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A high-profile trial is beginning in the United States over the hacking of computer systems and the theft of data from 130 million credit and debit cards. The defendant is 28-year-old Miami resident Albert Gonzalez. He is joined in the case by two as yet unnamed accomplices, who are only reported to be either Russian nationals or Russian citizens. They are referred to in the case as "Carder 1" and "Carder 2." If convicted under the full charges, each faces up to 35 years in prison and a $1.2 million fine.
The carders are charged with several counts: unauthorized entry into computers, computer fraud, computer damage, and telecommunications fraud. It all began back in 2006. The criminals studied the computer systems of five financial and trading companies, including Heartland Payment Systems, 7-Eleven, and Hannaford Brothers.
The other two companies have not yet been named in the indictment because they have not yet provided information about the damage they suffered. The attackers found weak points in the systems' security and hacked them using a sophisticated and very complex technique that was already familiar to investigators from the Justice Department from previous cases. Having gained access to the databases, the hackers sent the card numbers to servers under their control in the states of California and Illinois, as well as in Latvia, the Netherlands and Ukraine.
From these servers, the card information was resold. "According to our data, this was the largest hacking operation and the largest theft of personal data ever investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice," the department said in a statement. By the time the charges were filed, Albert Gonzalez had already spent quite a long time in a pretrial detention cell in New York, awaiting sentencing in two other cases also related to the penetration of commercial organizations' databases. Judging by the investigative materials, he has no special training.
Gonzalez graduated from high school and then "taught himself the basics of computer programming." But he clearly went far beyond the basics. In 2003, Gonzalez was arrested for running a website called ShadowCrew, where hacker goods, including Fortune 500 company data and credit card numbers, were bought and sold. But he was not charged because he agreed to become an informant for the Secret Service. Gonzalez proved instrumental in helping to arrest 28 hackers in 2004 who were buying and selling goods on the "online bazaar."
After Gonzalez's subsequent arrest, the Secret Service "took immediate action," said spokesman Malcolm Wylie. He did not specify what action. Mark Rush, a former computer crime investigator, said that while many informants engage in criminal activity, the agency should have kept a closer eye on Gonzalez."It's very difficult to work with an informant and know exactly everything he's doing," Rush says. "But, excuse me, not knowing that your employee stole 130 million bank card numbers is a serious blunder."
The carders are charged with several counts: unauthorized entry into computers, computer fraud, computer damage, and telecommunications fraud. It all began back in 2006. The criminals studied the computer systems of five financial and trading companies, including Heartland Payment Systems, 7-Eleven, and Hannaford Brothers.
The other two companies have not yet been named in the indictment because they have not yet provided information about the damage they suffered. The attackers found weak points in the systems' security and hacked them using a sophisticated and very complex technique that was already familiar to investigators from the Justice Department from previous cases. Having gained access to the databases, the hackers sent the card numbers to servers under their control in the states of California and Illinois, as well as in Latvia, the Netherlands and Ukraine.
From these servers, the card information was resold. "According to our data, this was the largest hacking operation and the largest theft of personal data ever investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice," the department said in a statement. By the time the charges were filed, Albert Gonzalez had already spent quite a long time in a pretrial detention cell in New York, awaiting sentencing in two other cases also related to the penetration of commercial organizations' databases. Judging by the investigative materials, he has no special training.
Gonzalez graduated from high school and then "taught himself the basics of computer programming." But he clearly went far beyond the basics. In 2003, Gonzalez was arrested for running a website called ShadowCrew, where hacker goods, including Fortune 500 company data and credit card numbers, were bought and sold. But he was not charged because he agreed to become an informant for the Secret Service. Gonzalez proved instrumental in helping to arrest 28 hackers in 2004 who were buying and selling goods on the "online bazaar."
After Gonzalez's subsequent arrest, the Secret Service "took immediate action," said spokesman Malcolm Wylie. He did not specify what action. Mark Rush, a former computer crime investigator, said that while many informants engage in criminal activity, the agency should have kept a closer eye on Gonzalez."It's very difficult to work with an informant and know exactly everything he's doing," Rush says. "But, excuse me, not knowing that your employee stole 130 million bank card numbers is a serious blunder."
