Weekly News Roundup: November 8, 2013

Some news highlights from around the world this week including a coverage of Mako’s new agreement with Sprint, a look at how hackers stole high-value credit card details from a limo booking service, and a new study shows that the retail sector remains a soft spot for PCI compliance:

Digitl.co.nz – Mako Networks Scores Huge US Deal with Sprint – Mako’s new teaming agreement with Sprint in the U.S. gets covered by Digitl, a New Zealand technology news service. The article includes quotes from Mako President Simon Gamble on the value of the agreement for Mako’s future plans in the North American market.

Krebs On Security – Hackers Take Limo Service Firm for a Ride – A hacker break-in at a U.S. company that brokers reservations for limousine and Town Car services nationwide has exposed the personal and financial information on more than 850,000 well-heeled customers, including Fortune 500 CEOs, lawmakers, and A-list celebrities. Inside the plain text archive apparently stolen from the firm are more than 850,000 credit card numbers, expiry dates and associated names and addresses. More than one-quarter (241,000) of all compromised card numbers were high- or no-limit American Express accounts—card numbers that have very high resale value in the cybercrime underground.

InfoSecurity Magazine – PCI Compliance Lags in Retail Sector – Despite the increasing amount of risk to the retail sector from malware and fraud, a study has revealed that many in the retail industry have not yet implemented basic security requirements of the PCI DSS. The results come against a sobering backdrop: the retail industry is now the top target for cybercriminals, accounting for 45% of security firm Trustwave’s data breach investigations last year (a 15% increase from 2011).