Tuesday, July 30, 2013
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FULL STORY
Russian hackers target Mid Canterbury school BY MYLES HUME
involving schools Mr Murphy knew of, with a school in Rangiora finding itself with an $800 bill and Dunedin school duped out of $10,000. The bills were tracked back to Russia, where the criminal group operated from. “We went to our provider and said ‘surely we don’t have to pay this’. We found the other schools had to pay their bills, but luckily our phone provider came to the party and said they would credit the amount,” Mr Murphy said. Since the hackers cracked the
MYLES.H@THE GUARDIAN.CO.NZ
Methven Primary has been targeted by Russian phone hackers who racked up a bill of more than $3000. Principal Chris Murphy wants to warn other schools and businesses in Mid Canterbury about the dangers of hackers, who cracked the school’s phone system default pin number to call their own 0900 number and charge a rate of $25 a minute. The $3700 bill for Methven Primary was one of three cases
school’s phone system, Mr Murphy has had the default pin number changed and implemented an international toll bar. It’s also prompted a warning from the school’s insurance broker Crombie Lockwood, who said “there was no cover for this type of loss”. It said schools’ assets policies only covered physical damage to phones and the costs did not fall under the fidelity policy, which covers schools for crime committed by an employee – not an outside source.
The following day the Mid Canterbury Principals’ Association held their monthly meeting where he warned his counterparts to change their pin numbers. “It’s a good thing for everybody to know if you’re operating a business with a phone system that has more than two phone lines, because this could be you. “I was gutted when I found out, you read this kind of stuff in the big cities, I never thought it would happen to us.”
HOW HACKERS OPERATE ■ They hack into schools’ phone systems and insert their sophisticated spyware. ■ Hackers set up a 0900 number they call from the school. ■ 0900 numbers are often used to provide information or a service in return for payment. ■ The phone is left off the hook and to rack up a bill charged about $25/minute. ■ Calls appear on the school’s phone bill who are unaware until their service provider alerts them. ■ The money from that call goes to the hackers (the phone line owner).
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