Hackers crack A&B site
Gillian Shaw
Vancouver Sun
Saturday 19 May 2001

Link(dead as of 10/22/2006): http://www.vancouversun.com/newsite/business/010519/5020497.html



Internet shoppers surfing A&B Sound's online store early Friday were
surprised to find customer names, credit-card numbers and expiry dates
on the Web site before the company discovered the security breach and
shut it down.

The breach affected only shoppers with outstanding orders at the
online store. A&B Sound was contacting those customers Friday, warning
them to contact their credit-card issuer. Customers at the company's
regular retail outlets were not affected.

A & B Sound representative Tim Howley said his company and police are
investigating the breach, which was thought to have occurred in the
early hours of Friday morning. He said the company doesn't yet know
where the hacker originated or how security was compromised.

"We want to assure people we're full steam ahead on an investigation
and we're taking it very seriously," Howley said.

Reading from a press release, he said:

"A&B has reason to believe that credit-card information belonging to
customers who had open, unprocessed orders on the Web site may have
been obtained, and unauthorized use of that information may have
occurred. www.absound.ca was immediately shut down by A&B Sound
pending an internal and police investigation.

"A&B Sound emphasizes thebreach is limited to open, unprocessed online
orders and that the security of credit-card information belonging to
its retail-store customers has not been affected in any way."

Howley said the Web site, which sells only movies and CDs, accounts
for only one per cent of the company's retail sales. He said he
wouldn't know the number of credit cards affected by the breach until
the investigation is complete.

[snip...]