13 January 2012
JEDDAH - Credit card details of more than 5,000 Saudi and non-Saudi card-holders were compromised in the latest hacking attack, two leading banks confirmed to the Saudi Gazette, Wednesday evening.
Senior bank officials said that the banks have sent text messages to their clients asking them to report to the banks any unauthorized transactions involving their credit or ATM cards.
"We are planning to issue new credit cards to account holders whose details were posted online," said the bank officials speaking on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, two Saudi-based credit card-holders Wednesday told a news agency that their personal details were compromised by an Israeli hacker who published details of what he claims are more than 200 Saudi-owned credit cards.
The two individuals, whose names appear on the Israeli hacker's list, said their banks confirmed irregularities with their credit cards.
They spoke to the news agency on condition of anonymity and refused to give further details.
In an overnight online posting titled "FREE Saudi's Credit Cards!" the hacker listed the names, email addresses, phone numbers and numbers of 217 cards, of which more than 160 appeared to have expiry dates that were still valid.
The hacker used the nickname "0xOmer" and identified himself as "Omer Cohen from Israel."
But in a Twitter posting, he refused to expose the cards' security codes, or CVC numbers, saying the aim was just to "alert."
Last week, a hacker who claimed to be from Saudi Arabia posted details of thousands of Israeli credit cards online in two separate incidents, and reportedly infected those following the hack with a Trojan horse virus.
In the first incident, the perpetrator, who identified himself as "0xOmar" from group-xp, said he had posted details of 400,000 cards online.
Three days later, he said he had published another 11,000 card details but it turned out to be malware that infected anyone who downloaded the information.
Israel's main credit card companies said about 20,000 valid cards had been affected.
Israeli news website Ynet said it had contacted Israeli hackers who claimed to have obtained details of thousands of credit cards used on Saudi shopping websites but were "waiting for the right moment to publish it."
JEDDAH - Credit card details of more than 5,000 Saudi and non-Saudi card-holders were compromised in the latest hacking attack, two leading banks confirmed to the Saudi Gazette, Wednesday evening.
Senior bank officials said that the banks have sent text messages to their clients asking them to report to the banks any unauthorized transactions involving their credit or ATM cards.
"We are planning to issue new credit cards to account holders whose details were posted online," said the bank officials speaking on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, two Saudi-based credit card-holders Wednesday told a news agency that their personal details were compromised by an Israeli hacker who published details of what he claims are more than 200 Saudi-owned credit cards.
The two individuals, whose names appear on the Israeli hacker's list, said their banks confirmed irregularities with their credit cards.
They spoke to the news agency on condition of anonymity and refused to give further details.
In an overnight online posting titled "FREE Saudi's Credit Cards!" the hacker listed the names, email addresses, phone numbers and numbers of 217 cards, of which more than 160 appeared to have expiry dates that were still valid.
The hacker used the nickname "0xOmer" and identified himself as "Omer Cohen from Israel."
But in a Twitter posting, he refused to expose the cards' security codes, or CVC numbers, saying the aim was just to "alert."
Last week, a hacker who claimed to be from Saudi Arabia posted details of thousands of Israeli credit cards online in two separate incidents, and reportedly infected those following the hack with a Trojan horse virus.
In the first incident, the perpetrator, who identified himself as "0xOmar" from group-xp, said he had posted details of 400,000 cards online.
Three days later, he said he had published another 11,000 card details but it turned out to be malware that infected anyone who downloaded the information.
Israel's main credit card companies said about 20,000 valid cards had been affected.
Israeli news website Ynet said it had contacted Israeli hackers who claimed to have obtained details of thousands of credit cards used on Saudi shopping websites but were "waiting for the right moment to publish it."
© The Saudi Gazette 2012
