A hacker broke into a Homeland Security Department telephone system over the weekend and racked up about $12,000 in calls to the Middle East and Asia.

The hacker made more than 400 calls on a Federal Emergency Management Agency voicemail system in Emmitsburg, Md., on Saturday and Sunday, according to FEMA spokesman Tom Olshanski.

Learn more about this breach in security. Read the full AP article.

(Excerpted from the Associated Press, written by Eileen Sullivan)

The days of hackers sending out viruses for kicks and the creation of general mayhem are giving way to a world of sophisticated, targeted attacks that can reap big rewards for criminals and degrade consumer trust in companies. Organizations that one might think would be the most secure have recently been compromised. Is your company ready to guard against the prying eyes of hackers?

“A recent computer security breach that left 40 million credit cards vulnerable to fraud shows how online criminals are scoring big by thinking small. Cybercriminals are increasingly crafting more focused attacks with a potential for profit as they target one or two companies at a time, rather than blasting out Internet virus attacks across the globe, according to security experts.

The payoffs can be enormous. MasterCard International Inc. said on Friday that an outsider gained access to as many as 40 million credit and debit cards from CardSystems Solutions Inc., a payment processor (see “Security breach may have exposed 40M credit cards”). A MasterCard spokeswoman said yesterday that the attacker had placed a malicious computer script on CardSystems computers…”

(Information excerpted from Andy Sullivan’s ComputerWorld story.)

Many people believe that the greatest threat to an organization comes from thieves or hackers who will try to break into your system from the outside. But as this article by Douglas Schweitzer illustrates, it’s the danger that lurks on the inside that can most easily catch you off guard.

“On Aug. 23, 2004, a former employee of Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates Inc., a large high-tech company in Gloucester, Mass., was charged in federal court with computer hacking that allegedly caused significant damage to Varian’s computer systems…”

Learn more about extrusion by reading the ComputerWorld story, and get more information about StandGuard and how it can ensure that your data is safe by visiting the main StandGuard page.