E-commerce company Digital River exposed data belonging to almost 200,000
individuals after hackers executed a “highly unusual search command” against its
secured servers, according to a news report.
The breach came to light only after a 19-year-old New York man allegedly
tried to sell the purloined data for as much as $500,000, The Minneapolis
Star-Tribune reported Friday. After Eric Porat made repeated attempts to
persuade a company called Media Breakaway to buy the information, company
officials alerted their counterparts at Digital River, the paper reported,
citing court documents. A federal grand jury is investigating the matter with
help from the FBI.
