Teenage hacker cracks CurrantBun

A teenage hacker broke into the CurrantBun.Com Web site at the weekend and bagged a rack of personal details about The Sun's online readers. David Habanec -- an 18-year-old telecomms worker from London -- bragged about the computer software loophole to his cyberfriends before hacking into CurrantBun.com for himself. He then published the personal details of 50 people on an Internet newsgroup, although the actual usefulness of the information he stole has been questioned by executives at CurrantBun.Com. Reports elsewhere that the hacker was a 15-year-old schoolboy have been dismissed by Habanec who admitted he wanted to mislead people about his true identity. The episode has caused acute embarrassment at The Sun's Wapping HQ. Currant.Bun.Com, which has more than 100,000 users, has assured people that no other personal information was stolen and that the cybercrime only affected a small number of people. The police have been informed and it is understood the Computer Crime Squad at New Scotland Yard is looking into the case. "A small number of customers' email addresses, passwords and names was accessed in the last two days by an individual and we are contacting those customers to give them new secure access," said a statement from red-faced officials at CurrantBun.com. "No further customer information has been obtained, and the relevant authorities are now involved. This only affects some of those users who registered this weekend." Although the action has been widely condemned by the Internet community, many are puzzled as to why Habanec has already coughed up to the cybercrime. In an exclusive interview with The Register, Habanec said he did it to gain notoriety among the Internet community and as a revenge attack against Cheshire-based Telinco, the company that provides the network for CurrantBun.Com. More details on that exclusive Register interview with teenage hacker David Habanec will follow shortly. ®