LOS ANGELES (AP) - The government has issued an alert about identity and credit card theft on U.S. campuses, saying individuals linked to the Russian mob tried to tap into at least five college computer systems.
The warning, which was issued Friday, followed the arrest a Russian-born man at Pasadena City College and another incident at Arizona State University. Schools in Texas and Florida have also been targeted, college officials said.
Officials at the Pasadena campus said the man was arrested last month as he tried to install keystroke recording software that could capture computer users' credit card numbers and other personal data.
Brian Marr, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said Tuesday he could not comment on what he called an ongoing investigation. The security alert was issued by the Secret Service along with the Education Department.
"The United States Secret Service has been investigating several nationwide computer intrusions/hacking incidents," according to the alert issued by the agency. "The motives of the perpetrators and the number of computer systems compromised remains unknown."
At Arizona State, a program was apparently installed that allows students' credit card numbers, passwords and e-mail to be stolen, though it wasn't known if any student accounts had been compromised, according to campus police.
Hard drives were seized from 20 ASU computers, said Lt. John Sutton of the ASU Department of Public Safety. He wouldn't say how the scam was linked to organized crime and declined to identify any suspects.
Technology administrators for the University of California said they were warned about Russian organized crime. The incidents are not a threat to entire computer systems, administrators said.
"It's basically like rifling through one person's mailbox and hoping a credit card is being sent at that time," said Ross Stapleton-Gray of University of California technical services.
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