Other people's money TWENTY-three alleged hackers are currently under interrogation in connection with an Internet "phishing" scheme targeting US citizens and banks. The Ministry of Interior announced on 8 October that it had arrested 23 people suspected of involvement in the scheme which the US Federal Bureau Investigation (FBI) described as "the largest" cyber-crime investigation attacking Americans to date. According to the Interior Ministry the Egyptians detained are aged between 18 and 25 and hail from the Nile Delta governorate of Daqahliya. The FBI says the multinational investigation has revealed a sophisticated US-Egyptian "phishing" operation that collected personal information from thousands of US citizens and used it to access their credit card details. The federal grand jury indictment includes 100 suspects, 53 of them Americans, of whom 33 are in custody, and 47 co-conspirators from Egypt, 23 of them in custody. The majority of detained Americans hail from Southern California, though arrests have also been made in Nevada and North Carolina. They face charges of conspiracy to commit computer and bank fraud. Some face additional federal charges, including identity theft, conspiracy to commit computer fraud and unauthorised access to protected computers. The suspects, posing as bank employees, allegedly sent e-mails to their victims asking for personal information under the pretext of updating their records. They then used the information to withdraw money from the victims' accounts. The FBI believes the gang accessed hundreds, possibly thousands, of accounts and transferred between $1.5 and $2 million to bogus accounts opened by its members. The scheme is thought to have originated in Egypt, where hackers were able to compromise two banks through "phishing". The hackers then contacted their US co-conspirators who opened accounts into which funds could be transferred and then withdrawn. A portion of the proceeds were then wired to the hackers in Egypt. According to an Interior Ministry statement, security forces confiscated 21 computers, numerous credit cards and cheque books as well as $8,900 in cash at the time of the arrests. A few cases THIRTEEN cases of swine flu have been reported among students following the opening of the school year on 3 October. The Ministry of Health has confirmed two cases at Ain Shams University, with the remaining 11 cases affecting school pupils in Sohag, Cairo and Alexandria governorates. All students and teachers who came into contact with the confirmed cases are to be tested. Meanwhile, the Health Ministry identified Egypt's third fatality from the virus, a 23-year-old housewife from the Omraniya district of Giza. In a press release the ministry said the patient was diabetic and hospitalised only after her blood sugar level had reached 600. Egypt's first H1N1 death occurred in July, the victim a 28-year-old woman with a heart condition who died shortly after returning from Saudi Arabia after performing omra rituals. The second was in September, the victim a 25-year-old woman who is thought to have contracted the virus from her husband, who had arrived from Saudi Arabia. Minister of Health Hatem El-Gabali says the H1N1 virus outbreak among students is to be expected, and urged the public not to panic. Amr Qandil, head of preventive medicine at the Health Ministry, has asked the media to treat the issue responsibly and not publish false information about the virus. "The media has fanned public panic which is counter-productive," said Qandil. "The public should ignore rumours that appear in the media and trust official statements. We are dealing with the problem in complete transparency." The recent cases have raised the total number of reported infections to 1,037, of which 1,006 have survived the virus and 28 remainhospitalised in a stable condition.
