How an Independent Reporter Broke the Target Security Breach Story, and at What Risk

[Disir]

Brian Krebs, 41, of KrebsOnSecurity.com, sits at his Northern Virginia home office, showing me his daily routine. A shotgun in a case leans against the corner of the room. On his desk sit four busy computer monitors and two laptops. One of the monitors has video feeds from security cameras around his house; the others show a range of underground forums and websites that sell stolen personal information and credit cards.

It’s the home of a man who understands that a malicious intruder could come from anywhere.

Krebs reports on cybercrime. He broke the story about the Target breach in which 40 million people had their credit and debit cards stolen by hackers. Target’s profits dropped 46 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013 and CEO and chairman Gregg Steinhafel left the company in May amid news of the breach.

...No other security reporter goes deep underground and mingles with criminals quite like Krebs, according to one of his former editors.

“Working with Brian was like a daily dose of paranoia,” says Bob Greiner, Krebs’s editor at The Washington Post from 2004 to 2006. (Greiner now works for the IRS). “He would always do the scariest stuff…. There was always that kind of feeling that you were walking close to the edge of a cliff.”

Krebs is no stranger to the darker sides of the web. He says he trolls underground forums looking for criminal activity to write about. He wants to find out what the “bad guys” are doing, what they are talking about, and what new tricks they are coming up with.

“More than anything else, I look for raw data information that is indicative of trends, of breaches, of new lines of criminal business, whatever it is,” says Krebs.

No one on the forums wants people like Krebs snooping around, but they can’t lock him out because they have to strike a balance between being open and closed, Krebs explains. Sites can’t completely block the public or potential customers would be locked out as well, he says. So, for now, Krebs is free to snoop.

How a Reporter Broke the Target Security Breach Story, and at What Risk - AJR.org

I thought that this was interesting and, actually kind of creepy.

 

[blastoff]

Glad someone's keeping an eye on the nefarious sorts.

 

[Mr. H.]

Reminds me of that character on House of Cards. Gavin. With the guinea pig LOL.