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By now most people will have read the stories about the arrest of the Heartland Payments Systems hacker. Albert Gonzalez, 28, of Miami was arrested for being the alleged ringleader behind a strong of cybercrimes which resulted in the theft of some 130 million credit and debit card numbers.
While the Heartland Payment Systems hack was the most recent, and perhaps best known because of the sheer size of the breach, Gonzalez and company were also allegedly responsible for a string of electronic thefts from an A-list group of companies. Also counted in the indictment announced Monday were thefts against the 7-Eleven convenience store chain and the Hannaford Brothers Co. grocery chain.
The Justice Department says the most recent indictment is in addition to charges laid against Gonzalez and others in August of 2008 for a number of electronic thefts against eight major retailers. Those thefts included the well-known TJX Companies hack, and breaches at BJ’s Wholesale Club, OfficeMax, Boston Market, Barnes & Noble, Sports Authority, Forever 21 and DSW.
Now here’s where it gets more interesting. Back in 2003, after being arrested for a computer crime in New Jersey, Gonzalez apparently worked with federal prosecutors and the Secret Service. Once again he was participating in the theft and sale of credit and debit card information over the Internet and Gonzalez worked with authorities to identify his conspirators.
So, after working with the authorities, he was likely told ‘thanks for being such a good fella, now go and make a proper living with your computer skills.’ Problem is, Gonzalez was unlikely to settle for a $75,000-a-year programmer’s job once he’d tasted the good life.
In the indictment issued Monday, prosecutors allege that beginning in October 2006, Gonzalez and his co-conspirators researched the credit and debit card systems used by the companies they attacked. They then devised attacks to penetrate their networks, steal credit and debit card data, and send that data to computer servers they operated in California, Illinois, Latvia, the Netherlands and Ukraine.
With the proceeds of his crimes, Gonzalez reportedly lived a rock-star lifestyle. According to a report in Wired Magazine, Gonzalez called his new criminal ring “Operation Get Rich or Die Tryin”, and on one occasion threw himself a $75,000 birthday party.
If convicted, Gonzalez faces up to 20 years for wire fraud and another five years for a conspiracy charge.
On the positive side, it’s good to see charges have been laid, and it’s encouraging to see that the perpetrators appear to be a fairly small group of people rather than a horde of cyber-crooks roaming the Internet. But you can’t help but wonder, why after Gonzalez was deemed to be a criminal hacker back in 2003, wasn’t he kept on a tighter leash. A simple infrequent check into his activities no doubt would have set off alarm bells.
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