Russian Hacker Could Face Imprisonment of 17-25 Years

A 28 year old Russian hacker, Albert Gonzalez, was charged of helping to conduct the biggest credit card theft in the US history. He accepted his mistake in the US District Court of Boston in the fourth week of December 2009.

Details of the case reveal that prosecutors blamed Gonzalez and his partners of stealing over 130 Million credit and debit cards details by breaking into the systems of numerous retailers which include 7-Eleven Inc., the supermarket chain Hannaford Brothers Co., and Heartland Payment Systems, a New Jersey firm which processes card payments for several businesses.

Under the entreaty agreement, Gonzalez has been found guilty to conspiracy and to indulge in wire fraud. It is known that between October 2006 and May 2008, Gonzalez and his partners used SQL-injection attacks to conduct the fraud.

Internet security experts have explained that an SQL injection is an attack in which harmful code is injected into strings which soon passed to an instance of SQL server for implementation and parsing. It potentially enables hackers like Gonzalez to steal personal data which can sometimes cause identity theft.

Additional details of the case reveal that the same procedure was used to penetrate all networks targeted by Gonzalez. Gonzalez controlled and leased servers in Latvia, Ukraine and the Netherlands to amass malware; initiate attacks against the networks and get the stolen numbers.

As per the officials, the attackers verified their malware against some 20 different antivirus programs to ensure they would not be found, and also programmed the malware to delete proof from the targeted networks to ignore forensic detection.

In conclusion, Gonzalez who at one time worked as an informer for the Street Service can face almost 17-25 years imprisonment for his part in the operation when sentenced in March 2010. While Gonzalez waits for his presence, Stephen Watt, one of his assistants was sentenced to two years of rigorous imprisonment and was asked to pay $171.5 Million to TJX, in compensation for the trouble caused because of the dangerous program lately.

Related article: Russian Hackers Break into NOAA to Push Pills

» SPAMfighter News - 1/5/2010