THREE MEN have been indicted for allegedly stealing more than 130 million credit and debit card numbers in what US authorities believe is the largest hacking and identity theft case ever prosecuted.
Albert Gonzalez (28), a former government informant already in jail in connection with hacking cases, and two unnamed Russians were indicted on charges related to five corporate data breaches from 2006 to 2008.
Card numbers were stolen from credit card processor Heartland Payment Systems, convenience store group 7-Eleven and supermarket chain Hannaford Brothers, prosecutors said.
The men targeted two other corporations, the US attorney’s office in New Jersey said, without naming those companies. Úna Dillon, head of credit card services at the Irish Payment Services Organisation, said only a tiny fraction of the cards would have been Irish.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Irelandprogramme yesterday, Ms Dillon said anyone affected by the fraud would know about it by now.
“We would have been alerted by the card schemes so Visa and Mastercard International would have given us a list of cards that were compromised at the time and those cards would have been blocked and reissued,” she said.
Ms Dillon advised anyone concerned about the safety of their credit cards to keep monthly statements and receipts and cross-check them.
Heartland Payment Systems and Hannaford Brothers had previously acknowledged the breaches, but the scope of the fraud had not been known.
Authorities also for the first time tied those cases to Gonzalez, who was arrested last year on suspicion of hacking into a restaurant chain’s payment system.
Attorneys for Gonzalez were not available for comment.
Prosecutors said Gonzalez and the Russians, identified as “Hacker 1” and “Hacker 2”, targeted large corporations by scanning the list of Fortune 500 companies and exploring corporate websites before setting out to identify vulnerabilities.
A year ago, Gonzalez was indicted along with 10 others from five countries on accusations of stealing 41 million credit and debit card numbers from major retailers, including TJX Cos, owner of the TJ Maxx and Marshall’s retail chains.
Prosecutors said that ring caused more than $400 million in damages.
Each of the three accused faces up to 35 years in prison and large fines if convicted. – (Reuters)
