Malaysian hacker breached Federal Reserve and DoD contractor networks

When agents arrested Malasyian Lin Mun Poo on account of selling US$1,000 worth of stolen credit card numbers just hours after he arrived in the U.S., they probably weren’t expecting to find on his laptop more than 400,000 stolen credit and debit card account numbers.

Arrested on October 21, Poo was indicted yesterday on various charges that include hacking, fraud and identity theft, since the consequent investigation revealed that he has made a career of hacking into banks and various corporations, stealing and selling the information he got his hands on.

Among his victims are the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, FedComp – a company that processes financial transactions for various credit union – and an unnamed major DoD contractor. According to PCWorld, he allegedly came to the U.S. to broker deals to sell the information in his possession, and to try to get cash from various accounts via ATMs.

While all the intrusions and thefts he executed are considered serious, the one that most rankles U.S. government officials is the break-in into the network of the Defense Department contractor. “If a guy from Malaysia can get into networks like this, you can imagine what the Chinese and Russians, the people with real capabilities, are able to do,” commented a former senior U.S. intelligence official to MSNBC.