Computer Crime

Identity theft is soaring in California, and street gangs are angling for a piece of the action. Recent cases point to an interest in identity fraud by organizations as diverse as a Long Beach chapter of the Crips, the Armenian Power gang and the prison-based Mexican Mafia, according to law enforcement officials and fraud experts. The trend among criminals better known for violence and drug trafficking goes against type.

Senior military leaders took the exceptional step of briefing President Bush this week on a severe and widespread electronic attack on Defense Department computers that may have originated in Russia -- an incursion that posed unusual concern among commanders and raised potential implications for national security. Defense officials would not describe the extent of damage inflicted on military networks. But they said that the attack struck hard at networks within U.S.

MoneyGram International Inc., which wires money and provides electronic bill paying, said computer hackers might have stolen personal data on about 79,000 customers. A computer server was "unlawfully accessed via the Internet" last month, Minneapolis-based MoneyGram said. The company said it did not know whether hackers actually compromised any customer information.

TJX Cos., operator of T.J. Maxx and Marshalls discount stores, said its computer systems were hacked in mid-December and customer data had been stolen. TJX said the extent of the intrusion was not yet known. It said the break-in was kept confidential upon the request of law enforcement officials.

Customer data stolen by computer hackers from TJX Cos. has been used to make fraudulent debit card and credit card purchases in the U.S. and overseas, the Massachusetts Bankers Assn. said. The fraudulent purchases have been made in Florida, Georgia and Louisiana, and overseas in Hong Kong and Sweden, the association said. Last week, TJX said hackers had broken into a system that handles credit and debit card transactions as well as checks and merchandise returns.

Hackers briefly overwhelmed at least three of the 13 computers that help manage global computer traffic Tuesday in one of the most significant attacks against the Internet since 2002. Experts said the unusually powerful attacks lasted as long as 12 hours but passed largely unnoticed by most computer users, a testament to the resiliency of the Internet.

The FBI launched an investigation Wednesday after a hacker broke into the website of a Southern California organization of Islamic religious leaders, leaving an expletive-laced message against Muslims. The person attacked the website of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California late Tuesday, said the group's executive director, Shakeel Syed. The Anaheim-based group is a coalition of imams and religious leaders from 75 mosques.

TJX Cos., a discount retailer that operates the T.J. Maxx and Marshalls stores, said an unauthorized intrusion into its computer systems might have occurred beginning in July 2005, almost a year earlier than the company previously believed. Credit and debit card data from transactions in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada between January 2003 and June 2004 may have been compromised, Framingham, Mass.-based TJX said.

By promising to join the military, a former Long Island police officer avoided jail time and probation Monday for hacking into his ex-girlfriend's online dating account and setting up dates for her with men she didn't know. Michael Valentine, 29, was charged in April with 197 counts, including stalking, computer tampering and harassment. He pleaded guilty in June to two misdemeanor charges of unauthorized use of a computer.

As Los Angeles and hundreds of other communities push to turn themselves into massive wireless hotspots, unsuspecting Internet users are stumbling onto hacker turf, giving computer thieves nearly effortless access to their laptops and private information, authorities and high-tech security experts say.