Date: Mon, 20 Apr 92 0:35:50 CDT From: Net Wrider Subject: File 10--"Hacker Ring Broken Up" (NYT) "A Nationwide Computer-Fraud Ring Run by Young Hackers Is Broken Up" SAN DIEGO, April 18 (AP) -- The authorities say they have cracked a nationwide network of young computer hackers who were able to break into the electronic files of at least one credit-rating company and make fraudulent credit-card purchases that may have run into the millions of dollars. For the last four years or more, as many as 1,000 members of the informal underground network have shared information about how to break computer security codes, make charges on other people's credit cards and create credit card accounts, said Dennis Sadler, a detective with the San Diego police, whose officers stumbled upon the network last month while investigating a local case of credit-card fraud. The hackers also learned how to break personal security codes for automated bank teller machines, Mr. Sadler said, and obtained telephone access codes to make long distance calls without paying. "These kids can get any information they want on you -- period," Mr. Sadler told the San Diego Union-Tribune, which first reported on the ring of hackers in an article on Friday. "We didn't believe it until it was demonstrated to us." The investigation has led to two arrests in Ohio and to the seizure of computers and related material in New York City, the Philadelphia area and Seattle, Mr. Sadler said. But he described those cases as merely off-shoots of the main investigation, which he refused to discuss in detail, saying that the inquiry was continuing and that scores of arrests were pending around the country. Computer criminals typically make fraudulent credit-card purchases by gathering detailed information from the electronic files of credit reporting agencies, banks and other businesses. MasterCard International reported $381 million in losses from credit-card fraud around the world last year, and Visa International says its fraud losses amounted to $259 million in 1989, about 0.1 percent of its worldwide sales. At least part of the investigation here is focusing on information that the hackers obtained illegally from computers at Equifax Credit Information Services, an Atlanta-based credit-reporting agency. Tina Black, a spokeswoman for the company, said, "We're still in the process of investigating, and we're working very closely with San Diego police." Equifax, one of the nation's three largest credit bureaus, has a data base of about 170 million credit files, but Ms. Black said fewer than 25 files had been compromised. Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253