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USAJobs.gov Web site hacked

by on04 September 2007

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Hackers steal data from another U.S. Web site

 

Apparently the hackers who used the Trojan horse virus, Infostealer.Monstres, at Monster.com to steal users’ data also used it to misappropriate data of persons who had registered online at www.usajobs.gov, the Web site that lists U.S. federal government civil service jobs available through the Office of Personnel Management. 

The Trojan reportedly used legitimate stolen login data to steal the names, addresses, e-mail addresses and phone numbers of at least 140,000 people registered with the USAJobs database, and has the information of at least 1.3 million people overall. The Trojan virus reportedly operates by sending huge amounts of spam to the e-mail addresses it has harvested through phony “phishing” e-cards, E-mails from banks asking for account verification and check cashing information, posting of pornographic messages asking users to click for more information, etc. 

When the phishing information is verified by the user clicking on it, that E-mail address is added to the databank of stolen identities, and likely stored for a later virus attack.   USAjobs reported that it is working with Monster to address this user.

In the meantime, if you are receiving phishing type E-mails, do not click on them! Delete them immediately.

Read more here.

Last modified on 04 September 2007
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