Hackers Arrested In Large Identity Theft Ring That Stole 160 Million Cards

Yesterday, the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey announced the indictment of five persons for operating a worldwide and data breach and hacking ring that stole information about more than 160 million credit- and debit-cards, resulted in losses of hundreds of millions of dollars. The theft and fraud ring targeted financial institutions and companies, including alleged:

"... attacks on NASDAQ, 7-Eleven, Carrefour, JCP, Hannaford, Heartland, Wet Seal, Commidea, Dexia, JetBlue, Dow Jones, Euronet, Visa Jordan, Global Payment, Diners Singapore and Ingenicard."

How the theft ring operated:

"The five men each served particular roles in the scheme. Vladimir Drinkman, 32, of Syktyykar and Moscow, Russia, and Alexandr Kalinin, 26, of St. Petersburg, Russia, each specialized in penetrating network security and gaining access to the corporate victims’ systems. Roman Kotov, 32, of Moscow, also a hacker, specialized in mining the networks... The hackers hid their activities using anonymous web-hosting services provided by Mikhail Rytikov, 26, of Odessa, Ukraine.  Dmitriy Smilianets, 29, of Moscow, sold the information stolen by the other conspirators and distributed the proceeds of the scheme to the participants. Kalinin and Drinkman were previously charged in New Jersey as “Hacker 1” and “Hacker 2” in a 2009 indictment charging Albert Gonzalez, 32, of Miami, in connection with five corporate data breaches – including the breach of Heartland Payment Systems Inc.,..."

Drinkman and Smilianets were arrested in the Netherlands on June 28, 2012. Smilianets was extradited to the USA on Sept. 7, 2012, The other three defendants are still at large. Four defendants are Russian citizens. Rytikov is a citizen of Ukraine. The number of 160 million cards stolen is an estimate, and could be higher.

Addition information from the announcement:

"The five defendants conspired with others to penetrate the computer networks of several of the largest payment processing companies, retailers and financial institutions in the world, stealing the personal identifying information of individuals. They took user names and passwords, means of identification, credit and debit card numbers and other corresponding personal identification information of cardholders."

Thanks to the several federal agencies involved in pursuing and capturing these defendants.

To me, this case is another example that identity-theft thieves and fraudsters are smart, creative, organized, and persistent. The days of the lone hacker are gone. Identity thieves target firms they believe are vulnerable. Identity thieves go where the money is.

I find this case highly interesting, as both Global Payments and Heartland experienced massive breaches previously. That the hackers targeted these and other payments processors means that all of these firms' computer systems are still vulnerable, despite executives' claims otherwise.

Comments

[Aaron Banks]

Where can I get charge card funding? My charge card always takes so long to put money on it so if I can just always keep money on it that would be fantastic.

[Joao]

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[tekmos]

It is bit scary what people can do when they put their mind to it . Companies are giving us a false sense of security when it come to online security