Terrorism funded with stolen data

Andrew R. Cochran, founder and Co-Editor of the Counterterrorism Blog, delivered a statement dated March 31, 2009, to the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology Hearing, United States House Committee on Homeland Security.

The statement entitled "Do the Payment Card Industry Data Standards Reduce Cybercrime?" outlined a number of instances in which stolen U.S. credit cards were used to fund terrorist attacks.

Cochran asked the subcommittee to review the evidence he was presenting and "the effectiveness of the PCI standards to reduce data breaches, identity theft and the potential funding of terrorism." He also extended an offer to assist them in that mission. The Counterterrorism Blog, with its host of experts from both the government and private sector, reports on and analyzes terrorist attacks and counterterrorism policies.

Cochran chaired a special panel in February 2009, Meta-Terror: Terrorism and the Virtual World. His statement to the subcommittee summarized information from that event and pertinent entries in the Counterterrorism Blog by its experts, including Dennis Lormel, who led the FBI's investigation into the financing of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The following was included in his summary.

The plastic trail

• The 2004 Madrid train bombings and the 2005 London transportation system attack were paid for in part by credit card fraud.
• Indonesian and Jamaah Islamiah terrorist, Imam Samudra, who masterminded the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings, wrote a manifesto in prison in 2004 in which he recommended that Muslim radicals attack U.S. computers, which he described as vulnerable to hacking, credit card fraud and money laundering. That same year, Indonesian police noted that their country had the greatest incidence of credit card fraud in the world.
• Three terrorists set up shop on the Internet to provide forums, training, education, recruitment and outfitting for terrorists worldwide. They used computer viruses and stolen credit card accounts to fund the operation.
• The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam financed international terrorist activities with credit card fraud.

Call for collaboration

Continue Reading at The Greensheet