BRITAIN

Hacker gang blackmails firms with stolen files
by Jon Ungoed-Thomas and Stan Arnaud

A BRITISH group of hackers has broken into the computer systems of at least 12 multinational companies and stolen confidential files. It has issued ransom demands of up to £10m and is also suspected of hiring out its services.

Scotland Yard is now investigating the attacks, which computer experts have described as the most serious systematic breach ever of companies' security in Britain.

"The group is using very sophisticated techniques and has been exchanging information via e-mail and internet chat," said an investigator.

Visa confirmed last week that it had received a ransom demand last month, believed to have been for £10m.

"We were hacked into in mid-July last year," said Russ Yarrow, a company spokesman. "They gained access to some corporate material and we informed both Scotland Yard and the FBI."

It is understood the hackers stole computer "source codes" that are critical to programming, and threatened to crash the entire system. If Visa's system crashed for just one day, the company - which handles nearly £1 trillion business a year from customers holding 800m Visa cards - could lose tens of millions of pounds.

"We received a phone call and an e-mail to an office in England demanding money," Yarrow said.

The company contacted police after the ransom demand. "We hardened the system, we sealed it and they did not return. We have firewalls upon firewalls, but are concerned that anyone got in."

Scotland Yard's computer crime unit is now scrutinising e-mail traffic between several known hackers in England and Scotland. Last month officers from the unit flew to Hopeman, a Scottish fishing village, and seized equipment from the home of James Grant, who works for a local computer company. He has been interviewed by detectives and Visa security experts.

It is understood that he has given a legal undertaking to Visa not to discuss the matter. "He is saying nothing at all," said his mother, Rhona. "That is a situation that will not change in the future."

Grant, 20, studied computing in nearby Elgin, and now works for Data Converters, based in Elgin. His father is a member of the civilian security staff at RAF Lossiemouth air base and his mother a care worker.

Detectives are studying attacks on at least 12 companies that they believe have been penetrated by the group and others that may be connected, including one within the Virgin group, in which a hacker tried to break into the UK mailing system. They believe the group may also be acting as paid specialists for information brokers who trade corporate secrets.

"These are professionals and there is some evidence that suggests some of the activity was contracted and paid for," said a computer expert involved in the investigation.

The group's success has exposed flaws in security. The internet company CD Universe last week confirmed it had called in the FBI after being blackmailed by a hacker who had copied more than 300,000 of its customer credit card files.