Target breach part of larger scam?

Target breach part of larger scam?

NEW YORK

The security breach that hit Target Corp. during the holiday season appears to have been part of a broader and highly sophisticated scam that potentially affected a large number of retailers, according to a report published by a global cyber-intelligence firm that works with the U.S. Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security.

The report, made public Thursday by iSight Partners of Dallas, offers more insight into the breach at Target. That attack affected 40 million credit- and debit-card accounts and led to the theft of personal information, including email addresses and names, of as many as 70 million customers.

The report said that a malicious program vacuuming personal data from terminals at store check-out stations was “almost certainly derived” from BlackPOS, a crude but effective piece of software that contained malware scripts with Russian origins.

Al-Qaida asks for Iraqis’ support

BAGHDAD

Members of al-Qaida’s branch in Iraq handed out pamphlets in Fallujah on Thursday, urging people to take up arms and back them in their weeks-long fight against government troops for control of the city.

While the militants battled Iraqi security forces in and around Fallujah and Ramadi, police outside the capital, Baghdad, found the bullet-riddled bodies of 14 Sunni men who had been abducted from a funeral by gunmen wearing military uniforms. It was a grim reminder of similar slayings at the height of the war about six years ago.

Iraqi forces and allied Sunni tribesmen have been fighting to recapture key territories overrun by al-Qaida militants in the country’s Sunni-dominated Anbar province, including its two main cities, Fallujah and parts of the provincial capital, Ramadi, which are west Baghdad.

S. Korea rejects North’s overture

SEOUL, South Korea

South Korea rejected North Korea’s offer to take a series of steps to ease tension that included canceling Seoul’s regular military drills with Washington, saying today that Pyongyang must take nuclear- disarmament steps first.

The North’s powerful National Defense Commission on Thursday proposed the rivals halt military actions and mutual vilification to build better relations. The North, however, strongly hinted it would maintain its nuclear-weapons program and urged South Korea to cancel its upcoming springtime drills with the United States.

20 new subpoenas issued in NJ scandal

TRENTON, N.J.

A special legislative panel investigating an apparent political-payback scheme involving Gov. Chris Christie’s aides issued 20 new subpoenas Thursday, and he made his first trip since the scandal broke to pledge he won’t be distracted from the job of rebuilding from superstorm Sandy.

Christie, meanwhile, announced the hiring of a legal team to help his administration deal with multiple investigations into a scandal that won’t be put to rest quickly.

‘Wizard of Oz’ Munchkin dies

LAS VEGAS

Ruth Robinson Duccini, the last of the original female Munchkins from the 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz,” has died. She was 95.

With her death, only one actor who played one of the original 124 Munchkins in the movie remains alive.

Duccini died of natural causes in Solari Hospice Care Center in Las Vegas on Thursday.

Associated Press