Hi-Tech-Consulting

Are U.S. Museums Safe From Art Thieves?
Washington Post (05/25/10) P. C1; Trescott, Jacqueline; Zak, Dan

Most of the major art heists that have taken place over the last several years, including the theft of $123 million worth of paintings from the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, have taken place in Europe. However, there have been few if any art thefts of that magnitude at art galleries in Washington, D.C., or the rest of the U.S. There are a number of reasons why such large-scale thefts have not taken place in the U.S., including the fact that American art museums tend to be newer and less exposed. For example, Washington, D.C.’s National Museum of African Art and the Sackler Gallery are both underground. Other museums in the city, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, have visual deterrents to thieves, such as steps, cement planters, and fountains. Finally, art thieves may be deterred from attempting major heists in Washington because the city is not located near an international border, according to retired FBI special agent Robert K. Wittman. European museums, by comparison, are usually not far from international borders because countries on the continent are so close together. In addition, European museums are easy targets because they tend to be located in converted houses with windows that can easily be entered.

District Food Servers Charged in Theft of Patrons’ Credit Card Numbers
Washington Post (05/24/10) P. B01; White, Josh

Federal officials have charged three servers at a Cheesecake Factory restaurant in Washington, D.C., with stealing their customers’ credit card numbers between 2008 and 2009. According to investigators with the U.S. Secret Service, the fraud began when two men who are believed to be part of a larger fraud ring recruited one of the servers and provided her with a device known as a skimmer, which captures credit-card numbers. The server, Nicole L. Ward, then allegedly recruited two of her colleagues at the restaurant to steal credit-card numbers for the fraud ring as well. After stealing the credit-card numbers, Ward then allegedly passed the skimmers off to her contacts in the fraud ring, who used the data to create fake cards and purchase gift cards and other merchandise in the Washington, D.C., area. By the time the fraud was uncovered by investigators at Citibank, more than $117,000 in fraudulent charges had been made to the stolen accounts. Ward has been charged conspiring to commit bank fraud. The other two servers are cooperating with the investigation.

As Smartcards Loom, Magnetic Cards Made Safer
Computerworld (05/24/10) Vijayan, Jaikumar

Several efforts are underway to make magnetic stripe payment cards more secure. One promising effort uses a card authentication technique that employs data from the magnetic stripe to generate a unique digital fingerprint of each card. The technology is set up to spot and halt the use of fraudulent cards based on stolen payment card data at the payment terminal itself. MagTek’s Tom Patterson says a major U.S. merchant will soon announce its support for the technology, and will outfit about 30,000 of its outlets with payment terminals featuring magnetic stripe fingerprint authentication. Patterson says such technologies allow retailers to maintain their support for existing cards more securely for the next several years. There are other efforts to test ways to enhance the security of magnetic stripe card transactions, including a challenge-response method at point-of-sale terminals, and card tokenization.

Thief Makes Off With $100 Million in Art From Paris Museum
Los Angeles Times (05/21/10) Lauter, Devorah; Finkel, Jori

Authorities in France are investigating the theft of five paintings worth at least $100 million from the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. The theft took place early in the morning on Thursday, when an individual wearing black clothes and a mask managed to get in the building by slipping through a broken window. The thief, who was recorded in the act by the museum’s surveillance system, managed to get in and out of the building without being detected because the alarm system had been broken since March 30. The three security guards who were on duty at the time also did not see the thief. By the time the theft was over, five paintings–including one by Pablo Picasso that is worth roughly $28.5 million–were gone. Experts say the theft was likely carried out by ordinary criminals and was probably not a theft-for-hire that was organized by a wealthy art collector. Experts also say that the art will likely be recovered at some point, though that could take a number of years.