August 17th, 2009
Bust in Heartland credit card hack
Huge antihacking indictments today. A federal grand jury indicted three people for the massive theft of some 130 million credit card numbers from card processor Heartland Payment Systems, The Post reports. The same people - including Albert Gonzales, 28, are believed by the feds to have been involved in hacks of Hannaford Brothers and 7-Eleven. Gonzales is also believed to have been involved in hacks of TJ Maxx, Barnes & Noble and OfficeMax.
The indictments returned Monday include two other people accused in the Heartland and Hannaford breaches, described only as “Hacker 1″ and “Hacker 2,” both of Russia. All three are charged with two counts: Conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to computers, to commit fraud in connection with computers, and to damage computers, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Each defendant faces a maximum of 35 years in prison, as well as more than $1 million in fines, or twice the gain resulting from the offense, whichever is greater.
