Man who stole 130 million credit cards

A 28-year-old man was charged with the largest credit card theft ever in the United States, in which more than 130 million card numbers were stolen , the justice department said.

Albert Gonzalez, of Miami, Florida, and two co-conspirators were accused of hacking into the computer networks of firms supporting major American retail and financial organizations and stealing data.

The two co-conspirators were not named and were identified in the indictment handed down in New Jersey only as “Hacker 1” and “Hacker 2” living “in or near Russia” .

Beginning in October 2006, Gonzalez used a sophisticated hacking technique to get around firewalls and steal information related to more than 130 million credit and debit cards, the Justice Department said in a statement .
“The scheme is believed to constitute the largest hacking and identity theft case ever prosecuted by the US Department of Justice,” the US attorney’s office for the district of New Jersey said.

Targeted companies included Heartland Payment Systems, a New Jersey-based card payment processor; 7-Eleven Inc, a Texas-based nationwide convenience store chain; and Hannaford Brothers Co Inc, a Mainebased supermarket chain.

Gonzalez and his co-conspirators sent stolen data to computer servers they operated in Latvia, the Netherlands, the United States and Ukraine and used “sophisticated hacker techniques to cover their tracks and to avoid detection by antivirus software used by their victims” , the justice department said. Gonzalez, who operated online as “segvec” , “soupnazi” and “j4guar17”, was charged with conspiracy and conspiracy to engage in wire fraud.

An unspecified portion of the stolen credit and debit card numbers were then sold online, and some were used to make unauthorized purchases and withdrawals from banks, according to the indictment.

If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud conspiracy and an additional five years for conspiracy as well as a fine of $250,000 for each charge.

Gonzalez once worked with federal investigators. In 2003, after being held in a computer crime, he helped the Secret Service identify his former conspirators in the online underworld where credit and debit card numbers are stolen, bought and sold.
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