http://www.rjr94fm.com/news/story.php?category=2&story=36819
June 13, 2007
RJR News has been informed that the United States Embassy has launched
an intensive probe into what is reported to be the recent hacking of its
online non-immigrant visa appointment system.
While the extent of the breach is unclear, it is understood that unknown
persons managed to access the on-line immigrant visa appointment system
and tampered with the names and appointment dates of visa applicants.
A small group of student athletes who were scheduled to attend the
Reebok Classic earlier this month were unable to do so reportedly due to
the problem.
Our source says track officials had applied for appointments ahead of
schedule however they were unable to obtain dates, even up to the day of
the track meet.
Some of the athletes never made the trip.
The US Embassy in a statement Wednesday afternoon confirmed that it had
launched an investigation into the attempted manipulation of its online
non-immigrant visa appointment system.
The Embassy warned members of the public to avoid dealing with persons
offering to procure early visa appointments.
According to the Embassy a growing number of appointments made on the
agency's online system contain fictitious information and have been made
simply to hold a place in the interview schedule.
Embassy officials says fictitious appointments pose problems for
everyone, and added to the waiting time for legitimate travelers from
Jamaica to secure a timely appointment.
The Embassy says persons found to be tampering with the appointment data
base and/or filing fraudulent appointments will be reported to the
Jamaican authorities for possible criminal prosecution.
Received on Fri Jun 15 01:24:32 2007