TJX Hacker Gets 4 Years In Prison

It's important to note when identity thieves get what they deserve in court. The Wired Threat Level blog reported last week:

"Humza Zaman, a co-conspirator in the hack of TJX and other companies, was sentenced Thursday in Boston to 46 months in prison and fined $75,000 for his role in the conspiracy... Zaman, a 33-year-old former network security manager at Barclays Bank, was charged with laundering between $600,000 and $800,000 for hacker Albert Gonzalez, who is currently awaiting sentencing on charges that he and others hacked into TJX, Office Max, Heartland Payment Systems and numerous other companies to steal data on more than 100 million credit and debit card accounts. Zaman pleaded guilty in April to one count of conspiracy. His sentence includes three years of supervised release with the condition that Zaman must disclose his conviction to any future employer. Upon release, Zaman will not be barred from using computers."

The group used money mules to withdraw money from ATM machines with stolen bank account information and to wire money to overseas accounts in Latvia. In December 2009, former Morgan Stanley programmer and co-conspirator, Stephen Watt, received two years in prison. Watt wrote the code for a sniffer computer program used to steal card account data from the TJX network. For his role in the conspiracy and thefts, experts say Gonzalez may receive at least 17 years in prison.