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.)