear when he left"

[Alex Belits]

Right, because all enemies of US are related.

Iran is a rich Muslim theocracy with some attibutes of a Republic. North Korea is a poverty-stricken pseudo-monarchy with attributes of Stalinism. They are about as likely to be on the speaking terms with each other as Henry Kissinger with Alexander Chikatilo.

Re:"though it is unclear when he left"

[jamesbrx]

Exactly this. Iran and North Korea don't even do that much business together. They might do when necessary, but the two countries are otherwise completely different. It blows my mind how little US people know about rest of the world. Iran does more business and shares thinking more with Russia and CIS countries. North Korea does business and shares thinking with China and Myanmar.

Re:"though it is unclear when he left"

[Sir_Sri]

Not really true. Iran and North Korea are very much in the 'enemy of my enemy' stage of life, and they are both quite friendly with russia and to a lesser extent both with china.

They may not be ideologically aligned to each other, but given their mutual enemy and mutual ally, they're willing to talk to each other. Who do you think is still buying all this iranian oil that is being extracted now that the previous markets can't and won't buy it? China and North korea. Who does North Korea sell missiles and technology to? (The Taepodong series specifically, as well as some shorter range surface to surface missiles), Yemen, Syria, Iran and a few others. The north koreans need currency, the iranians have currency, the north koreans need oil, the iranians have oil, the iranians need missiles to strike Saudi, Iraq and Israel, the north koreans have missiles.

They are as far apart ideologically as Stalin and Hitler, and yet for years those two managed to get along oddly well, exchanging training and agreeing to carve up poland together. Iran and North Korea may not be all that ideologically compatible, but they have nothing to particularly drive a wedge between them (unlike stalin and hitler). They each have things the other wants, no directly overlapping or conflicting interests and a shared enemy in the united states, who, helpfully, binned them together in an 'axis of evil', and if they weren't playing nice before, that gave them a good kick in the ass to start playing nice with each other.

They very much are on strong speaking terms and technological exchange, through russia, through china and at sea. They are both under heavy sanctions meaning their selection of possible trade partners is rather limited, and that means they take what they can get. If you think they at least up until recently weren't on very good terms you should pull your head out of the sand. The new North Korea, under Kim Jong Un, and the current state of affairs in Iran, along with the situations in Burma and Pakistan throw into question any future agreements. A Burma out of chinas sphere of influence, and a pakistan not interested in technological exchanges significantly limit their access to resources and cash, and might significantly shake up their desired alliances.

That said, you're right, in that they have no real long term collaborative goals. At the first opportunity I'm sure both of them would love to do business with someone else. But until a better opportunity comes along you go with the friends your enemies have given you.

Re:"though it is unclear when he left"

[Anonymous Coward]

What sort of natural resources does Switzerland have?

All of these wars are about one thing: resources. Thats it. It has nothing to do with democracy, religion, west vs. whoever, etc. Those are all guises for the boob tube crowd. It is all about, as are all wars, resources.

Not making this realization is the fundamental flaw in all analyses of these issues. You run off on a tangent about how the stated goals make no sense and we need to this and that, its not working, blah blah blah. However, if you understand the true motivations, it works like a charm. Not only are we destabilizing the region, we are enriching powerful people/corporations by funneling American tax dollars through a war torn state, right back into the pockets of the wealthy. Its a great money laundering scheme for stealing from the people, and it creates a destabilized region where military might is the only "solution" to peace. Which in turn gives access to the resources and keeps them available for the nations with the most powerful military.

Re:"though it is unclear when he left"

[Shoten]

And yet, both got the technology to produce weapons-grade uranium from the same Pakistani, A.Q. Khan. Don't assume that differing political systems and ideologies is an absolute block against cooperation. I think it's ridiculous that they'd have this guy in North Korea; Iran isn't exactly a country with a need to offshore their state security apparatus, nor do they have some fanatical devotion to not saying anything that is technically untrue.

Re:What a great guy

[deek]

Not quite as much distrust and suspicion as they have regarding "bankers".

Re:"Zarefarid is reportedly no longer in Iran, tho

[jamesbrx]

Interestingly, more than likely this is a joint operation between the United States and Israel. They have tried to get Iran trade embargoed for a long time, and more than likely are pissed off that Iran has developed their own technology to process payments and POS transactions. It is similar to USA's actions with North Korea, just that Iran is even more developed country. Both Israel and USA have been extremely aggressive towards Iran, despite the fact that I see no such aggression coming from them. I just think it's interesting.

What a hack job of reporting!

[masouds]

Points of fact:
1) He didn't hack any banks. He was working in a payment processing company that had monopoly in Iran.
2) The card numbers and pin numbers were kept in clear text in their internal systems
3) He did complain about it repeatedly to his bosses, who blew him off
4) He posted the pin numbers and account numbers to a blog. Pin numbers have some digits before and after; They are not quite usable in person. In order to use them online a second pin is required which was not posted.
5) the Payment processing center's license has been revoked, and all people are in panic trying to change their pin numbers. The only action all ATMs allow is pin change.

Re:"Zarefarid is reportedly no longer in Iran, tho

[schwit1]

Let the UN control? The same organization that put Cuba, Egypt, Russia, Saudi Arabia, China and Sudan on its human rights panel?