Breach forces payroll service provider PayChoice to shut down again |
 |
By SearchSecuirty.com Staff
16 Oct 2009 | SearchSecurity.com |
|
|
Payroll service provider PayChoice Inc. shut down its online service for the second time in less than a month on Wednesday in response to another data breach by hackers.
|
| SearchSecurity.com: |
| To get security news and tips delivered to your inbox, click here to sign up for our free newsletter. |
|
|
|
|
Brian Krebs of The Washington Post reported the breach in his SecurityFix column. PayChoice chief executive Robert Digby confirmed the breach in an email reply to Krebs, saying that the site, Online Employer, was briefly taken offline and reopened with limited functions. As of Friday afternoon, the site was displaying the message, "**Attention** Employee Services is temporarily unavailable."
Paychoice claims to have over 125,000 business customers. The company notified clients Thursday after some customers noticed phony employees beinig added to their payroll, according to Krebs.
"After investigation, we determined that valid user credentials for an OoOnline eEEmployer user were used in an unauthorized manner to add these fictitious employees in an attempt to have payments made to fraudulent bank accounts," the company wrotesaid in an e-mail alert to their clients sent Thursday."
This appears to be the second stage in an attack on the site, according to Krebs. Last month, hackers broke into PayChoice's servers and stole customer user IDs and passwords. The attackers included that information in emails to customers, tricking them into downloading malware that would steal their usernames and passwords, in the guise of a browser plug-in which was purportedly needed to continue to have access to the site.
The company told clients that the hackers had exploited a weakness in the site's self-service password change function, which has been shut down until the vulnerability is fixed.
-Neil Roiter
 |
 |
| |
RELATED CONTENT
 |
Malware, Viruses, Trojans and Spyware |
|
iPhone worm Rickrolls jailbroken phones
|
|
Israeli Mossad add Trojan Horse to Syrian laptop
|
|
Schneier-Ranum Face-Off: Is antivirus dead?
|
|
Modern malware, stealthy botnets, adapt quickly, expert says
|
|
Computer worm infections up, scareware antivirus down, Microsoft says
|
|
Web-based attacks skyrocket, pirating sites surge, security firms say
|
|
Mini guide: How to remove and prevent Trojans, malware and spyware
|
|
Kaspersky system analyzes malicious URLs on Twitter for malware
|
|
Silon malware intercepts Internet Explorer sessions, steals credentials
|
|
RSA research underscores problem tracking cybercriminals
|
|
|
|
|
|
