VENTURA : House Searched in Hacker Investigation

The U.S. Secret Service searched a house in Ventura this week to gather evidence for Operation Sundevil, a two-year national investigation into computer hackers who are suspected of committing credit-card fraud.

The Ventura Police Department helped execute the search warrant, one of 24 served in 16 cities nationwide Monday and Tuesday, said Richard Griffin, special agent in charge of the Los Angeles field office of the U.S. Secret Service.

Seven of the warrants were executed in the Los Angeles area, Griffin said. The U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. attorney’s office and the attorney general of Arizona were provided with technical assistance for tracking down suspects by telecommunications companies, such as Pacific Bell, Griffin said.

The computer hackers are suspected of gaining access to and using information from other computers, long-distance dialing codes and credit-card numbers, Griffin said.

It is estimated that the losses from those activities may run into the millions of dollars, said Wendy Harnagel of the U.S. attorney’s office.

Criminal charges will follow in the next several months, after agents have processed information from 23,000 floppy disks and handwritten material seized in the nationwide searches, Griffin said.

The hackers are suspected of belonging to underground groups that were formed to exchange information relevant to their criminal activities through their computers, Griffin said.

Griffin said the U.S. Secret Service has noticed that an alarming number of people adept at computer science are using their skills for crime, mistakenly believing that they can avoid detection.

The U.S. Secret Service has jurisdiction over computer fraud and credit-card fraud.