5 charged with biggest US hacking scheme
Source: Agencies |
July 26, 2013, Friday
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FOUR Russian nationals and a Ukrainian have been charged with running a sophisticated hacking organization that over seven years penetrated computer networks of more than a dozen major American and international corporations, stealing and selling at least 160 million credit and debit card numbers and causing losses of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Indictments were announced yesterday in Newark, where US Attorney Paul Fishman called the case the largest hacking and data breach scheme ever prosecuted in the United States.
The victims in a scheme that allegedly ran from 2005 until last year included the electronic stock exchange Nasdaq; 7-Eleven Inc; JCPenney Co; the New England supermarket chain Hannaford Brothers Co; JetBlue; Heartland Payment Systems Inc, one of the world's largest credit and debit processing companies, French retailer Carrefour SA, and the Belgium bank Dexia Bank Belgium.
The indictment says the suspects sent instant messages as they took control of the corporate data, telling each other, for instance: "NASDAQ is owned."
The defendants were identified as Russians Vladimir Drinkman, Aleksander Kalinin, Roman Kotov and Dmitriy Smilianets, and Ukrainian Mikhail Rytikov. Authorities say one suspect is in the Netherlands and another is due to appear in US District Court in New Jersey next week. The whereabouts of the three others were not immediately clear.
The prosecution builds on a case that led to a 20-year prison sentence in 2010 for Albert Gonzalez of Miami, who used the screen name "soupnazi" and is identified in the new complaint as an unindicted co-conspirator. Other unindicted co-conspirators were also named.
Prosecutors identified Drinkman and Kalinin as "sophisticated" hackers who specialized in penetrating the computer networks of multinational corporations, financial institutions and payment processors.
Kotov's specialty was harvesting data from the networks after they had been penetrated, and Rytikov provided anonymous web-hosting services that were used to hack into computer networks and covertly remove data, the indictment said.
Smilianets was the information salesman, it is alleged.
All five are charged with taking part in a computer hacking conspiracy and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The four Russian nationals are also charged with multiple counts of unauthorized computer access and wire fraud.
Individuals who purchased card numbers resold them through online forums or directly to others known as "cashers," the indictment said.
The cashers would encode the information onto the magnetic strips of plastic cards and cash out the value, from ATMs, in the case of debit cards, or running up credit cards charges.
Indictments were announced yesterday in Newark, where US Attorney Paul Fishman called the case the largest hacking and data breach scheme ever prosecuted in the United States.
The victims in a scheme that allegedly ran from 2005 until last year included the electronic stock exchange Nasdaq; 7-Eleven Inc; JCPenney Co; the New England supermarket chain Hannaford Brothers Co; JetBlue; Heartland Payment Systems Inc, one of the world's largest credit and debit processing companies, French retailer Carrefour SA, and the Belgium bank Dexia Bank Belgium.
The indictment says the suspects sent instant messages as they took control of the corporate data, telling each other, for instance: "NASDAQ is owned."
The defendants were identified as Russians Vladimir Drinkman, Aleksander Kalinin, Roman Kotov and Dmitriy Smilianets, and Ukrainian Mikhail Rytikov. Authorities say one suspect is in the Netherlands and another is due to appear in US District Court in New Jersey next week. The whereabouts of the three others were not immediately clear.
The prosecution builds on a case that led to a 20-year prison sentence in 2010 for Albert Gonzalez of Miami, who used the screen name "soupnazi" and is identified in the new complaint as an unindicted co-conspirator. Other unindicted co-conspirators were also named.
Prosecutors identified Drinkman and Kalinin as "sophisticated" hackers who specialized in penetrating the computer networks of multinational corporations, financial institutions and payment processors.
Kotov's specialty was harvesting data from the networks after they had been penetrated, and Rytikov provided anonymous web-hosting services that were used to hack into computer networks and covertly remove data, the indictment said.
Smilianets was the information salesman, it is alleged.
All five are charged with taking part in a computer hacking conspiracy and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The four Russian nationals are also charged with multiple counts of unauthorized computer access and wire fraud.
Individuals who purchased card numbers resold them through online forums or directly to others known as "cashers," the indictment said.
The cashers would encode the information onto the magnetic strips of plastic cards and cash out the value, from ATMs, in the case of debit cards, or running up credit cards charges.
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