Advice regarding online shopping
On ‘Black Friday’, the Metropolitan Police Service was urging shoppers to use a different password for each online retailer they visited, after a man was arrested for Computer Misuse Act offences against Tesco.
Detectives from FALCON, the Met’s Cyber Crime Unit, assisted by Cleveland Police, arrested and bailed a 28-year-old man in Middlesbrough, on, Thursday, 26 November. He has bailed to a date in February 2016.
The arrest follows an attempt to breach Tesco’s online system. The attempt was quickly identified by Tesco’s cyber-security team, which mitigated the attempt and reported it to FALCON. No financial details or personal information of customers were obtained.
The investigation focused on a technique known as ‘Diagonal Brute Forcing’, where username and passwords obtained from previous hacks are used to check if that same combination of username/password has a valid account with other retailers. If a match is found, the account can be accessed.
Detective Inspector Garry Lilburn, of FALCON, said: “Having one password for all your online accounts is like having a key which unlocks your house, car and office. If you lose that key, you place yourself at greater risk. With Christmas approaching and individuals having more online shopping accounts than ever, we would urge everyone to make sure they have different passwords for each retailer they visit, to prevent their accounts being breached in this way.”
A Tesco spokesperson, said: “Our security systems identified some irregular activity and we acted swiftly, alerting the relevant authorities including FALCON. No financial or personal customer information was obtained. We continue to advise customers to use different passwords across their accounts to be as secure as possible online.”
Businesses can access more information on this vulnerability and preventative measures on the Government’s Cyber-Security Information Sharing Partnership. Please see www.cert.gov.uk/cisp