Hackers attached McDonald's customer database

 IDG News Service - McDonald's is working with law enforcement authorities after malicious hackers broke into another company's databases and stole information about an undetermined number of the fast food chain's customers.

McDonald's has also alerted potentially affected customers via e-mail andthrough a message on its website.

"We have been informed by one of our long-time business partners, Arc Worldwide, that limited customer information collected in connection with certain McDonald’s websites and promotions was obtained by an unauthorized third party," a McDonald's spokeswoman said via e-mail on Saturday.

McDonald's hired Arc to develop and coordinate the distribution of promotional e-mail messages, and Arc in turn relied on an unidentified e-mail company to manage the customer information database. This e-mail company's systems were hacked into.

The data, which customers had provided voluntarily, doesn't include Social Security Numbers, credit card numbers, nor any sensitive financial information, she said.

"Rather, the limited information includes what was required to confirm the customer’s age, methods to contact the customer, and other general preference information," the spokeswoman added.

This means that customer data likely includes full names, phone numbers, postal addresses and e-mail addresses. The spokeswoman didn't say what information was required for age confirmation, so it's not clear if customers simply checked a box saying they were adults or if they had to provide their date of birth.

"In the event that you are contacted by someone claiming to be from McDonald's asking for personal or financial information, do not respond and instead immediately contact us," reads the McDonald's note to customers. The number to call is 1-800-244-6227.

In addition to working with law enforcement agencies, McDonald's is probing the security breakdown at the company hired by Arc, which is the marketing services division of ad agency Leo Burnett. Arc's specialities include digital communications, direct marketing, promotions and shopper marketing, according to its website.

The spokeswoman didn't say how many people are potentially affected and in what countries, besides the U.S. She also didn't say when the breach happened.

17-year-old Arrested for Attacking CoD Servers

Most of the DDoS news we've heard over the last few days has been centered on Anonymous and the WikiLeaks saga. However, the members of Anon are not the only ones partial to a little bit of distributed denial of service. A teenager from the United Kingdom has been arrested for attacking Activision's Call of Duty servers.

Activision contacted police in September after tracing suspicious server activity to an IP address in the UK. The 17-year-old boy is said to have launched a DDoS attack on Call of Duty: Black Ops. Computer and Videogames reports that the youngster used a program called Phenom Booter, which knocked other players offline while allowing him to rack up points for himself.

The teenaged boy was arrested at his home in Manchester by the Metropolitan Police's central e-crime unit.

"His whole world came crashing down when we knocked on his door at 6am," a police source said. "He was still in bed and didn't realise he was in so much trouble."

The boy is currently being held on suspicion of offenses under the Computer Misuse Act.

 By Jane McEntegart - Source : Computer and Videogames